"The girls drink water."
Translation:Le ragazze bevono l'acqua.
112 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Essentially almost any verb has to agree with the subject or it wont make sense. It's called subject-verb agreement. So anytime you see io, you know it's singular and because of that subject-verb agreement, the verb has to be singular too. That is why it's io bevo. The same applies to the rest, you just have to memorize which ending goes to which subject.
Here are the agreements as far as I know: For singular it would be o: Io bevo, which means I drink. Now for the many plurals! Tu bevi, you drink, would be i; Lei/Lui beve, would be e, her/him drinks; Loro bevono, they drink, would be ono; Noi beviamo, we drink, would be iamo; Voi bevete, you (all) drink, would be ete.
I would also like to add that if you see any of these endings in the verb, you should automatically assume which one that person is talking about. You don't have to say noi beviamo l'acqua; you can say beviamo l'acqua and mean the same thing.
These are general rules but remember there are always exceptions!
It helps when they give a new verb to click on the option "conjugate" and you can see all forms of the verb for the different subjects
If you are doing this as an app on your phone it doesn't give an explanation as it would on a pc.
if its I its bevo, you is bevi, the women/girls/boys/men is bevono. beviamo is for we, and beviete is for voi/you all
Hi Jaynice 88. Although a bit boring it's helpful to write down the various forms of the verb down in a phrases and vocab section in your note book so you can refer back frequently. Also another trick. When saying "the woman drinks". You use the same form as "she drinks". And when saying "the women drink" you can use the form "they drink". You can even say "the women, they drink" or "the woman, she drinks". I find that to be a good reminder for me as to which form of verb to use even if its not been explicitly stated in duo lessons.
Why is l'acqua is an option here (I answered "le regazze bevono acqua" and it is correct as well. In my mind, since the English is "drink water" it should no translate to "l'acqua" at all.
I don't think it is a mistake, I just wish to clarify what's behind that.
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Same issue. If they had wrote l'acqua, I would have put the water. But they did not and I was marked wrong
It's optional. Just like in English, you can say to someone "The girls drink water" and "The girls drink the water"
If Duo wants you to translate l'acqua, then obviously you type "the water".
Hi Ash.purple. It's a bit of a redundant word in this context. I've never heard someone say in English They are drinking the water. I guess the main question is what italian nouns don't always require "the"? In tge food lesson tips it mentions this is always needed, but it gives examples of phrases and sentences without them..
Well, someone might be drinking the water, that particular water, e.g. the water of life (uisge beatha, like I am having one now ... salute)
i thought it should say "Le ragazze bevono acqua" because it didn't say the water in the english version. I'm confused.
Why does acqua have L' in front of it? Its the girls drink water, not the girls drink the water. Misleading
It seems as though this is an error in the program, rather than an optional way of expressing oneself in Italian.
Italian and English both have a 'definite' article. In English we just have the one word 'the', for all nouns, singular and plural. For Italian, the form of thebdefinite article will depend on the form of the noun it precedes (ie masculine, feminine, neuter/singular, plural).
Italian distinguishes between 'water' (could be any water) and 'the water' (indicating a specific water). All of Duolingo's examples up to this point in the Italian course have translated 'water' as 'acqua' and 'the water' as 'l'acqua'.
Italian and English are different from Latin, which does not have a definite article. A person has to read the definite article into the noun, depending on the context of the sentence. That's definitely NOT how English works, and it seems to me, not to be the way that Italian works either.
I believe that this is an error that needs to be fixed.
This is the question. " The girls drink water " My answer, " Le Ragazze bevono acqua !
There is no definite article in the question, so I diddn't put one in the answer
But it marked my answer as wrong. .
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Hiw to know when to put l'acqua versus acqua - i.e. the men drink water versus the girls drink water.
It is the same for us (italian). But if you have to translate from Duolingo and he writes "gli uomini bevono l'acqua" it will be " the men drink THE water" If it write " gli uomini bevono acqua" it will be "the men drink water".
I thought if its no "the" before the "water" then we can lose the "l' " before acqua
There's no article in the English, so why "l'" in front of "acqua"? "L'" is an article.
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The verbs are conjugated. bere is the verb "to drink". bevono is for the third person plural.
io bevo = I drink
tu bevi = you drink (singular)
lui/lei beve = he/she drinks
noi beviamo = we drink
voi bevete = you drink (plural)
loro bevono = they drink
Why is it wrong to say "Le ragazze bevono acqua"? Wouldn't that mean the girls drink water? And wouldn't "Le ragazze bevono l'acqua" make it "The girls drink THE water"?
Basically, I don't understand why the l' goes before acqua in this particular sentence.
It is confusing when you uae the article "The" and when you don't. It said ..."drink water" it doesn't say"drink THE water". How come you tell me it is wrong?
The girls drink water = Le ragazze bovono l 'acqua The men drinks the water = Gli uomini bevono acqua
why does the men doesn't have l'acqua if its plural?
Most of the time when you have the articles Il/la/gli/le in front of nouns, it normally denotes a rhythm or cycle. Like for instance, "le ragazze bovono l'acqua" translates to "the girls drink water" or "the girls drink the water" depending upon context. It could mean that those girls drink that particular water every hour on the hour, or everyday at that particular time, or that those girls are drinking that particular kind/type of water
On the offchance you're still wondering about this ten months later, or if anyone else has this same question...
The word ragazzi means "boys", not "girls". The word you're looking for is ragazze. You also used the wrong article. Only use gli if the word is masculine and would take lo or l' in the singular.
il ragazzo > i ragazzi
lo zucchero > gli zuccheri
l'uomo > gli uomini
la ragazza > le ragazze
l'arancia > le arance
This is why it's important to remember a word along with its article: think la ragazza, le ragazze, not ragazza, ragazze. It all gets easier with time and practice.
Why does it have to be "l'acqua?" Why not simply "acqua?" They're not asking for "The girls drink THE water."
Essentially almost any verb has to agree with the subject or it wont make sense. It's called subject-verb agreement. So anytime you see io, you know it's singular and because of that subject-verb agreement, the verb has to be singular too. That is why it's io bevo. The same applies to the rest, you just have to memorize which ending goes to which subject.
Here are the agreements as far as I know: For singular it would be o: Io bevo, which means I drink. Now for the many plurals! Tu bevi, you drink, would be i; Lei/Lui beve, would be e, her/him drinks; Loro bevono, they drink, would be ono; Noi beviamo, we drink, would be iamo; Voi bevete, you (all) drink, would be ete.
I would also like to add that if you see any of these endings in the verb, you should automatically assume which one that person is talking about. You don't have to say noi beviamo l'acqua; you can say beviamo l'acqua and mean the same thing.
These are general rules but remember there are always exceptions!
Is the difference between il and le the fact that they are feminine and masculine?
I think the correct it is " Le ragazze beveno acqua". In the english sentence we don't have "the water" to translated as "l'acqua". Correct?
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Your question has been answered several times on this page. Please read the comments before asking again.
Im confused ..when is it lacqua or just acqua. I thought "the water"was lacqua....
The translation of water is acqua why the correct answer was l'acqua
It doesn't say "The water" which makes it "l'acqua". It says " water" therefore its only " acqua ".
Why are you adding the article in the Italian version if there was no article in the English version?
I cannot get the hang of anything to do with 'beve' and muddle soon/suomo. Please explain as I cannot find an explanation on here. Thank you.
I wrote Le ragazze bevono acqua-which YOU said was correct; yet below IN GREEN, YOU wrote "Le regazze bevono l'acqua. Is the "l'" not important for the translation?
I would like to report an error if I am understanding it correctly? L' acqua is with arricle but the english translation is without?
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Summarised from @Briguy84's comment -o = io (i) -i = tu (you) -e = lei/lui (he/she) -ono = loro (they) -iamo = noi (we) -ete = Voi (you all)
I said "La ragazze bevono l'acqua" why is that wrong? isnt it a female so you'd put la and not le
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The article depends on grammatical gender and number. A few examples:
La ragazza - le ragazze
Il ragazzo - i ragazzi
You can find more explanation in the Tips.
But in english sentence there is no "THE" Before "WATER" But In Italian Its l'acqua... why? i am so confused
It doesn't make sense for it to be l'aqcua and not just acqua. There's a different between drinking THE water which is like drinking a specific water versus drinking water which is more generalized.
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I'm confused because I thought "acqua" is "water" and "l'acqua" is "the water" but it says it's incorrect?
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Wouldn't the girls drink water be le ragazze bevono acqua and le ragazze bevono l'acqua be the girls drink THE water? acqua = water L'acqua = the water? Just curious
I am so angru how you mean to avoid "the" from English when you want L in Italian.
