18 Comments
In (American) English, garlic is both the singular and plural. I have garlic. I have lots of garlic. I have two bulbs of garlic. It's never really "garlics". We denote more than one using descriptors, without changing the actual noun. This is a strange example, but pertinent, given I would be lost as to the translation if I had more than one bulb of garlic if this is the common way to do it, in Romanian.
It means garlic in general. You'd specify cloves if that's what you mean (though I can't recall the word for it now).
I think the tricky part for me is that in English, I'm pretty sure, "garlic" is a non-count noun. We would say, "there's too much garlic," not "there are too many garlics." Recipes call for two heads, bulbs, or cloves of garlic, but not "two garlics." The only time I can imagine it is if one were taking about different varieties, as in "that store sells four garlics!"
I get what you're saying. You'd just say X garlics just to simply things sort of like you could ask for X cloves or X bulbs in English without specifying garlic once the context is there. Aiming for a direction translation in this case would just be tricky, like you said.
It means a garlic bulb. Clove would be 'un cățel de usturoi' and cloves='căței de usturoi.' To make things even more complicated, cățel/căței can also mean small dog/dogs. Yes, it is a beautifully crazy language.
My translation of "one clove of garlic, two cloves of garlic" was accepted as correct.
Good to know. I guess that's better than "one garlic/two garlics," although I think that "clove/cloves" is more specific than "un usturoi, doi usturoi" and would translate to "un cățel de usturoi/doi căței de usturoi."
"un usturoi, doi usturoi" could be "o căpățână de usturoi/două căpățâni de usturoi" (a garlic bulb or head of garlic).
EDIT: Something interesting about "usturoi" is that it is derived from "a ustura" = "to burn" as in to cause a burning sensation or heat, or "to sting" as in a nettle can sting.
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”a garlic bulb/clove” = ”o căpățână de usturoi” or ”un cățel de usturoi.” Yes, cățel is the same spelling as ”pup,” or ”small dog.” Also, căpățână comes from ”cap” = ”head.” HTH.
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There is no sense in using "two garlic", if it uncountable! If I can't say "two garlics", I can't say either "two garlic", but only two heads, bulbs or cloves of garlic!
Why is "a garlic, two cloves of garlic" wrong? Un usturoi cannot mean galirc in general?
"a garlic" is wrong in English, because garlic is uncountable, with neither a plural or singular. (Think of trying to count grains of ground garlic.) "A bulb" is correct in English, and "A bulb of garlic" is enough to distinguish the garlic bulb from other kinds of bulbs, like tulip bulbs
"One glove of garlic, ..." is also considered incorrect by Duolingo. Seems correct though.
