"Le mucche bevono acqua."

[cvolgenau]

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

[eliane23]

Agreed. Plus it is hard to make out whether she is saying l'acqua or acqua as the audio is not that clear.

[Muttley71]

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.

[Hector290697]

Does "prendere" mean "taking" or "having". It looks very similar to French's "prendre" (to have/take).

[DmytroShkr]

Why kine was not accepted?

[Muttley71]

What's "kine"?

[Koolkaren]

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. :)

[GrowingViolet]

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.

[dranadiaruiz]

prendere= take, bevere= drink

[Muttley71]

I think you mean "bere". "Bevere" is archaic and not used if not in some dialects.

[lilyelisab]

I'm confused. A single cow is mucca so wouldn't the plural be mucce? Where did the h come from? mucche?

[Muttley71]

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.

[lilyelisab]

Thank you very much for explaining this!

[JoseeV64]

Thank you for telling me that "a cow" is "una mucca". Duo did not teach me yet.

[jessica935]

For me to get it right, I had to say "Le muche (with a ch sound) bevono acqua"

[Voroshilov1917]

When does bere become bevono and when does it become beviamo?

[Muttley71]

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'

[Balaa92]

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.

[EarieYoung]

I still dont understand why it's not l'aqua

[Muttley71]

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 :-)

[EarieYoung]

Hahahahaha impressive! Grazie mille!

[NelZeroTwo]

"Vacca" for cow?

[Duolessio]

It would definitely work.

[okieinexile]

In my brand of english "cattle" and "cows" are synonymous.

[MarkWillia668428]

Duolingo should accept "the cattle" as well as "the cows" as a correct translation of "le mucche", shouldn't they?

[Muttley71]

'the cattle' = il bestiame

[Stylianius1]

Moooooooooocche

[Lucia541239]

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?

[Muttley71]

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).

[Lucia541239]

Thanks! This helps a lot

[GuidoScimo]

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?