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- "Mancano solo ottanta chilome…
51 Comments
99
I don't understand the use of "mancano" in this sentence. Can someone please explain it to me?
Mancare, needs to be dealt with like "piacere." Just a small group of verbs that you have to think of in this way. Check out http://italian.about.com/od/verbs/a/italian-verb-piacere.htm
As usual, you are very helpful. That website helped me to finally wrap my brain around these verbs with the convoluted construction. Grazie mille!
Where is the object then? Can the object simply be implied? Does "ci manciano ..." Mean the same? How can I deduce the object?
Well, "only 80 kilometers are missing to be finished on the way to your goal" is the literal translation. In English we just phrase it the other way round.
Italian looks at the kilometers covered already, English looks at the kilometers not passed yet.
What do you mean? THe italian sentence says that 80 km left (to finish) - so to kilometers not passed yet - the contrary of what you wrote
Yes this does not even make sense. why do we need to talk about to be finished. You've already said it. But still it looks the same as English. I would only 80 kilometres to go means the same as as 80 kilometres are missing. And none of that relates to how many kilometres have already been covered.
- 185
"There are only eighty kilometers left to go"is NOT accepted, but "there are only eighty kilometres to go" IS accepted. I think these are equivalent statements and both should be allowed.
I think in English we would say there is 80 kilometres left or 80 kilometres to go but not both in one sentences.
Are you really expecting those who construct duolingo to demonstrate breadth of vocabulary or even depth of knowledge of grammar? I have worked 4 languages on this site and found each very sadly lacking in depth of knowledge of synonyms in all languages. Even the first definition which appears for a foreign word in a dictionary is often rejected and the solution given not even in the dictionary. Correct English grammar answers are occasionally rejected and incorrect grammar given as the correct response.
It's a free site. It's interactive: you're supposed to help out with the corrections. It's not perfect.
Mancano is third person plural, so the "they" is implied, just as with any other verb. (Only in this case, it is the KM that are the subject, completely opposite from English. :-) )
Exactly my point. The kms are missing, not some other 'they', as in people. This sentence has nothing to do about people.
- 1129
I received the following response to my answer
You used the plural "kilometres" here, instead of the singular "kilometre". It is only eighty kilometre
In usual English, as opposed to the scientific use of units, the plural would be used, as it was in the Italian.
- 1129
I now put
"There remains only eighty kilometre" using the singular as requested.
"There is only eighty kilometre left." was the proposed answer. I cannot see any difference in the meanings of these answers.
Any way this could be translated as "they are only eighty kilomtres away". ? ??
Well, it's 1st person plural, so maybe "We are only…" rather than "they". I think this should be a correct translation but maybe it's a little too loose.
I'm sorry, I don't understand. Surely "mancano" is third person plural of mancare?
It is, but I believe we do not know at all what the subject of the sentence is. The verb is in third person plural because the 80 kilometers are missing. I translate literally to 'are missed, 80 kms', but we do not know by whom. They could be missed by me .. 'Mi mancano 80 kms' or by us, 'Ci mancano 80 kms.', or as you suggest, by them, 'Gli mancano 80 kms.'
Just to correct one thing: we actually do know the subject -who? - that is being missed: them 80 kilometers. It is the object - by whom? - which is not indicated. Had it been, it would have appeared at the beginning of this sentence because of the 'piacere' pattern of 'mancare'.
Indeed, and it is an indirect object, to be even more explicit. Does the pronoun necessarily need to come before the verb? Can't the other form of the clitic (I forget which is stressed / unstressed ...) be used so that the IDO follows the verb like in other sentences?
No probs - I still have brainstorms sometimes when doing the exercises on the 1st and 3rd plural - no idea why :). thanks for the swift reply
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Native speakers: would you phrase this sentence like this or would you use "rimanere" instead of "mancare"
- 364
I do not understand why Duolingo suggests that I use singular "kilometer" in my answer. The correct answer is "Only eighty kilometers are left." Can any one explain pleas. Than you.
"There are just eighty kilometres left to go" was marked wrong because it had the word "left" in it. I have reported it. .
- 647
It's just not how you would normally say it in English; the more common way would be as MarkLerno and MaxSpeak phrased it in their comments.
I tried "there remains only eighty kilometres", but it was marked wrong. Is it?
- 591
'remain' is the third person plural of the verb, qualifying 'kilometres'. It appears that Duo is using the verb 'mancare' (to miss, to lack) in favour of 'rimanere' (to remain). 'mancare' has the construction 'subject, indirect object, verb: literally 'something is lacking to someone'. I hope that this helps.
[If French is available to you, 'manquer' (to miss, to lack) works in the same way.
For example, 'il me manque' (I miss him) - literally 'he is lacking to me'.]
Duo did not accept 80km. Duo made the kittie sad. Please report 80km to Duo thanks.
Lol. They should accept 80km. It's the normal way to write in UK and probably many other countries too. Don't think I've ever seen 80 km written in UK. I don't know what Italian usage is for this. Anyone know?
Lasciano is not right here? I suppose it is not because lasciare requires a pronoum before, right?
