"Where is the kitchen?"

Translation: Dov'è la cucina?

[igorfilter]

So why is this marked incorrect?
"Dov' è la cucina?"

[Songmaker]

Perhaps the extra space between Dov' and è?

[igorfilter]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I guess my question is whether having that space is wrong in Italian or is just an artifact of the programming.

[Songmaker]

I'm no expert, but I think it's incorrect in Italian.

[f.formica]

Yes, most apostrophes are "between" words and join them together, so you can't put a space there; it's like writing "it' s", "I' d", or "can' t" in English.

[highgardener]

In the very previous exercice it showed dov' è. With the bloody space.

[ctpollak]

I don't understand why some errors get a "note" ... presumably because they are minor .... and this one doesn't. It seems that a "correction note" would be more appropriate in this case, since I don't know how one is expected to know that there should not be a space.....

[SharonRame]

Exactly!

[nezbednik]

Can I say "Dove è la cucina?" or the only right answer (irl) is "Dov'è la cucina?" (like in English you can say "Where's the kitchen" or "Where is the kitchen") The same for other pronoun which are shortened like cosa...

[Songmaker]

What is the difference between "dove" and "dov'è"?

[f.formica]

Dov'è is a truncation of dove+è, so it translates to "where is".

[Pending-Tray]

why does it accept dov'e and not dov' e (both with the accent of course which my keyboard doe not have). Shouldn't there always be a space between an apostrophe and the next word? In Greek and English it is so. Does anyone know what the story is in Italian? I have lost so many hearts because of this bloody space... grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[f.formica]

In Greek and English it's not the same, and Italian is not the same as either. The rule in Italian is that when an apostrophe indicates an elision the two words are joined, and there can be nothing else than the apostrophe separating them; when the article represents other phoenomena, like truncation (e.g. po', be', va', di') it becomes part of the word and is treated accordingly, i.e. a space would occur before a following word but no space would occur before punctuation.

That being said I think Duolingo should treat it as a minor offense.

[Pending-Tray]

Molto grazie f.formica! That does clear things up.

[geez0x1]

Why is "Quando è la cucina?" incorrect?

[AliMargot]

English does NOT have a space between the apostrophe and an 's' or 'd' as in 'it's' I'd, etc. Unless things have changed since I was at school which was an awfully long time ago! Wouldn't mind betting I'm one of your oldest pupils!

[Mary_Dominick]

that doesn't make sense as when one is speaking it is not apparent that there is no space