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- Topic: Italian >
- "Lei beve l'acqua."
43 Comments
the pronunciation of "l'acqua" is really weird here. you should be able to hear the first A clearly
Can anyone explain why 'she drinks water' does always include the definate article, 'she eats sugar' does not contain the definate article (duo says lei mangia zucchero) and 'she eats bread can be either 'lei mangia pane' or 'lei mangia il pane'. Very confused.. just got used to french from english...! Thanks in advance
E' duolinguo che crea confusione, in tutti i casi e' sempre meglio mettere l'articolo, non si sbaglia mai. ;-)))
64
Well it is weird, maybe it's to simplify, because 'he/she eats sugar' can be simplified from 'Lei/Lui mangia lo zucchero' to 'Mangia zucchero' which would be 'eats sugar'.
Lei means she right? But it tells me that I'm wrong and should have put you
Wrong (and right) lei means she (informal) but Lei means she or he (formal)!
Well i wrote 'he', i mean i had a mistake, and it told me that the correct answer was 'she'.
I agree that there should be a way to override mistakes like that. It will accept a slight error like an incorrect accent, but if you miss a beginning letter it won't accept it.
Can you simply translate that as She drinks water? Or does it have to be She drinks THE water?
Yes, you can translate it as "she drinks water". In Italian, most nouns have "the" or "a/an" in front of them.
When you use "drinks" (beve) while talking about "he" or "she" or "the man" etc. It is "beve" for example, Lui beve, Lei beve, L'uomo beve
Now, "drink" can mean either "bevo" or "bevi". When you use "drink" as in "I drink", you should use bevo (Io bevo)
When you use "drink" as in "you drink", you should use bevi (Tu bevi)
Whats the difference between la and l'? Can I say l'mela instead of la mela?
If you try to say "l'mela" it is very difficult. If you try to say "la acqua" it is very difficult. The " l' " is used where la precedes a vowel and is therefore not so easy to say. Think of it like saying "an orange" instead of "a orange" in english.
- 754
You use l + apostrophe to contract an article and when the word right after starts with a vowel. Think of it as using it is = It's. You'll contract 2 words into 1. The rule applies to an article and the word that starts with a vowel. To echo @gregors10's comment, it's a matter of flow where it "flows" in a more natural way by contracting words instead of pronouncing 2 words with similar sounds back to back. Hope that helps.
Be warned. Lei is the formal term for he or she, lei is the informal term for she; when a sentence starts with lei, it is of course written Lei and therefore can mean she (informal), she (formal) or he (formal), so there is no way to tell the sex when a sentence starts with Lei unless it is long enough for there to be another clue.
- 276
Your information is so wrong! Lei (capitalized) is NOT formal for he/she; there is no such thing. Lei (capitalized) is formal for “you. When not capitalized it means “she”. It never means “he” that is lui. Difficulty arises at the beginning of a sentence when capitalized it could mean you (formal) or she.
If it says another transalation is... Does that mean your right or wrong?????
It means there are multiple correct ways to translate it. You are correct, but another way also would have been correct.
- 64
It means that there are many ways it can be translated. It means that you are right and it is letting you know that there is other ways to translate it. You are only wrong if it says correct solution ans it is red. If it just says correct your good.
I typed She drinks water and I got it wrong. Had to put "the" also. It makes sense without the article, unless it is talking about a specific water, which is not the case here
- 64
L' is used whenever the next word begins with a vowel. Il is used when the next word starts with a consanant and its next gendered word is masculine.
