"Tu sei una cittadina comune come noi."

Translation: You are a common citizen like us.

[mlight]

I feel this is better translated as "you are a citizen just like us"

[balazs_g]

My answer "an average citizen" was accepted, however indicated with a typo. "a average ..." was suggested instead...Could someone provide a native English explanetion for why the article is "a" and not "an" in this case?

[Koolkaren]

It isn't. Your answer "...an average citizen" is the correct one. Duolingo's "...a average citizen" is completely wrong. It's probably just a typo. Please report it if you get the chance. :)

[dompace]

Could "commoner" also be accepted in place of "una cittadina comune"?

[f.formica]

Commoner is more closely translated to "popolano", or in this case "popolana": member of the common people, of low standing in society. Common citizen here would be intended as a citizen like any other, with no special privileges; although "cittadina" is also a small town, but of course that meaning would be improbable here.

[LatecomerLaurie]

In the U.S. we would more likely say "an ordinary citizen," if this is what is meant.

[dompace]

Oh, okay. Thank you very much!

[eltapatio]

sabes mucho formica!!

[f.formica]

:-P

[peter2108]

Ripetutamente, la formica ci aiuta. Grazie!

[Koolkaren]

I think f.formica is right.

[ChumiPepper]

I translated the sentence as, "you are an ordinary small town like us." Coming from a small, quaint town, it made more sense in English to me than "you are a common/ordinary citizen like us." oh well.....

[LatecomerLaurie]

...but in this sentence the subject is "tu" which is the familiar singular for "you," so probably addressed to one person.

[elchapulin]

Hey formica: how are you, hablas español too?

[f.formica]

No, pero lo entiendo :)