"Perché lui non tira su i pantaloni?"
Translation:Why doesn't he pull up his pants?
82 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
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Hilarious! I'm glad we're learning these practical phrases.
Reminds me of when I recently learned that tiramisu = tira mi su = pick me up. My mind was blown.
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My mind is blown too. I always thought it odd that an Italian dessert had such a Japanese-sounding name. TIL.
Tirare = pull
tirare su = pull up
tira mi su = he/she/it pulls me up
Isn't tiramisu made out of coffee as well? And coffee has caffeine in it, which perks you up. Weird.
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Until today, I thought it may "Tear me apart". It seemed to make sense to me at the time.
Love it...just like that, an easy mnemonic for remembering 3 italian words - Tira mi su
I know! You know duolingo acually made a typo? Instead of putting not it said n't. And it said I got it wrong.
It wasn't a typo, yoi were supposed to write "Why doesn't he..." and you probably wrote "why does he n't"
It was not a typo by me... cuz it was 1 of thoz problemz where u click the bubble blocks. So I wrote “Why does he n’t.” And I got it right, but duolingo pointed out that I had a typo.
I suspect you should have put the n't after does, that way you would have written doesn't.
For a moment there I was afraid "sagging" had caught on with Italian youth -_-
Because here "su" isn't a preposition, but an adverb (opposite of "giù"), so it isn't modified. While prepositions introduce phrases (sui pantaloni = on the pants), adverbs modify verbs (tirare su = pull up).
Along the same lines, I remember my landlady in Bologna where I was studying for a month using the term "qua giu' which I wasn't familiar with. She was referring to where breakfast would be served - essentially "downstairs" vs "qua su" meaning "upstairs". So yes, they're adverbs.
Friend taught Italian in Chicago. She'd instruct the students to put their books down (under the desk). After a week or two a boy asked why she was always talking about Jews. OMG. Face plant.
Thank you for that explanation; it helped me understand why translating it to the English idiom 'he puts on his pants' is wrong. Could you answer two follow up questions for me?
(1) is this true?
he puts on his pants = lui mette suoi pantaloni (preposition 'su' not required because verb mettere is being used as a transitive verb that takes a direct object ...)
http://italian.about.com/library/verb/blverb_mettere.htm
(2) would that be a case where we can omit the possessive preposition suoi? (#2 in link below)
he puts on his pants = lui mette i pantaloni
http://www.arnix.it/free-italian/italian-grammar/possessive-adjectives-in-italian.php
Yes, that's correct, except that you need the article in 1) too, "lui mette i suoi pantaloni". As I wrote below, making the possessive explicit could imply that they're someone else's pants.
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I assume that the reason there's no reflexive or possessive or something along those lines is that the only trousers (pants, leg tubes, whatever) someone would pull up would be their own. Nobody runs around pulling up other people's trousers, so common sense trumps grammar.
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Italian does not use the possessive when ownership is obvious, it uses the definite article. So YellowStripe is partially right. Dropping the obvious possessive, in this case 'i suoi' is not just trumping grammar. It's the way Italians speak. (It's better explained in the early tips learning from French!)
So tirare can can mean either "throw" or "pull"? In English, these two words are not exactly opposite, but nearly so. For example, you "pull" a door open (towards you). The exact opposite is "push" (away from you). But you can also use "throw" to mean pushing away rapidly.
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Oh. Duh. That's why suspenders are called "tirantes". Pants-puller-uppers. I learn something new every day here.
why wouldn't it be "perche lui non tira su i SUOI pantoloni?" The example seems to read "why doesn't he pull up the pants?" Many thanks in advance!
In Italian it's common to omit the possessive when it agrees with the subject, and in this case adding "suoi" could suggest he's pulling up someone else's pants.
Generally that the subject is the owner:
- Parcheggio la (mia) macchina - I park my car
- Hai perso il (tuo) portafogli - You lost your wallet
- Vai a casa (tua) - Go home / Go to your home
With the third persons it also happens when you normally wouldn't use the article:
- È suo padre / È il padre - He's his/her father
And there are some less intuitive cases where the rule is inverted:
- Mi fa male la spalla - My shoulder hurts (literally the shoulder hurts me)
- Mi ha rigato la macchina - He scratched my car (literally he scratched the car to me)
it was 'the subject is the owner part' I was missing to understand it. I figured it must be the case however I was not completely sure. Thanks
Poor Brazilian guy here heard "tira suoi pantaloni" and translated "take his pants off".....weird....
I'm brazilian and that was my first thought lol I translated tira as take off in another example
If tirare can mean either "pull" or "throw" then the sentence could be saying that he has eaten his pants and the speaker can't understand why he doesn't throw them up. :)
Following that thread maybe he's exhausted running...out of things to wear and has been panting too much.
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Does this also mean "to get his act together" as in English, or does only the literal meaning work in Italuan?
At least he's wearing pants in this exercise (he wouldn't /wasn't in an earlier one). :D
Ok, i understand that "tirare su" belongs together. So the space between su and i is correct. The italian sentence does not express precisely that the pants are his pants. It's implied.
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Can we get this clear we are learning English English and not American English and thus the correct translation is 'Why doesn't he pull up his trousers'. Pants or knickers in Italian are mutande or mutande da donna respectively.
i think duo is defaulted to American english because I typed 'neighbourhood' and it said I had a typo, had to type 'neighborhood', so i'm guessing it's american pants, i.e. trousers to brits.
I too wrote ...i suoi pantaloni -- and got it wrong. It seems picky on DLs part.
what is the different between don't and doesn't i used don't and it was rejected
First person singular in English: I do Second person singular: you do Third person singular in English: he does, she does, it does. For plurals, it's "we do", "you (all) do", "they do".
"don't" = " do not" "doesn't" = "does not"
You are using the wrong verb form when you say "he don't"; just like you can't say "I doesn't". I hope that helps.
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Well well, what a hoot to learn about 'tiramisu' from tikidog. DL sure conjures up some weird phrases. I've been reviewing Italian both from English & French, and taking part in the discussions this time!! I'll have to check out how to say 'pick-me-up' in French to let that group know about the non-Japanese 'tiramisu'. I must object to 'tirante' for suspenders; it's more a guy or brace. Bretelle may be better, like the French 'bretelles'.
I'm wondering why "Why ISN'T he pulling up his pants?" is not accepted. I realize that this isn't the present progressive, but often that translation is used.
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You are absolutely correct in your question. 'Do' and 'Does' are often used in questions and negation, but there is no reason not to use 'isn't' are 'aren't in a question, as progressive or continuous forms of the English present. You can use 'do' or 'does' affirmatively in a sentence, such as 'She does play the piano'. Don't expect the DL bot to understand all that, though!!
Why is tira not tiro, masculine and not feminine when relating to Lui (he)
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Because it is a verb (tirare), not an adjective.
tiro = I pull
tiri = you pull
tira = he, she, it pulls
tiriamo = we pull
tirate = you all pull
tirano = they pull
