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- "I eat your cakes."
"I eat your cakes."
Translation:Io mangio le tue torte.
82 Comments
i wrote "le tue torte" instead of "le vostre torte". It was accounted as right, but what is the difference then? is it your cakes in the sense of a group of people?
Unless you count "you all", English doesn't really have a way of specifying if the second person is singular or plural. "You" works for both. However in Italian, there are three ways you can translate "you" and only two that you need to worry about until you get further down the skill tree:
- 2nd person singular : tu (le tue torte)
- 2nd person plural : voi (le vostre torte)
- formal you, 3rd pers. sing. conjugation : Lei (le Sue torte)
So you're right! One of the translations here indicates that you are eating the cakes owned by many people.
Where I come from, people sometimes say "You guys' cakes" or even "y'all's cakes", but of course that's very informal.
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I'm confused. It seems to me that "le sue torte" would be her cakes, rather than your cakes. What am I missing?
In Italian, the formal "you" is Lei (written with a capital letter) and the formal "you all" is Loro (written with a capital letter). So the possessives likewise get capitalized.
So "le sue torte" would indeed be "his/her cakes" but "le Sue torte" would be "your cakes".
Yes, "lei" is "she" most of the time. It is also used as the formal/polite "you".
io = I
tu = you (informal)
lui = he
lei = she
Lei = you (formal)
noi = we
voi = y'all
loro = they
Loro = y'all (formal)
There are two different "you"s in Italian: the singular and the plural. For both of these (indeed, for all of the pronouns), there are four different possessives, because possessives (like articles and adjectives) must agree with the noun they go with, not "whose" they are.
TU
il tuo = your singular masculine thing
la tua = your singular feminine thing
i tuoi = your plural masculine/mixed/unknown things
le tue = your plural feminine things
VOI
il vostro = your singular masculine thing
la vostra = your singular feminine thing
i vostri = your plural masculine/mixed/unknown things
le vostre = your plural feminine things
I wrote: Io mangio i vostri torte and it came out wrong for the word cakes it gave me dolci???? Why?
- 26
It was expecting a plural masculine object when you wrote 'i vostri', so it felt the masculine word for 'sweets' (which include 'cakes') was 'dolci'. As 'torte' is feminine plural, the possessive that goes with it is 'le vostre' when you are talking to multiple people.
It was expecting a plural masculine noun. It doesn't matter if this is the subject or the object.
Is necessary to have "le" on "tue torte"? I wrote "Io mangio tue torte". Is that informal only or plain wrong?
It's wrong. You may only (and have to) omit the article when referring to a single family member.
With the exception of singular unmodified family members, the possessive in Italian needs the definite article. In English we say "your cake", in Italian they say "la tua torta".
- 169
I wrote:" le vostre torte" and " le tue torte" and only the second answer was right. But this is not correct.Both possibilities are okay. But I lost a heart, it would be better, to get double points!!! But Duo is not able to read this and I am disappointef
Both "le vostre torte" and "le tue torte" ought to be accepted. However, you probably had an error somewhere. From now on, please copy&paste or screenshot your answer so we can help you see the real reason it marked you wrong.
It looks like you typed two different answers in the same submission. The answer database and the correction algorithm are not set up for that. You need to decide on one or the other.
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Remember: 'le' here comes from Latin 'illae' (those; female plural), whereas 'la' is from the singular 'illa'.
If you remember the rule in Latin: -us/-i (masculine) and -a/-ae (feminine), so illus/illi = lo/gli, and illa/illae = la/le.
Mangio is first person, mangia is third person. If you hover over the verbs, you'll find a blue button that leads to a conjugation table.
how do you understand when the sentence is saying "all your" rather than "your" like in this sentence?
The singular "you" is "tu" and the possessives are "tuo/tua/tuoi/tue".
The plural "you" is "voi" and the possessives are "vostro/vostra/vostri/vostre".
there are so many variations of saying 'your', im not sure which context to use them???
If you address a single person as TU:
il tuo = your singular masculine thing
i tuoi = your plural masculine/mixed/unknown things
la tua = your singular feminine thing
le tue = your plural feminine things
If you address multiple people as VOI:
il vostro = your singular masculine thing
i vostri = your plural masculine/mixed/unknown things
la vostra = your singular feminine thing
le vostre = your plural feminine things
If you address a single person as LEI (formal/polite):
il Suo = your singular masculine thing
i Suoi = your plural masculine/mixed/unknown things
la Sua = your singular feminine thing
le Sue = your plural feminine things
If you address multiple people as LORO (formal/polite):
il Loro = your singular masculine thing
i Loro = your plural masculine/mixed/unknown things
la Loro = your singular feminine thing
le Loro = your plural feminine things
- The gender and number agree with the thing(s) possessed, not with who possesses it/them.
- For now, don't worry too much about the formal/polite forms, but just keep them in the back of your mind.
Verbs in Italian conjugate more thoroughly than they do in English.
https://www.italian-verbs.com/italian-verbs/conjugation.php?parola=mangiare
io mangio
tu mangi
lui/lei mangia
noi mangiamo
voi mangiate
loro mangiano
There's a subtle difference.
One suggests it's YOUR cakes, as opposed to someone else's cakes.
One suggests it's your CAKES, as opposed to something else of yours.
Noun phrases with possessive adjectives require the definite article. The only exception is singular unmodified family members--then you must not use the definite article.
Because "torte" is feminine, so it would need to be "le vostre", not "i vostri".
When you're using the possessive adjective, you must use the definite article except with unmodified singular family members.
When you're using the possessive pronoun, it's correct with or without the definite article, but the meaning subtly changes between "the THING (vs something else) is mine" and "the thing is MINE (vs someone else's)".
Which form of the definite article you use depends of course on the grammatical gender and number of the noun that is possessed.
What precisely was your answer? Because if it was just a matter of "le vostre torte" vs "le tue torte", then that should have been accepted, and you can flag that and report it. But if you forgot "le" or if you used the wrong vostr* from, that is not a good translation.
Or if you had an extra space, that's a bug that will make Duo mark you wrong.
Or if you built it from tiles in the word bank and you dragged instead of tapped, that's a bug that will make Duo mark you wrong.
Duolingo says "Mangio le tue torte." is correct. Shouldn't it be "Mangio le tuoi torte."?
Nope, "torte" is feminine plural, and therefore you use the feminine plural "your" which is "tue". "Tuoi" is the masculine plural. You would use "tuoi" with something like "Mangio i tuoi panini."
I put "le sue torte" I didn't even think to put tue and now I'm confused as to which is more accurate to say. (I got it right by the way)
The informal/casual way to address someone is tu and so when talking to that person it would be "le tue torte". The formal/polite way to address someone is Lei and so when talking to that person it would be "le sue torte".
For multiple people, informally, it would be voi and "le vostre torte". Polite register would be Loro and "le loro torte".
http://italian.about.com/cs/grammar/ht/formalinformal.htm
https://www.pimsleurapproach.com/resources/italian/grammar-guides/formal-informal/
It's just how Italian grammar works, that they use the definite article ("the") in possessives. English does not.
That's how they test your knowledge of the grammar.
Also, the course contributors you seem to be addressing do not get notified of comments in these threads.
dolci is literally sweets but is also used to refer to confectionery.
La Dolce Vita = The Sweet Life
Strictly speaking, possibly. Most (not all but most) adjectives do come after the noun in Italian. Some come before, some can come before or after, depending the meaning. Numbers and possessives always come first.
- https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/40313254/When-to-put-adjective-before-noun
- https://www.thoughtco.com/italian-adjective-order-4098168
- https://blogs.transparent.com/italian/adjectives-and-their-position/
- https://onlineitalianclub.com/free-italian-exercises-and-resources/online-italian-course-upper-intermediate-b2/la-posizione-degli-aggettivi/
- https://www.italyheritage.com/learn-italian/course/grammar/adjectives.htm
But Fellini was Italian---born, raised, lived, and died in Italy. So there are a few possibilities:
- It's a fixed phrase, like "time immemorial" in English, where the noun "time" comes first
- He was playing with the language, as was the screenwriter who made "Il Tigre". "La tigre" is grammatically feminine in Italian, regardless of the sex of the individual animal.
Is it just me or is all the having and eating someone elses food just mean? I mean, who does that to another person?
I'm amused at how everyone is assuming that the people are sitting at a table, and one reaches over and takes food off of the other's plate.
Maybe the other person is a baker who sold some cakes, and the buyer is letting them know they're a customer. "I eat your cakes, and they're great. Keep up the good work."
