"A casa sua ognuno è re."
Translation:Every man is a king in his own house.
81 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
"Their" is incorrect in English as a singular pronoun. People use it in spoken English often to avoid specifying a gender, and would be easily understood, but grammatically, it's incorrect. And in written English it's a big no-no. Technically you should either make everything plural to agree, specify a gender, or default to the male singular pronoun.
It is no longer incorrect in English style manuals and certainly not a big no-no to use "their." Please check the updated versions of American style manuals, such as the one published by Associated Press. It is considered now a perfectly acceptable third person singular pronoun to get around the gender-specific problem.
I think it is a good way to get some perspective, that they give us the literrally translation in each word. And i agree with some of you, literally translation shoulnd't be marked as correct, otherwise we would never learn it... But it's so difficult for me because i'm not native english speaking!!! I don't know any of the idioms! Duolingo doesn't have spanish-italian get :( i just play the lesson several times until i get all of them...
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I respectfully disagree. Idioms are hard and one either knows them or not. If people here are learning, there is a high probability that they do not know them. The system could accept a literal translation and then display the equivalent saying in the other language, just to cut students some slack.
You are not going to learn the idioms if the literal meaning is accepted. But I agree that Duolingo could do a better job explaining the meaning of idioms, preferably before testing.
I disagree, especially if the literal translation gives essentially the same meaning. The translation Flamingo used is now accepted (I just did it). These discussions are very useful; for example I learned subtle but important differences between two accepted answers ("buona fortuna" and "in bocca al lupo") from a native Italian.
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Marked wrong for 'every man' even though the correct answer starts "In his home...". I think once you've stated it's 'his' home, you shouldn't mark prople down for assuming we're talking about every 'man'. Why apply modern gender politics to only half the sentence?
Finally I had 'every man is a king in his own home accepted'. The essential meaning is the same but I wouldn't generally express the idea quite like this in English. My subtly different attempts using what I would say were all rejected! I am finding it challenging at times having to adapt my English to suit Duolingo's idea of what is correct...!!
Yes, you are expressing the right idea. There are many ways of expressing the sentiments behind this idea in English e.g. 'a man's home is his castle' doesn't even mention 'king' but it still expresses the same idea...we won't mention sexism here! This is an idiom and Duolingo does not always cope well with idioms.
Duolingo needs to correct its translation. In Italian, the expression doesn't use the word for man. It uses the word for everybody or everyone, so in Italian, the expression translates as "In his own house, everyone is king." Interesting that the English translation has the sexist twist, suggesting that the man is head of his household. The Italian expression does not mean that the man is head of his household; it means that, theoretically, everyone (male or female) has control over his/her own domain. (I have to add that, in English style manuals, such as Associated Press Style Manual, the word "their" is now acceptable as a word to indicate a third person singular pronoun.) But more to the point is, why is Duolingo wasting our time with these antiquated expressions that no one uses anymore. Better to focus on all the bugs in the questions/answer program. Duolingo, are you listening?