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- "Era arrivata con la figlia e…
"Era arrivata con la figlia e il marito."
Translation:She had arrived with her daughter and her husband.
39 Comments
Are "la figlia"/"il marito" more correct than "sua figlia"/"suo marito"? Or would they be interchangeable? In English, "the daughter"/"the husband" instead of "her daughter"/"her husband" would suggest that they do not belong to the woman.
Italians rarely use 'his', 'her', 'your' like we do in English, unless it is really necessary. Usually they use 'the' (la, il, etc) instead. Instead of 'my pen is in my bag' they will typically say 'la penna è nella borsa'. So, to sound authentic, use 'the'.
Interesting, any idea why Italians decided to speak like that? Is it cultural (taboo to express possession maybe) or is it just shortened from il suo, il mio, la sua, etc.
Just a guess, but it may be because their possessive pronouns are so inefficient. They don't communicate gender and require an extraneous article in 98% of cases.
Isn't it always necessary to clarify possession? Otherwise one could never be certain, they could only assume.
1225
I think it's the other way around, - they add the possessive only when the most plausible is not the owner.
If somebody is pointing with the finger carrying the hat or arriving with the daughter it is safe to assume the finger, the hat and the daughter belongs to that person, - otherwise it would have been stated.
Ed wouldn't be wrong, but since e, a and i aren't the same vowel sound, not necessary.
'arrivata' after the 'era' indicates that the subject is feminine. Lei era arrivata. Lui era arrivato
- 2622
Do we know whose husband we are talking about? (I.e. The mother's or the daughter's) or is that ambiguous in Italian?
I am a native speaker and I would understand you're talking about the woman's husband. In fact, if I meant to stress that the man is not the subject's husband I would use a possessive adjective ("con la figlia e SUO marito"), but it's more ambiguous than before; more correct and less confusing is "con la figlia e il marito di lei/il marito di quest'ultima". Hope it helps!
Italians usually leave the possessives "mio tuo suo" etc. if it is somewhat obvious.
- 718
"Aveva arrivata" is not correct because the ausiliar verb for arrivare (come) is essere -to be.
Isn't the conjunction e (and) become ed in front of another vowel? Would someone please help me out with this?
With her daughter and husband should be correct. The her is implied for the husband.
There's no 'her' in this sentence. She had arrived with the daughter and the husband. Dl accepted it
- 1965
'She had arrived with the daughter and husband' was marked wrong, but would make a better English translation to my mind
Why not ed il marito instead of e il marito? e and i are 2 vowel sounds i expect a "d" among them
Since there is no pronoun at the beginning of the sentence, it is correct to say HE, "he had arrived with his daughter and his husband"
In another sentence I translated - la moglie - as - his wife - that had to be: the wife, according to DL. Strange. The wife doesn't sound nice to me.
I have now seen this sentence with la figlia, and sua figlia, which is best /correct
duolingo needs to introduce a "swearing in italian" lesson so I can express my dissatisfaction appropriately. I swear to you, the lady said COLLA. I had to fill in the blanks for "e il" which sounded vaguely like "el" but I very clearly heard "colla" all five times I listened to it. This is so frustrating!
