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- "Le sue caramelle sono nel pi…
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There is no his/hers since in Italian the possessive adjectives refer to the gender of the noun being possessed and not the possessor. So the possessor's identity is dependent on context. My teacher explained it this way. In the context of a story about a grandmother buying a present for her granddaughter, there was this sentence: "la nonna ha comprato un regalo per il suo compleanno." Il compleanno (birthday) is masculine and takes the singular male third-person possessive. The sentence does not let you know if the grandmother bought the gift for her own birthday or for another's birthday. An alternative way of saying this in Italian that would provide possessive and context would be: "la nonna ha comprato un regalo per il compleanno di Anna"--the grandmother bought a gift for Anna's birthday.
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Since there is no his/her, shouldn't a valid translation also be "Its candy is on the plate"?
or "Their candy is on the plate"? I was gonna try "their" but I didn't want to get it wrong. Just put "her"
“their” in the plural sense of “belonging to them” is ‘loro’.
“their” in the gender-neutral sense of “belonging to him or her” is ‘suo|sua|sue|suoi’.
"Their" is gender neutral and can be suo/sua/sue but their is getting marked wrong. Needs to be updated by Devs.
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The sentence refers to a feminine not masculine ,in my lesson it was " his candies" .i wrote his just like you because of not getting wrong , but i think the correct answer should have been " her candies . Please someone correct me ,i have just started to learn italian .
sue is the possessive form of lui/lei aka his/hers, so it has to refer to either him or her! if it was your candies it would be either le tue or le vostre :)
Thank you- this is so helpful! How about "la nonna ha comprato un regalo per il compleanno di la sua [granddaughter], Anna"? OR "la nonna ha comprato un regalo per la sua [granddaughter] Anna [in honor of OR to celebrate] il suo compleanno"? Actually, in Italian would it really be correct to say that she bought the gift "for" the birthday? The gift isn't for the birthday but for Anna. I know that in some languages this would not work.
I think the first would be ok, just remember to contract di+la to della. The second I think is grammatically correct, but I'm not sure of the syntax and if it would seem like a run on to a native speaker. It would become, "la nonna ha comprato un regalo per la sua nipote, Anna, per celebrare (in onore del) il suo compleanno." This is a question I'm curious about. And my teacher, who grew up in Nrn Italy mentioned no qualms about per for the birthday as opposed to the person. Hope this helps!
Thanks, vtc! Can you put two nouns together in Italian to form a new word, as in English (I think this is called a "compound noun"...?) ie, could we form the word "birthday present" somehow in Italian? That would certainly make it simpler: Come to think of it, why not "La nona ha comprato un regallo di cumpleanno per Anna" and ALSO, wouldn't it likely be assumed that Anna was the granddaughter unless specified otherwise? I'm thinking this would work on the same principal as body parts are clothing which are assumed to be ones own: "I broke my leg" would likely translate to "I broke the leg" in Italian, non e vero? :) Grazie mille!
I thinks it's idiomatic, like la verdura is singular but translates in English as vegetables, too. Think for example about a bowl of candy, there are multiple candies but we speak of it as one aggregate.
As a native English speaker, I can tell you that "candy" is plural. If you wish to refer to the singular, you'd have to say "a piece of candy" or "a candy bar" or specify the type of candy you were referring to (a gumdrop, for example). Hope that helps.
I too am a native English speaker and disagree, as candy can be singular, as in "I'll have a candy" or "I'd love a candy" (if someone is offering us one).
Yes, it is like deer of which the plural is also deer. One candy, a lot of candy, but unlike deer, it is perfectly acceptable to say many candies
Candy is a collective. It would take a singular verb, as in THe candy is all gone, not the candy are all gone.
It all depends if we want to take the time to count the candy or not. When it is counted, as kids often do at Halloween in the USA. It is not unusual to say 38 pieces of candy or 38 candies. Both are accepted in the dictionary.
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/candies?showCookiePolicy=true http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/candy?showCookiePolicy=true
Note that candy is defined as sweets. Caramella is defined as a sweet; so caramelle would be sweets
Not always. I'm an American writer and I want to make a couple quick comments: 1. it's an American custom to keep "candy" In a dish or candy bowl. "Nel" would mean In for this application. 2. The candy inside the bowl is often referred to as Candies i.e. "Grandma, can I please have one of your (the) candies?"
See what vfcampi has to say above. Le sue only refers to the candy. You have to infer the "possessor's identity" from the context, which of course isn't provided here.
I don't think the singular makes sense. 'Le sue caramelle' refers to a plural feminine, which is are the candies in this case. Don't quite think it's right. Let's report and see.
If alternate translation is "candies" shouldn't the word choices (android) include that??
"Candy" is very U.S., not used in many other English speaking countries, therefore "Sweet" or "caramel" should be acceptable
This sentence doesn't specify whether the possessor is male or female, so I guess you'd have to figure it out from the context. If you wanted it to say and mean "His candies are on the plate," how would you change the Italian?
«Le caramelle di esso sono nel piatto.» = “His candies are in the plate.”
«Le caramelle da essa sono nel piatto.» = “Her candies are in the plate.”
Really? I'm just learning, but "di lui" doesn't sound right Is there a native speaker you could ask?
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I'm surprised that no one has commented about the third word spoken "caramelle". I listened a half dozen times and wasn't coming up even close to "caramelle" or maybe my hearing is really bad. :-(
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I was told "his sweets are on the plate" is wrong, but it's actually correct, just British English
Can anyone explain why "Your" is not an acceptable option here instead of "His"?
I think you are right. There is no acceptance of formal you in this section and when you try to do it you are told it's wrong. I've reported it. Of course I could be wrong.
They want you to capitalize "Suo" for formal you. This would only work for Oral to written exercise where it might need to be reported. Every exercise where we see suo is not formal you.
how are you supposed to tell whether it's His or Her because it says that one of the correct translations is "His candy is on the plate" however I also put in "Her candy is on the plate" and that was right also, how are you supposed to tell the difference ?
Well,this hasn't got to do with posessives but what's the deal with nel and sul?nel means in and sul means on, right?does nel mean on as well?
From what I remember nel only means in. However in Italian you would say that something is in a plate or a dish, not on it.
It is not. At least for me. I chose this answer and it told me her was the correct one. Weird
'Le sue' can be use used to represent his or hers. This is extremely confusing.
she said "nella", i listened repeatedly and that's definitely what's said
"Le sue" can be his/her/their - masc, fem, or non-gendered so why was their marked wrong?
"Their candies are on the plate" was marked wrong. It's not wrong. His/her/their should all be accepted. This is ridiculous.
isn't le caramelle (feminine) so why isn't it, her candies are on the plate.? le sue caramelle sono nel piatto
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Is there any possibility of "sue/sua" could mean your? I ask this because in both Portuguese and Spanish, su (ES) and seu/sua (PT) refers primarily to the 3rd person. However in informal conversations (at least in Portuguese) we use "seu/sua", which should refer to the 3rd person, addressing to the 2nd person, meaning "your"
"Sua mãe" for example would basically mean His/Her mother by the standard rules, but in fact if you would tell me "sua mãe" out of context I would think that you're talking about my mother, not his or hers. And I think it also happens in Spanish.
Can someone tell me more about it in Italian? Sue and sua are always "his/hers"?
.. consequently, since there is no indication of gender, both translations are right
Why I cannot put " her candies...." ? Le sue is for her and his...right???
I really don't think candy is ever used in plural in English. You could use sweeties maybe.
if there is "sono" in the sentence why is it not their candies instead of her candies?
Sono refers to the candies (which are plural here) and which are the subject of the sentence. The possessive pronouns for his or their do not take a verb. His/her candies are on the plate, or as discussed above it's probably ok too to translate as His/her candy is on the plate, but that doesn't change the Italian!
le sue means : his or her. but if it was "le" caramelle then your answer would be correct.
I kinda got the his/her thing. I don't understand, though, why it is not "e nel piatto"? Why must I say Am/Are on the plate?
1000000 times you wanted : candy- now its wrong - lollies. It gets so boring in the upper parts that I get agressiv.
Every single time the answer is 'nel' - she is saying 'nella' as clear as can be!!
I put 'her candies are on the plate' and it was marked wrong. Surely his or her should be acceptable since we have no context.
I translated' le caramelle' as 'sweets' earlier and it accepted it - but now it says I'm wrong to translate it as 'His sweets are on the plate'. Wish it would make up its mind.
It can also mean: "your candies are on the plate", if one uses the polite form "Lei", in stead of "tu". So I think my translation was not wrong.
There is a problem. I gave correct answer but you say wrong again and again and again....
I had a friking tipo. Do i have to repeat it is obious i get the ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ idea it a typo. Wtf
I used "their" since you cannot determine if it's his or her (no Lui oir Lei). I think it should be accepted, too.
Wouldn't that be "Le loro caramelle sono nel piatto."
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/candy?showCookiePolicy=true
