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- Topic: Italian >
- "The animals drink water."
"The animals drink water."
Translation:Gli animali bevono acqua.
32 Comments
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.
il – masculine, singular, e.g. il libro (the book)
i – masculine, plural, e.g. i libri (the books)
la – feminine, singular, used before all consonants. E.g. la porta (the door)
le – feminine, plural, e.g. le porte (the doors)
lo – masculine, singular, with s+consonant or z. e.g. lo schermo (the screen)
gli - masculine, plural, with s+consonant or z. e.g. gli schermi (the screens)
gli - masculine, plural, begins with vowel e.g. gli anni (the years)
l’ – masculine or feminine, singular, begins with vowel e.g. l’anno (the year)
le – feminine, plural, begins with vowel. e.g. le università (the universities)
Notice how gli is used for masculine plural nouns beginning with a Z or S+consonant AND vowels. In this case animali is a masculine plural starting with the vowel A, therefore it is gli.
I'm Italian, and we don't let the article out for water. We say "gli animali bevono l'acqua".
I was wondering about that. We got scolded in high school if we ever dropped the article.
Why is it gli instead of "il"? And how do you know which form of beve to use for animals?
575
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Gli is plural and il is singular - the definite article needs to match the noun so it needs to be gli to go with animali the plural noun.
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Depends on the number of animals - beve for one animal, bevono for 2 or more animals.
I disagree. To me, "gli animali bevono acqua" sounds perfectly fine, even though it's more an exception.
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.
I've once gotten things like "La donna mangia la ragazza" on earlier courses. (I probably just used the wrong form of "mangia"....)
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.
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."
- 575
It is used because the subject (the animals in this case, performing the action), animali is plural so the verb is (3rd person) plural, bevono - they drink, to match.
Sometimes it corrects me with 'Gli', then when I use 'Gli', it corrects me with 'Il'
Why 'the horses drink latte' must be translated to 'I cavalli bevono IL latte' , but this sentence translates to 'gli animali bevono aqua' and not to 'gli animali bevono l' acqua'?
I'm confused about when to use l'acqua and when to use acqua - sometimes the question sentence doesn't have the article in and sometimes I get it wrong if I don't use it - I've not managed to figure out the rule yet. Any thoughts?
