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- Topic: Italian >
- "I have a snake in my boot."
"I have a snake in my boot."
Translation:Ho un serpente nello stivale.
267 Comments
The verb "ho" indicates the owner of the boot. The possessive pronoun would be used, if the boot did not belong to the speaker. In other words, if the verb and the possessive pronoun refer to the same person, the pronoun is usually left out, especially when referring to clothes or parts of the human body.
Sometimes, the Duolingo interface leaves much to be desired- like a living person to talk to... In this instance, whether or not the 'ho' indicates the person or not, a boot standing by itself could be their boot, your boot, or no one's boot-but the snake would still be there! And Woody is still correct. IN MY BOOT.
This was a great explanation, but I'm still a bit unclear as to when I cannot apply this rule. For example, in another question, I was asked to write out "he has his suit". I started to write the correct answer "Lui ha il suo vestito", but thought I'd try to apply this principle instead, and thus typed in "Lui ha vestito", thinking that "ha" combined with "lui" indicated the owner of the suit. This was incorrect. So, how do I know when I can apply this rule?
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The verb ho indicates the owner of the snake, not the boot. My snake can be in anyone`s boot
873
True. Duolingo accepted mine too ,when I wrote "Io ho un serpente nel mio stivale". August 09, 2019
Very good. Your examples explain why the boot sentence should allow "il mio" as an alternative translation. In English you would also omit the pronoun in your examples (washing hands, brushing teeth), but you would not in the sentence about the snake in the boot. Because it does not have to be your boot. At any rate, my Italian friends tell me you could either use or drop the pronoun, using it does not sound weird to them.
Agree.. i was thinking the same, and needed to scroll all the way down to your comment to finally find someone asking about the actual italian topic :-/ Did you find an answer? Doesn't make sense to me... There's no "my" in Nello. Btw it has a number 135 next to your comment.. i thought that would be the number of comments/responses attached to your comment, but I couldn't open any under your name/comment. Maybe i misunderstood
Masculine nouns starting with "s" or "z" take the article "lo" instead of "il" (eg., lo squalo, lo zoo). If they start with a vowel this "lo" becomes "l'" as in "l'abbigliamento". So all these masculine nouns get "nello" while masculine nouns which do not fall in this category get "nel". Hope this helps (and that I have understood correctly).
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Also if the noun is masculine and begins with 'z' it uses 'lo', for example 'lo zucchero'
292
I agree, I don't understand: if the word is lo stivale, why wouldn't "nello mio stivale" be correct
581
This explanation is fantastic. Unfortunately, so far "... nello stivale mio" is not excepted.
Australian woman finds eastern brown snake in ugg boot - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-37426648
Yes, the literal translation of I have a snake in my boot is Ho un serpente nel mio stivale. Of course it would be logical to say nello stivale and meaning the boot you're in (because you say ho, which is I have). And maybe this is DL point: because it is weird to say I have, when the snake is in someone else's boot, DL doesn't want us to use mio, because it is somehow unnecessary. Still, this cosy snake also could be in one of your boots you're actually not wearing. Therefore, in my opinion, the most accurate italian translation of I have a snake in my boot must be with the possessive pronoun and DL should fix it (for those who insist, c'è would be used instead, then why is the English counterpart not there is??).
748
just take a look at previous responses And it should help you understand why your response is wrong. Nel vs Nello in meaning is explained above. "nello mio stivale" is saying in English "in the my boot" (I think), from what I discerned from this lengthy thread. I could be wrong though. Goodluck with the snake in your boot!
I repost an old comment of mine on that, mabe it helps:
You are right, the literal translation of I have a snake in my boot is Ho un serpente nel mio stivale. Of course it would be logical to say nello stivale and meaning the boot you're in (because you say ho, which is I have).
And maybe this is DL point: because it is weird to say I have, when the snake is in someone else's boot, DL doesn't want us to use mio, because it is somehow unnecessary.
Still, this cosy snake also could be in one of your boots you're actually not wearing.
Therefore, in my opinion, the most accurate italian translation of I have a snake in my boot must be with the possessive pronoun and DL should at least allow both.*
*some of you reported that this particular issue (one of the most controversial sentences in the whole italian course by far!) finally went fixed in 2020...
This has been asked and answered numerous times on this page. The reason being is that "nello" is singular and you are already starting with "Io" at the beginning of the sentence. Since you can't have two "Me's" there is no need for the extra "mio". You need it for "nel" because "nel" is plural and therefore suggesting that there might be other people. We add "mio" to specify that we are still talking about the same person.
1673
if you read the explanation as already given in this forum, nel is used before mio and nello is used before stivale.
nel mio stivale/nello stivale are correct.
nel stivale and nello mio stivale are incorrect.
653
I used google translate so it may not be completely correct but "Verso l'infinito e oltre!"
Yep. I decided to stop for a while after finishing clothing and I've spent a grw days now simply revising and trying to get my head around everything to date. I got this one wrong too. I'm still practising but will probably move on tomorrow. I'm in my mid 60's and finding learning something of a challenge.
The rule is, the plural form of ALL nouns (feminine or masculine) ending with "E" ends with "I". Italian nouns and adjectives can be masculine and feminine, singular and plural. They change the ending vowel according to their gender (feminine or masculine) and number (singular or plural). An E is not exclusively feminine. We also have irregular nouns endings, you simply have to memorize them. https://grammaticaitaliana.net/il-genere-dei-nomi/
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For heavens sake people..if you do not have anything of substance to contribute or enhance learning please avoid the silly comments. I am quickly finding that visiting here is a waste of time..Toy story!! Seriously????
I repost an old comment of mine on that, mabe it helps:
You are right, the literal translation of I have a snake in my boot is Ho un serpente nel mio stivale. Of course it would be logical to say nello stivale and meaning the boot you're in (because you say ho, which is I have). And maybe this is DL point: because it is weird to say I have, when the snake is in someone else's boot, DL doesn't want us to use mio, because it is somehow unnecessary. Still, this cosy snake also could be in one of your boots you're actually not wearing. Therefore, in my opinion, the most accurate italian translation of I have a snake in my boot must be with the possessive pronoun and DL should fix it (for those who insist, c'è would be used instead, then why is the English counterpart not there is??).
1673
Ho un serpente nel mio stivale
has been rejected by the green mascot gremlin. heeeelppp!!
2439
All the grammatical stuff here is very interesting, but how likely is anyone to have a snake in their boot. Very strange
268
the possessive "my" in the English is not included in the Italian "solution". Discussed 6years ago ?? !! ??
366
After 'nello' should go the word 'stivale'. If we use the word 'mio', before it there should be 'nel'. I think so.
I-Am-Phil, I think using nel or nello does not matter. Nello is just the singular version of nel. By using nello, since it is singular, you are implying that the original "Io" or I in English is still the same person. The reason you use mio with nel is because nel is plural. Nello is singular and therefore you don't need it as you cannot have two me's. Hope This Helps In Some Way!
Please read the other comments on this page. I and others have answered this multiple times.
In essence, nello is the singular of nel, and implies there is only one person. As we are assuming that the idea that there is only one of you, one "I" in the entire universe, then mio proves erroneous as it is essentially saying there is a snake in my my boot. We already decreeded at the beginning of the sentence that we were talking about "I", since we are using a singular word, it is unnecessary and false to restate the word mio. If we used nel instead, then there would be a reason as nel is plural and if we had used a plural word we would need to state that we are still talking about me.
16
"Mio" is my. Tricky part is the "the" has to be included, unlike English. So literally in English we are saying "in the my boot." You get used to it after a while.
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Thank you. I know 'mio' means 'my'. But in this exercise the correct answer given as 'nello stivale'. What refers that whose boots in this sentence? Yes as you say nel = in + the so may be 'in mio stivale' could be better. It's not clear for me...
It will never be "in mio stivale" because, like ZBUqeauC says, it lacks "the", Italian never says "in my boot", they'd say "in the boot" (nello stivale) or "in the my boot" (nel mio stivale).
"Ho un serpente nello stivale" is a direct quote from Toy Story's Italian dub, so it's preferred here. This said, "nel mio stivale" should also totally be accepted, but I get the feeling the Italian course has been abandoned, I've reported so many wrong sentences this past year and no feedback so far. By contrast with the Japanese course I get feedback in a month or so.
16
I agree. I never get any feedback, or in the Portuguese course either. The recording function is very faulty, and sometimes when an answer is marked incorrect, it shows up later as a correct alternative.
16
Might be since "stivale" starts with "st", they want nello mio stivale. But someone else got marked wrong. I take these results with a grain of salt.
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"Io ho un serpente nello stivale" is accepted.
"Io ho un serpente nel mio stivale" is also accepted
"Io ho un serpente nello mio stivale" is not accepted.
'Nel mio' or 'nello', but not 'nello mio'.
16
That is right. You can't say "nello mio" because mio begins with a consonant. You would use "nella" or "nello" or "nell'" before words beginning with a vowel, an st, or a z.
16
That is weird. Maybe you better click on "check" instead for now. Sometimes when we have to speak a sentence, I click on the microphone, and it marks me wrong! Before I open my mouth!
If the ho indicates the boot is mine, why doesn't it indicate the shirt is mine, or the skirt etc etc? Or would it? What if there's a whole row of boots? Or is this question designed to show us things can be implied, and we're expected to get it wrong, and think about this? If so, things just got complicated.
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After working through the possession execises and how things relate to each other, being told "oh you can just take it for granted it's yours because of 'ho'" just doesn't stick out as beacon. Ho, voi etc are in all the sentences. Having to make assumptions... eer... nah!