157 Comments
How does that make you a man? Last I checked, non-men can do that, and men don't have to.
With all the strength of a raging fire, and being mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
"I wanna be a man, mancub And stroll right into town And be just like the other men I'm tired of monkeyin' around! Oh, oobee doo I wanna be like you I wanna walk like you Talk like you, too You'll see it's true An ape like me Can learn to be human too"
Regardless of what it sounds like it said, you should know by now that uomo is masculine
I knew that it should have been "un," but I heard "una" and followed what they said. .They do say "type what you hear," after all...
From a phonetic point of view, I can say that it's a phenomenon you should expect after a nasal sound like "n" (or "m"). The "u" that comes after simply "opens" a little —in phonetic terms, which means that the mouth makes a more open movement than it would in other circunstances—. She is not really saying "una", she's simply pronouncing a longer and more open "u" because the preceding "n" sort of forces the mouth that way. It's the same thing in spanish. Try it yourself and you'll see what I mean. :-)
I wonder...does butterfly have the same double-meaning in Italian as it does in English?
I thought it was "Come divento un uovo?' I laughed so hard when I found out the right answer
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To aldocristino: Because 'divento' is the first person singular form of 'diventare'. I think that 'How to become a man' would read 'Come diventare un uomo' in Italian. I await the responses of more knowledgeable students than I am. In any case, we English speakers are not accustomed to distinguishing the infinitive form of verbs because English verbs are only indicated as infinitive by use of the preposition 'to'. But again, sometimes we don't even use 'to'.
I wonder...is 'to' a preposition when used in an infinitive? I was under the impression that it was not, since a preposition needs a noun as its object, but now I'm not sure.
News flash: You don't have to be a woman to wear pretty dresses. http://tinyurl.com/odehz24
Just try referring to a kilt as a "dress" or a "skirt" in Scotland...
XD :))
I think you are born a boy, and to become a man, a boy must grow, not just in body, but also in character. :)
Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.... (Conan the Barbarian reference guys... I'm disappointed.)
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Why can't this mean " how do I get a man???" The meaning was to become, to get , to grow; but I don't want to grow a man…..
because in english "to get" by itself is "to grab/acquire something", and the dictionary wanted to convey the "to get big/fat/slim/well/ill" phrasal verb
Perhaps it could be "to grow (into) a man" or "to get manly", but I guess that's still not exactly the same thing.
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Just how lonely do you have to be if you have to get him? Can't you be a little patient while you're growing him?
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It's intriguing, but at least it made me realise that I'm a lesbian in the wrong body :)
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Am listening too often!! Had it right - nearly - and then changed it to completely wrong, as I just couldn't understand the 'voice'.
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The bot voice seems okay for this one. Probably you just need to practice and tune your Italian ear.
Please read 'If' by Rudyard Kipling.
That should tell you all you need to know, my, er, son....
Please read 'If' by Rudyard Kipling.
That should tell you all you need to know, my, er, son....
"how do i get a man" why is this wrong? the options are become / get / grow1|
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I see where you are coming from, but it's really a problem of your not being familiar enough with English usage. 'Get' can mean 'become,' (e.g. He got wiser as he got older) but not in this context. They shouldn't have it in the dictionary hints for this sentence, because it can confuse non-English speakers like yourself. I'm sure that 'become' is the only possibility here.
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Just by the by, compound words in English ending in 'full', 'beautiful, useful, graceful, etc.' always, as far as I'm aware, drop the last 'l'. I apologise for the vagaries of English spelling, further complicated by the different spellings adopted by our cousins across the pond.
That's a very good explanation.
I think I can also add a related piece of information: from observation, I think that the rule for this in English is that "get" can only mean "become" when it's connected to an adjective.
The same goes for "grow": "He's growing old.", "I'm growing tired of apples.".
However, there is also the phrase, "grow into", which can only be used with a noun, but this phrase is not as close to "become" because it implies that you are becoming something by maturing: "He's growing into a man.", "The seed is growing into a strong, healthy, tree.".
You have to be swift as a coursing river, have force of a great typhoon, strength of a raging river, and be mysterious as the dark side of the moon.
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DL rejected my interpretation : 'how am I becoming a man' . Any grammatical advice welcome...
English advice: in informal speech, 'How do I...?' can be used to mean "How would I...?" or "How can I...?".
"How am I...?" would be more like "Why do you say that I'm becoming a man?" or "What do you notice that makes you say that I'm becoming a man?".
However, since Italian uses the present tense where English usually uses the present progressive tense, I don't know why "How am I...?" would be incorrect.
If it is incorrect, then I don't know how an Italian would express "How am I...?". Maybe they would use the present progressive tense (in Italian), or maybe they would just say "Why do you say...?".
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Thanks for your extensive reply, mskycc3. Perhaps also, as elsewhere, it might depend on the context. I know that translation is not an exact art/science (thank goodness) so there's always room for different nuances of meaning - & for me, discovering these is part of the beauty of languages! Thanks again...
Should'nt the comments be about the text, grammar, vocab?
Silly commentary distracts from gettin' after learning italiano.
Il profesore
steveschwaby--if you learned a new phrase or idiomatic expression then i suggest the comment isn't silly. Aside from that observation, I and other users have often noted that humorous comments by users is one of the attractions of the site which keeps users coming back and gettin' after learning italiano.
Yes, it is good to have fun with learning, but some go too far with their comments which are useless and make you feel sick.
My smartphone wants to become a man! I'm afraid the science has gone too far =8-(
Well son, you will see hair in unexpected places, some parts will be harder than before, you know... you know? Ok, good!
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And then a man gets to a certain age when hair grows everywhere except where it should.
HMMMM I think I have an idea of how someone might become a man . It involves a banana and some jelly BUahahahhahahaa
