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- Topic: Italian >
- "Le mucche bevono acqua."
48 Comments
They may be inconsistent regarding the use of acqua. I was instructed that it is proper to use the definite article e.g. l'acqua vs. acqua when using bevere or prendere
248
Agreed. Plus it is hard to make out whether she is saying l'acqua or acqua as the audio is not that clear.
- 865
Agreed. The use of the article in front of "acqua" may be inconsistent. Therefore I check if the article is there in the English version.
Does "prendere" mean "taking" or "having". It looks very similar to French's "prendre" (to have/take).
Do you mean in English? I went to a boarding school where the main house was called Kyneton house and i knew that was connected to an olde English word for cattle, but not a word I've ever heard used elsewhere!
- 620
I have seen 'kine' for 'cows' once or twice in literature. It may still be in use in some regional dialects, but I have never heard it here in Canada. :)
I'm in the northeastern USA and don't recall ever hearing it used before. It seems like one of those fun archaic words you can pull out to impress (or annoy) your friends.
I'm confused. A single cow is mucca so wouldn't the plural be mucce? Where did the h come from? mucche?
- 865
That has to do with the "c" changing its sound in front of some vowels.
'c' is pronounced as the 'c' in church when it is followed by 'i' or 'e'. Ex cena (dinner) and cibo (food).
When it is followed by 'a', 'o' or 'u', then it's pronounced like the 'c' in cool (BTW, the same rules apply in English).
If you want to have the 'c' sound of cool but in front of 'e' and 'e', then you need to add 'h'. Ex. chi (who), che (that, which).
To obtain the 'c' of church in front of 'a', 'o' or 'u', then you need to use an 'i'. Ex. cioccolata (chocolate).
So, to answer you question, if yo just replace the 'a' of the singular with 'e' for the plurale, mucca (the 'c' is the one of cool here) become mucce (with the 'c' of church) which would be incorrect. Therefore you need to add an 'h'" to preserve the correct 'c' sound -> mucche.
- 865
The use of the determinative article defines something, to distinguish it from a non specific action or thing.
Le mucche bevono acqua is a general statement meaning that the cows drink water to survive, for exemple.
Le mucche bevono l'acqua means that the cows are drinking this very water and not the Chateau Margaux 1976 that they have graciously been provided :-)
Then, why would I gatti bevono l'acqua be the correct answer in an earlier question? Cows and cats are both animals. It makes me nervous spending time to learn a language from a source that constantly does things to make me distrust it.
I am not positive that my answer is correct, but in Spanish its like saying "the water" vs just "water" cows drink water vs cows drink the water
I don't get it what I did wrong I wrote " Le mucche bevono l'acqua" and the system feedbacked that the l' is not necessary.
"l" before aqua is "the water", so I think its because the sentence in Italian is "the cows drink water" not "the cows drink the water" - from what I understand at least...hope that helps !
For me to get it right, I had to say "Le muche (with a ch sound) bevono acqua"
Duolingo should accept "the cattle" as well as "the cows" as a correct translation of "le mucche", shouldn't they?
Another example of inconsistent requirement of definite article, following the earlier discussion thread, I put in l' and it was marked wrong. Not satisfactory.
I don't know if anyone will read this, but when do you use 'e' to signal a plural and when do you use 'i'? If that makes sense?
- 865
Italian has two genders: masculine and feminine. Each has a singular and a plural form.
In the singular form:
- Masculine nouns usually end in -o (ex. il bambino, l'uomo, lo scolaro) and sometimes in -e (ex. il cane, il fiume, il televisore).
- Feminine nouns end in -a (ex. la casa, la scuola) and sometimes in -e (ex. la voce, l'elezione)
In the plural form:
- masculine nouns ending in -o in the singular: the -o becomes -i (ex i bambini, gli uomini, gli scolari)
- feminine nouns ending in -a in the singular: the -a becomes -e (ex le case, le scuole)
For both masculine and feminine nouns ending in -e in the singular form, the -e becomes -i (ex. i cani, i fiumi, i televisori, le voci, le elezioni).
I dropped the le and wrote "cows drink" but it was wrong as I should have written "the cows drink". However in other examples it seems to accept either. Any thoughts?
sometimes its drink and sometimes its drinks which is the correct answer, but I do not see any differens in how its written in italian. Can anyone tell me the differense.
- 455
"Drinks" is only used for 3rd person singular in English. Every other "person" is "drink".
I drink ---------------------- we drink
you drink ------------------- you (plural) drink
he, she, it drinks ----------- they drink
- 865
Italian conjugates verbs, therefore the ending of a verb tells you who is doing something when.
Bere (to drink) gets conjugated as:
(io) bevo
(tu) bevi
(lui/lei) beve
(noi) beviamo
(voi) bevete
(essi/esse) bevono
(Pronouns are in brackets because usually they are not used in front of verbs)
Therefore: bevono = 'they drink' and beviamo = 'we drink'
I didn't want to get the translation marked wrong, so I used 'cows.' However, 'cattle' seems like the more appropriate word to me. I lived on a farm when growing up, and 'cows' (and heifers) referred to females. Males were either bulls or steers. Collectively they were called cattle.
