38 Comments
I am also confused on this. Why isn't "bathroom tub" acceptable, instead of "bathtub"? ... especially when the sentence seems to be describing the location of the soap. Perhaps, "stanza di bagno" literally means bathroom, and "bagno" is generally short for this, and while "vasca" can mean "sink", it might usually refer to something larger (sink would usually be "lavello").
I use "tub" a lot, so saying "By the bathroom tub" is not uncommon. I too think it should be accepted.
If it is by the bathroom tub, it could also be on the floor by the bathroom tub which is not the same as on the bathroom tub. The more standard term is "bathtub". People sometimes just say the tub and people know it is in the bathroom.
It also ruled out 'basin', though it made sense and was mentioned as a meaning.
Here 'da' has a meaning like in 'camera da letto', meaning bedroom. In Italian, 'da' is also used when something is used to do another something. It can be used like 'to' in English in cases like this:This recipe is easy to prepare = Questa ricetta è facile da preparare. About vasca da bagno? It's simply kind of an idiomatic phrase you can use instead of mere bagno. p.s.: the verb, however, to have a shower, is: fare una doccia (e.g. faccio una doccia - i have a shower)
Here are some words I copied from Mukkapazza a while back from elsewhere on this site. Looking at this "vasco da bagno" puts the use of da as an adjective.
"Prepositions are one of those things that rarely translate directly from one language to another but here are a few pointers that might help:
da + article: usually means from (i soldi cadono dal cielo/money is falling from the sky) but in some instances can mean to (andiamo dalla nonna/we are going to grandma's) or make a word an adjective (sala da pranzo/dining room/dining hall)...
• da + la = dalla • da + il = dal • da + lo = dallo • da + le = dalle • da + i = dai • da + gli = dagli
di + article: usually means of (è il ristorante dell'uomo/it is the man's restaurant/it is the restaurant of the man) but can also mean from (di dove sei? where are you from?) or about (scrivo di te/I write about you)...
• di + la = della • di + il = del • di + lo = dello • di + le = delle • di + i = dei • di + gli = degli"
I don't think this is quite the full story eg the use of delle etc to mean "some" but it's a great help in getting one's head around di and da :)
I've put "The soap is on the bath in the bathroom". That "da bagno" made me all confused! I was trying to be too literate, and it didn't work. Oh, learning new languages it was so much easier when we were all kids! I'm brazilian btw so Italian shouldn't be a massive problem, although the prepositions get me all the time.
Trust me, the prepositions are getting a lot of us. I learned German in high school and Russian in the military (Military translator), and neither had prepositions as confusing as Italian... Although, like you said, I was young and it seemed easier.
I feel you xDD Also I have difficulties with them and I'm Brazilian too. I keep forgetting that "da" isn't the same as "della" x)))
I'm so confused when it comes to "di+ article" and "da" I thought it means "of" and "da" means by or from?
you're correct although da can have many different meanings depending on the context, it can mean by, from, to, or of (as used in idioms)
Yes, do you have a choice just to use either one, or do you have to say "vasca da bagno" in certain cases? To me it just seems redundant.
Why il sapone è sulla vasca is not enough? Why the word bagno is here ? Damn, its confusing.
-etta is a diminutive ending used to describe something that is smaller than usual, so it means a small soap.
We have "sabão" and "sabonete" in Portuguese, being "sabonete" the smaller one used in bath. "Sabão" is usually used to laundry or such. Is there any difference like that in Italian?
Bathtub is American English and is never used in England! We just say 'the bath'
Why use the word "on"? A bathtub is concave, so having something "on it" is, in my mind, next to impossible... it could be "in", "by" or "next to".
The wall of my bathtub is wide enough for me to put soap and shampoo on it. I don't put the soap and shampoo to float in the water with me.
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Could the proper translation for vasca just be tub? So that this would be tub of the bathroom or bath? Because this is quite unnecessary. I know it's another language but I must understand if I am to speak. So would a native Italian maybe just say vasca and be done with it?
Because "lo" is used only when the word starts with a "z", "x" and "w" or with two consonants. "Lo squalo" but "il sapone"
