"The animals drink water."
Translation:Gli animali bevono acqua.
23 Comments
For some sentences, ex: "She drinks beer." I've been marked correct when I say "Beve birra." In this case, why can't I say "Animali bevono acqua." Why can't I omit the article here?
I found this link on another discussion post asking a very similar question: http://blogs.transparent.com/italian/using-the-definite-article/
Basically, the answer is because "gli animali" is a collective noun, and the subject of this sentence. It's ok to leave out the article in "Beve birra," because beer is not the subject of the sentence.
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When do you use I versus Gli? I am getting confused. Is it because animali is a masculine noun?
It's because animali starts with 'a'; you need to use "gli" for the masculine plural when the singular needs "lo" or its truncation l' (irregulars aside), so before all nouns starting with vowels, z, s+consonant, gn, ps, pn, x, j.
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I'm Italian, and we don't let the article out for water. We say "gli animali bevono l'acqua".
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I was wondering about that. We got scolded in high school if we ever dropped the article.
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I disagree. To me, "gli animali bevono acqua" sounds perfectly fine, even though it's more an exception.
Why is it gli instead of "il"? And how do you know which form of beve to use for animals?
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I've once gotten things like "La donna mangia la ragazza" on earlier courses. (I probably just used the wrong form of "mangia"....)
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I was marked incorrect because I also chose the sentence "Animali bevono l'acqua." Why is there no definite article before water, yet it's in the answer? And if it is OK with that scenario, then why mark my second choice incorrect because I did not have a definite article. Duolingo seems to have a very unclear policy on when to use articles and when not to. :-(
In many cases, the use of articles is subjective. There are, however, certain instances when you should always use the definite article. This site was very helpful in explaining those rules: http://blogs.transparent.com/italian/using-the-definite-article/
In this sentence, "the animals" is a collective noun (one of the instances in which you should use the definite article) and "water" is more of a general concept rather than a concrete physical object in this sentence, and so doesn't require the definite article.
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Shouldn't the answer be " The animals drink the water", as opposed to ":The animals drink water", given the options for answers. Thanks
I believe it would be "...drink the water" if the sentence read "...bevono l'acqua."
Sometimes it corrects me with 'Gli', then when I use 'Gli', it corrects me with 'Il'
