"On Tuesdays I eat cheese."
Translation:Il martedì mangio il formaggio.
57 Comments
Only on Tuesdays though. I'm very strict about that rule. Tuesday is cheese day ONLY.
Cheesegratin overbaked with cheese. For desert cheesecake naturalmente
When i had to translate Italian to English it said "I martedì" - but now when I wrote "i martedì" it corrected it to "Il martedì" - Isn't "il" only used for single?
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Yep, I noticed that. I'm guessing since all the others are 'Il' that's the correct one, but one way or another it must simply be a mistake.
I've marked you back up one, as I see some reason in your passionate outburst.
Not being a native speaker of neither Italian nor English, so take it for what it is: the construction "i martedi" is equivalent to "on Tuesdays" in English. It is a recurring event, and literally translates to "the Tuesdays" 'cause this is how Italian deals with it.
'Il martedi' means 'on Tuesdays'. It is enough to use a definite article to create that plural sense. 'Tutti i martedi' means 'every Tuesday'. (for special emphasis you can always use 'tutti i + the name of a day'.
Of course, 'martedi' used at the beginning or end of a sentence means 'this coming Tuesday'.
When it comes at the end of a sentence you can even add a preposition 'di'. ("Le scuole sono chiuse di domenica" = Schools are closed ON Sundays)
It's a minefield for us because the choice is partly one of style. See https://www.lifeinitaly.com/italian/days-months-seasons. The relevant bit is:
Habitual Tuesdays are il martedì, but di martedì is normal at the end of the sentence. As in English, the latter puts more stress on the habit itself than on the timing, e.g. "I normally eat fruit but I eat cheese on Tuesdays."
The plural appears in "every Tuesday" = tutti i martedì. "Each Tuesday" = ogni martedì, though il martedì is a good loose translation.
Although martedì alone by default implies the next Tuesday, actually the context can decide which day you mean. If you need to avoid an ambiguity, you need il prossimo / scorso martedì.
On top of this comments page, Duolingo provides as correct answer "I martedì..."
This is exactly what I answered... and it was counted wrong??!
It corrects me saying I should have written "Il martedì..."
??? Help!
It is giving "Il martedì..." at the top of this page (three hours after your comment). All reference books say "il". Maybe they corrected their own mistake?
I wrote A martedì and it corrected me to use Al. Then in comments, it said to use i. What's up duo?
You sort of can but if you ever spoke it to a native Italian you would sound abstract.
If you want to say a translation other than the one provided you might want to say "Io mangio formaggio di martedi"
So one question asks me to write 'On Tuesday I eat cheese' and the correct answer is 'Il martedì mangio il formmagio.' Then the next question asks me to do the same thing, and the correct answer is 'I martedì' ---- What is the difference?
If everything was as you say, the difference is Tuesday (singular) = il martedì and Tuesdays (plural) = i martedì. Every noun that ends in an accented vowel is invariant, so the only way to recognise a plural is from the article (i o le).
I wish I could post my screen saves.
This is what the question is exactly: WRITE THIS IN ITALIAN -- ON TUESDAYS I EAT CHEESE. My answer is: I martedì mangio il formaggio. I GOT THIS WRONG AND WAS TOLD IT SHOULD BE : Il martedì mangio il formaggio.
The next screen shot says TYPE WHAT YOU HEAR. I type: I martedì mangio il formaggio. I get this right, and the interpretation below the answer is -- On Tuesdays I eat cheese.
Do you see my confusion?
I'm having the same problem, and it looks like this has been going on for a while with nobody at Duolingo fixing it. It's just a clumsy error, and I see this in a lot of the Italian exercises.
When this sentence comes up, and you're asked to translate it into Italian from English, it does NOT accept "I martedì" (it says only "Il" is correct), but when it asks you to translate from Italian to English the sentence shown is "I martedì" and NOT "Il". The inconsistencies in Duolingo are frustrating because even after years of users reporting them, they don't get fixed.
I believe the correct form should be "il Martedi" on the first place... Well, it is a correct form for sure.
I agree. I have studied Italian for 4 years and I've always been told to use the singular article.
I think "su" is a preposition of location. The "on" here is a preposition of time.
The first time I did this ,I put in 'a martedi', which of course was wrong. Duolingo then told me it should be 'I martedi'. The second time I entered just that und now I was corrected to write 'Il'. On top of the comment section though it also sais 'I martedi'. Something's not right here...
had this question before where i had to translate "I martedí mangio il formaggio" to english.
Now i got it in english and was suppose to translate it to italian. I therefore wrote "I martedí mangio il formaggio" and it was marked wrong. corrected it to "Il martedí mangio il formaggio"
This makes no sense what so ever :(
Could it be the stress accent? You write martedí while Duo writes martedì. Duo normally allows single-letter spelling errors when they don't produce anything it recognises as a different word. I don't know if this does so, but maybe the programmed logic can't cope with accents.
It's not about the accent, my point was that they changed the article from "i" to "il". So translate the same sentence from italian to english it is no worries, but when you get the same phrase in english and need to translate it to italian they don't except the article "i" they mark it as wrong and says that you have to use "il" instead.
That was the issue i had. I have reported it though.
Also about the accent. sometimes duolingo accepts the spelling of "po" without the accent and mark it as almost correct. Other times it says "wrong" and says that i have to spell it "po'"
When it is inconsistent, frustration rises :P
The translation it gave me for "on" when I hovered over it with the mouse did not help me at all. It said "su di" would work for on but the microphone didn't even recognize I said it.
Those aren't translations, they are clues at best and a fair percentage of them are irrelevant or even misleading. Knowing when to use them is a Duolingo skill. My own usage has gradually shrunk to quickly getting the gender of a noun by checking the adjective hint, and not a lot else. I prefer an online dictionary.
"I martedì mangio il formaggio" is marked incorrect on this question, but an audio prompt of the exact same marks that as correct, but "Il martedì mangio il formaggio" as incorrect.
"Di martedi"? I could see "il martedi" or "a martedi" - "di" martedi was not even one of the dictionary hints.
Previously, I was marked wrong and at this same page, I was given the following reply I martedì mangio il formaggio." Translation:On Tuesdays I eat cheese. For the second time I was marked wrong in spite that I wrote the previous correction. Now I want to know whether Il martedi or i martedì is the correct answer. Since DL never replies, would any Italian native speaker help me out and let me know what is the right answer? However, in this same
I am pretty sure that a couple of questions back I gave this answer and it was wrong, supposedly it should have been I martedi because it is tuesdays plural ????
why in the listening excerise they have i martedi but the written il martedi?
"Tuesdays" is plural, but the correct answer "il martedi" is singular. It sounds wrong...
I cant get this right... If I type i martedi it tells me it is il martedi and if i type il martedi it tells me it is i martedi... Seems to have a glitch in the system!
The same text in english is translated differently: Once its I martedi mangio il formaggio and then its Il martedi mangio il formaggio
may I use the preposition "di" with the weekdays? In this sentence that's wrong
Il formaggio viene della cacà di vacca (o della vacca, o dalla vacca, o delle vacche, o dalle vacche?). Give me a break please.
