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I just had the best time reading those two posts out loud, Libor and andrewkippen.
And yes, you two are correct. I could be talking about my shoe, or my puppy, I suppose. Is it not accepted?
Very interesting. Is this right?:
Eu penso nisto. = I think about this.
Eu penso nisso. = I think about that.
Eu penso nele = I think about him/it ?
I would have guessed that "I think of it" would have been either "Eu penso nisto" or "Eu penso nisso".
As a native speaker, we tend to use "nele" when talking about other people, and "nisto", "nisso" when talking about objects, animals, ideas, etc.
Does this more mean "I think about him" or "I think of him"? Both were marked as correct, but which interpretation is more accurate?
Both mean the same thing in English as well so I would say both are equally accurate but I think "of" it closer
Do you really think that they mean the same? In my native language it is a big difference whether you think OF or ABOUT someone.
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That would not sound right to me... since "nele" means "em ele", that is pretty much what we always say and write. =)
In Portuguese, contractions don't work like in English; the majority of them are obligatory. When a preposition can contract with a pronoun or article, it HAS to contract because it's the only possibility for the prepositional phrase.
I do not believe, "I like her/him" – Eu gosto dela/e – is possessive (though it can get that way) but de is the compulsory preposition for gostar which must contract with certain pronouns (he/his, she/her, here, that, this...).
On that note, em is the compulsory pronoun for pensar so de does not work with it.
DL accepts "I think about him" as well as "I think of him". In my opinion these two are fairly different. How is this difference expressed in BP? Wouldn't it make sense to translate "to think of = pensar em" and "to think about = pensar de"?
You can say "pensar sobre" when you mean "to think about", but you don't use "Pensar de". Even though there is a difference between "to think of" and "to think about" in English, it's not the case in Portuguese.
Okay. Good! Sorry i mix in "en" and other words from spanish all the time.
Maybe we have to learn to go with our gut, and not bother with what the translation hints say. They're often wrong, according to the program's scoring. But that makes mistakes too. According to the translation hints, "I think of it" is correct.
Nope, pensar takes the preposition "em" after it. So it is always penso nele, penso nela, penso nisso, etc.
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I find prepositions to be the hardest part of learning any new language. Especially when they are associated with verbs. I struggled with this in French class, as a kid. There are even verbs that take a preposition in French but not in English (and vice versa). For instance, "I telephone Jack." vs. "Je téléphone à Jacques." Rather than thinking in him (Portuguese), in French, it is to (i.e. "Je pense à lui."). And in English, it is "about"...How is one to keep this all straight without moving to another country? (This is how I finally managed, with French.)
I gave the exact correct answer, yet you say "wrong" and you show me the "correct answer", letter by letter as i wrote.
Seems there is a bug in the "reading".
Why can't i post screen shot to show the problem?
