72 Comments
I accidentally typed 'how long is a mule'. Sigh. It was not correct, if you're wondering.
Although it is mainly the US, I believe some parts of the UK and India still unofficially use a form of the imperial system.
Miles are not metric. However, a kilometer is a metric unit that is equal to 5/8 of a mile.
I tried to think of it like, "How much is along a mile?" Like asking "how much space is in a mile?" It helps me to understand the actual translation.
I thought "how far is a mile" sounded more natural to me, but it was marked as incorrect.
129
Yep. I fell for it too. I was going to put "un" in as "miglio" ends in "o" which is usually right, but when I checked on the slo-mo, sure I heard "una", changed my mind, away went the heart. Arghhhhh! :/
They do that a lot hear we need to pay more attention to the words that follow. try lessening in regular voice and not in slow mode also remember if the word ends in (A) it is going to be UNA not UN. And again if it ends in (O) its is going to be UN
- 180
I knew it wasn't 'una' because miglio is masculine, but on the slow replay it sounded like 'una' to me, too.
While I find it frustrating at one level that it sound like una, it is a real test to put what I know is right and satisfying when I listen to my growing knowledge and not this error on duolingo.
Absolutely- even though we know it should be un miglio, the slow version sounds like una.
- 237
Since 1862, the metric system has been compulsory in Italy. So I guess it might be possible for an Italian to ask how long is a mile, but I would expect they'd want the answer in units they understand.
Indeed. Expanding on my previous answer by plagiarizing from wikipedia, "La parola miglio deriva dall'espressione latina milia passuum, 'migliaia di passi'", where in this case, "passo", or pace in English, is the distance between two falls of the same foot while marching. So, a thousand paces. But since this would vary according to how hard the men were driven, they apparently standardized the measurement as 5 Roman feet in 29BC.
Do Duo want us to type what we hear - or type what we think it should be?
the latter - even if it sounds like "una" you should be able to tell what it's supposed to be. if i said "a ostrich" you should be able to correct it in your head as "an ostrich" - same deal
Hi if your talking about (un or una) in their sentences and you are listening to the voice in slow mode it always sounds like (un) when it should be (una) if it is a feminine word use the (una). Feminine words end in (a) I hope this helps
If you want to see a good example of what I am saying try going back to the very first lesson in Duolingo I really think duolingo does this on purpose.
Why couldnt the sentence be, quanto lungo e un miglio? is there some rule that im not aware of?
I think you can also say: "quanto lungo è un miglio." Not sure tho, but in Spanish this makes totally sense.
- 360
How much is long a mile is the literal English translation. No wonder I am un po' confuso!
We are #MetricForLife here in Australia but the question "How long is a mile?" still comes up occasionally (distances on American websites, for example)
The end of the sentence is spoken so quietly that I can't understand it. And this is valid for many Italian sentences here.
I thought 'quanto' meant how long so why not just 'quanto è un miglio?'
- 424
One thousand six hundred nine kilometers?
Italians use the comma to separate the decimal part and the dot to separate the thousands:
Eng: 1,609 kilometers (= 1,609,000 meters) -> Ita: 1.609 chilometri (= 1.609.000 metri).
Ita: 1,609 chilometri (= 1.609 metres) -> Eng: 1.609 kilometers (= 1,609 meters)
