- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "He eats the vegetables."
"He eats the vegetables."
Translation:Mangia la verdura.
70 Comments
"La verdura" is a collective name, so both should be accepted; it refers to vegetables as a group, the plural only carries the added meaning of variety (more than one kind of vegetables). "Il vegetale" is the literal translation of vegetable, but it isn't used in any culinary sense.
So it would kind of be like saying "I eat candy" in English? Understood to be plural, but when actually written to be plural (I eat candies), it's understood to mean more than one kind of candy. Your explanation cleared a lot of confusion.
That's Not How I Understand It.... I'd Probably Interpret Those To Mean The Same Thing.
"He eats the vegetables" Why is it wrong when i check only the answer " Lui mangia la verdura."? the correction checks also " mangia la verdura" isn't this be more imperative form like giving an order to someone instead of the affirmative form of " lui mangia la verdura" i don't get the logic on the correction!!
"Mangia la verdura" isn't necessarily an order. In Italian the subject can be omitted at any time, not just in the imperative: "Che mangia la tartaruga?" "Mangia la verdura" ("What does the turtle eat?" "He/She/It eats vegetables").
So, leaving out the lui suggests this is within a conversation and cannot be a stand alone sentence. "What's he doing?" "Eating vegetables" if fine but starting "Eating vegetables" "What type?" would have no context. Am I correct in thinking that if I just came out with"Mangia la Verdura!" people would think me radical vegetarian?
I'm afraid I don't get the logical connection between everything you wrote, but to answer some: yes, it can be a standalone sentence just as much as "he's eating" can in English (in that you must know who "he" refers to), and no, nobody would assume you're vegetarian just because you'd tell someone to eat vegetables, or all mothers would be vegetarian. There are many cases when you must omit the pronoun is conversation, e.g. "Cosa mangia Salvatore?" "Lui mangia la verdura" <- repeating the person is unnatural; and there are cases where you must not, e.g. "Cosa mangiate?" "Mangia la verdura" <- omitting the person when changing it (noi -> lui) is unnatural.
The example of mothers is a good one. However even in this we know exactly who she's advising, and it's not as if she hasn't said it before a thousand times before. Both examples you gave support my badly made point, which is that the subject has already been identified earlier in the conversation. It's the same in English. Thanks for giving me your time.
Look, i've been in italy many(i mean many) times, i know italian language(not completely and i forget some things but still) and i have NEVER HEARD "mangia la verdura" with the meaning of "he/she eats vegetables". It pisses me off. There has to be "LUI/LEI"! It cant be said that way. (Srry for bad english)
583
The personal pronoun is only used for stressing who is doing whatever. If you simply want to express that he or she eats, you simply use mangia without lui/lei.
Read the "tips" at the start of the lesson, it explains why "He/She eats the vegetables" and" Eats vegetables" are both correct in Italian!
Italian is what's known as a "Pro-Drop Language", Meaning that pronouns can be dropped before verbs, As the verb carries all the meaning of the pronoun, Basically the only reason you would include the pronoun normally is either to stress who's doing it (E.G. "I know what they eat, But what does He eat?" "So che mangiano, Ma che lui mangia?"), Or perhaps to specify, In the case of the third person singular, Should it not be obvious whether you mean He, She, Or It, Although in many circumstances the context would make it evident.
No, I've never ever heard 'la verdura' used as a collective. How odd they are insisting on it here.
So why is Lei mangia la verdura wrong? I understand the possibility to omit the person, but in this particular case, isn't it necessary to specify whether I mean he or she or it?
The reason you got this incorrect is because you used 'lei' which means 'she', rather than 'lui'
This is strange, eats the vegetables and he eats the vegetables are not the same so why is lui mangia la verdura wrong?
- 573
It's not wrong. That's what I put. Maybe you had another error. BTW, "Mangia la verdura" does mean "he, she, or it" eats the vegetables. The pronouns can be left out in Italian because the conjugated verb lets us know what "person" is meant.
- 573
Probably because it says "vegetables" and not "legumes". All legumes are vegetables but not all vegetables are legumes. My "Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary", which is too big to put in anyone's pocket, only lists "legumi" as "legumes and pulses" and "vegetable" as "verdura". Google translate, though, does list "legumi" as one of three translations for "vegetable", but with a lower frequency of usage than "verdura" and "ortaggio".
If the word "ortaggi" is given in the "fall-of" dictionary for "vegetables" why it is not accepted as a rigth answer? It should be accepted or it should be remooved from the dictionary.
No, if capitalized (Lei) it can be used as a formal You, but there is no courtesy pronoun for third persons.
why do you need the "la" in this instance? picked with and without "la" and i was wrong
"The vegetables" is plural; "la verdura" is singular. The exercise is wrong; the correct translation is, however, given at the top of this screen: "Lui mangia le verdure.".
The exercise is not wrong because "verdura" doesn't mean a single vegetable. "Le verdure" can be used for multiple types of vegetables in the right contexts.
The English form implies multiple vegetable types, which you said is "le verdure"; the exercise is wrong.
Vegetables is plural so, is there no plural for vegetables in Italian. If there is, why is there the singular la instead of plural le.
I put "Lui mangia la vedura" to mean only he. Surely using only "mangia" could mean either he/she or it eats.
I have only ever heard, and previously been taught, 'le verdure' when using the plural form.
When the sentence's subject is feminine, for example "la donna" and then it has another feminine noun, is that when you would use "l'verdura" instead of "la verdura"?
You would only use l' when the next word starts with a vowel l'ape l'uovo etc
i got this one wrong before for picking the same answer that is said to be rite now
the other is singular...so this should be la verdure, as in he eats a 'carrot' as a singular vegetable I don't like getting this 'wrong' because I I didn't chose BOTH answers
I'm pretty sure that "La verdura" is "The vegetable" not "the vegetables". There is only one correct translation in the options list for this question.
you have lui mangia la verdura as the correct answer as well which seems wrong.
"Mangia la verdura" is like im saying to you "eat vegetables because blah-blah-blah".
Incorrect; the English is plural, while the Italian is singular: "Mangia le verdure." There is nothing "collective" about "the vegetable"; it is referring to one and only one vegetable; if there were a "collection" the English version would say "the vegetables".
You're mixing English and Italian there. True, there is nothing "collective" about "the vegetable", but there is about "la verdura": for instance the Collins dictionary defines it (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/italian-english/verdura) as "(cookery) vegetables pl".
