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- "Cosa pensi di dimostrare?"
57 Comments
What do you think to show?" is bad English. The correct way of expressing this is "What are you thinking of showing?"
1099
Cosa pensi di . . . = What do you think about . . .
Cosa pensi di me = What do you think about me
Cosa pensi di questo = What do you think about this
Cosa pensi di fare = What are you going to do
dimostrare = to demonstrate / show / prove
Cosa pensi di demonstrare = What do you think you are proving
- 796
Thank you for your explanation. I could only come up with "what do you think of the demonstration". Marked wrong of course. I cannot see how we're meant to see how "di" now means "you're". ??
It doesn't mean "you're". You are now learning that two languages often express the same concept in different ways. Italian says pensi di [infinitive of verb] - literally "you think of [to verb]" - whereas we say "you think you are [verb]ing".
Remember pensare di [verb] as one pattern, not separate words. Pensa di dimostrare would be S/he thinks s/he is proving.
- 796
Thanks. I'm aware that I am always looking for direct translations. Sometimes, like in this example, it goes against me and my word play isn't (never has been) strong enough to work it out: I had to read your reply many times to make sense of it...!
In English, "to prove" is not synonymous with "to show" or "to demonstrate".
@MichaelWat Yes it is, according to https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/prove.
Perhaps you mean that they are not always interchangeable, which is true for most words.
Translating poses a permanent challenge, which is to choose the right synonym for the context. See for example all the possible contexts at https://dizionari.repubblica.it/Italiano-Inglese/D/dimostrare.html. As we are not given a context here, we have no idea which, and hope that Duo allows several sensible ones (some hope!).
- 313
I hate to disagree....but if you are thinking about something someone or somewhere etc..you must use pensare a not pensare di...which is usually followed by an infinitive... Che Cosa ne pensi = What do you think about... Cosa pensi A me = What do you think about me Cosa ne pensi di questo = What do you think about (of) this. Cosa pensi di fare = What are you thinking of doing. But.. What are you going to do = Cosa faraì. Short explanation Pensare A = Think About Pensare Di = Think of.
Ahh!! Thank You! I translated it literally, and got it right, but used the bad English noted above. Was wondering what it "really" meant!!
Below are the definition and examples from the Hoepli dictionary. All of its choices suit our phrase, and to them I'd add "have in mind" to reflect the context avere in animo.
See http://dizionari.repubblica.it/Italiano-Inglese/P/pensare.php, context #5.
V+di+INF (= progettare/avere in animo) to plan, to think [of doing], to intend Pensava di partire per una lunga vacanza = he intended to leave for a long holiday. Cosa pensi di fare? = what are you planning to do? Pensi di comprarlo? = are you thinking of buying it? Stanno pensando di prendersi una vacanza il mese prossimo = they're thinking of taking a holiday next month.
Note that this only applies to pensare di +infinitivo, not to pensare a or pensare alone.
I wrote "What are you thinking to show",which I knew was bad English,buy you never know with DL. It was not accepted,so maybe it's been changed. They suggested "What are you thinking of showing", which I had written the first way round lol
Or: "What are you planning to show?". I like it even better, but it was marked as wrong.
And just a shade beautiful. Italian grammar takes with one hand, and gives with another!
I believe this one shouldn't be a literal translation but, if I'm not mistaken the meaning is like "what are trying to prove" or "what do you think you are going to demonstrate [with that]"
I also wrote "What are you trying to prove?", which I think is the correct translation, but it was knocked back.
And I wrote "What are you thinking of demonstrating" and also got it right. Both of our answers are very close to a literal translation and not difficult to come up with. I suspect that the people who want to translate pensare as hope or plan are making this more difficult than it needs to be.
We use the same words in Swedish to express this meaning. "Vad tänker du (göra?)" means "What are you going to (do?)", but uses the word "tänker" = "think". I suspect it is the same in Italian and think therefore that the DL translation is misleading in this case. Please correct me if not.
- 274
How do you get this sentence? what do you think of to demonstrate? Isn't there a better way of saying this?
Isn't it about time this was corrected. A 'showing' in English has a meaning that is a long way from what is intended here!
For me this is not about a showing, more about the plan to demonstrate/show something. There are many ways we could look at this, but I think the useful way to look at it is the use of pensare di
Other versions of this item gave the correct answer as "What do you think of demonstrating?" which seems rather different. So now I'm confused.
- 2368
Very awkward English translation. Since this is 'near future', the most natural would be to use 'going to' - What are you going to demonstrate?
I wish these comments were not so petty and instead focused on the underlying logic and semantics of the language
I translated "What do you think to demonstrate?" and DL suggested that is should be "What do you plan to demonstrate? ". My translation may be imperfect, but is translating "pensare" as "to plan" an inprovement?
I'm still not sure of the intented meaning of the sentence.. I put, "What do you think of the demonstration." DL gave the meaning as "What do you think of demonstrating," which sounds like they want to go on strike with placards and the whole bit. Weird...
I just came across this: The construct verb + di + infinitive is used when the same subject is performing the action of both verbs, which is consistent with the DL translation "What do You think You are proving.
I wrote, "What are you thinking to demonstrate?" This was rejected and, "What are you meaning to demonstrate?" was given as a correct answer.
'proving' shouldn't be used in the english example. This is poor semantics.
- 1139
I put "what do you think to show" - pretty poor English but I thought that was a literal translation. It was marked as incorrect and the correct answer was "what do you plan to show". Didn't know pensi could mean plan.
Note for DL - how come the answer in the discussion group page is completely different from the answer on the questions page? This is shown as "what do you plan to show" This aspect of inconsistency the keeps cropping up on DL makes it more difficult to follow the thread for learning
- 1668
Any thoughts on "what do you think you can prove"? Not accepted so far, but would it be a good English equivalent?
correct English translation would be: what are you trying to prove? The Italian question here sounds more like What are thinking of demonstrating or proving .... cosa stai cercando di provare? might be a more accurate ?
