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- Topic: Italian >
- "Lei è la nostra vicina."
34 Comments
1708
It took me several tries to figure out that she wasn't saying lei è l'anno stravicina or something like that. I get it about native speakers talking faster, but the enunciation here is terrible.
544
several? I could listen to this 100 times and still hear what you were hearing initially.
So, it should be reported. See here for "how to" and other tips:https://www.duolingo.com/comment/4821654
248
"nostra" is feminine because "she" is the neighbor or is it because "our"= group of females speak?
In Italian possessives behave just like any other adjective - they have to agree on gender and number with the noun they qualify, that is with the possession, but not with the owner. In this sentence the noun (vicina) also semantically agrees with the subject (lei). If the subject is "lui", the whole noun phrase must also be masculine. On the other hand, if the noun has only a single masculine/feminine form, both the article and the possessive must agree with the only possible gender of the noun, despite the gender of the subject.
Syntactic and semantic agreement:
- Lei è la nostra vicina = She is our neighbor
- Lui è il nostro vicino = He is our neighbor
- È la nostra vicina = She is our neighbor
- È il nostro vicino = He is our neighbor
Syntactic agreement only:
- Lei è il nostro capo = She is our boss
- Lui è il nostro capo = He is our boss
- È il nostro capo = He/she is our boss
The last sentence has ambiguity of the subject gender.
Speaker group composition has nothing to do with the pronoun. The subject pronoun is always "noi" and the possessive is always nostro/nostra/nostri/nostre depending only on the noun/possession they qualify.
544
no matter how many times i listen to this on the first occasion through the review, I always hear "lano stravicina" and have absolutely no idea what I heard. I guess that is why I use the phrase piu lentamente, per favore, sooo much while in Firenze.
339
For some reason, in this format, no choice selections are given and there is no option to type in an answer, therefore, it is repeatedly market incorrect, and I can not complete the lesson and advance.
186
Please don't tell me to practice everyday when I am stuck on a question which requires me choose an option and no options are available and therefore I am stuck in a lesson and can't get out because of this fault,hence I go round in circles! Please sort this out!it only requires a modicum of common sense to see the problem.
339
It seems to be a formatting problem. Try switching to a different application. I had the same problem on Safari, but not on Chrome.
186
There are no options provided,therefore you cannot answer the question which means you cannot finish the lesson and you are trapped in a vicious circle.