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- "Lui rimaneva al suo posto."
48 Comments
Caution! It does not accept "he was remaining at his post" (like a guard might do). Related to another similar sentence a while back that I still get wrong. I will learn to speak DL, eventually. Sometimes it even sounds like Italian!
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"used to remain" should be acceptable in the sense that remaining in his place was something that was happening continously.
Another of the MANY examples of DL offering a definition that it then rejects. Makes getting through these lessons more time consuming, to say the least.
This is confusing.. it seems that this tense is being translated very many different ways which are then marked wrong in other examples.
He would stay at his place .. when he visited, he would stay at his place... "would" is used in other examples, but rejected here. I don't understand why.
Edited: I mistakenly said that "would" signifies the conditional tense, but as Germanlehrerlsu points out below, it can also be used to construct the imperfect tense in English.
debplatt: Not so, as many users have already commented. "Would" has a dual use: conditional as you say and imperfect for a habitual action in the past. "I would study Italian, if I could" (1st use) and "When I was a child, I would study Italian whenever I could."
Does place mean the same thing as home in italian as we do in english? Or just a position?
Could this sentence also translate to: "He was staying at her place" ? In the situation of a boyfriend staying over at a girlfriend's place, for example?
I think that scenario would be "Lui rimaneva da lei." --but not being a native I'm not certain.
I think that would be casa sua or maybe la sua casa but not suo posto as that English version of "place" does not apply to posto as far as I know.
Yeah , I was wondering that too. I think it would, but I'm not native so I don't know for certain.
I just looked up "rimaneva" in various sites, and they all said "remains." I thought that was odd but I put it anyway and got it marked wrong. GRRR!
SuzinAZ: Maybe you had the tense wrong? Remained and Stayed both mean the same thing and so if you used the past tense, it should not have been marked incorrect.
JudyLi6: I believe you could. Out of context I think the assumption is that "suo" refers back to the subject, especially since it makes sense to assume that, but 'suo' could be translated as "her" -- it's certainly more romantic than imagining a lonely sentry standing guard somewhere by himself.
Can someone please clarify if this sentence could be used in a socio-political sense? (as in a "know your place!" type of way)
shouldn't it be lui stava for he was staying not lui rimaneva, which is he was remaining ??
McEvoy11: I think it depends on the context, the situation. If you're referring to an habitual situation in the past then 'rimaneva' is the form to use: "He was (in the habit of) staying at his post until he was relieved." The idea is "He used to stay at his post, until he was relieved" If on the otherhand you're talking about a momentary event in the past that's come and gone, then I believe "stava rimanendo" would be the one to go with: "When the enemy attacked, he was staying at his post and would not retreat."
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I would say "at his place" if you mean place as his home. In his place i you mean a position ( literal or social). Is that a distinction in Italian?
My poor brain. I'm missing a lot here. When are gerund forms used? I thought "Lui rimaneva" = "He remained"; and, "Lui era rimanendo al il suo post" = He was staying...." Are gerund (ing) endings used rarely in Italian? Please help me understand this better.
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"Stayed" was not a translation for this question. Please ensure correct translations are supplied.
You may have gotten this as part of a multiple choice, but as a straight translation, 'stayed' would seem to express the idea of the verb just as well as 'remained' -- regardless of how one translates 'posto.'
iyphd: It's wrong because it's not a passive sentence. No one left him there. He is the one who remained there. It's an active sentence, not a passive one.
if things get so technical , ill gladly stay home and not go to italy. tourists are suckers anyway you slice it. per favore,.everyone dont go.
Wow, now, there's a positive attitude!
You are absolutely right. Because there is a confusing sentence in a FREE translation program, with a debate in the comments section trying to clarify the meaning, it obviously follows that all tourists are suckers, and should stay home. ????????
Sorry, I don't quite understand your logic there. However, by all means stay home. I, on the other hand, will take my imperfect Italian and inflict it on all the locals - and I will try to be as technically correct as I can be in the meantime.
wshvet: I absolutely applaud your point of view. Speaking a foreign language imperfectly is still better than not speaking one at all.
