40 Comments
pubic transportation - can duolingo not give me some slack for a funny typo?
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If you'd written "punlic" or any other typo that is not a word in Duo's dictionary, you'd have been ok. Sadly your mind was on other things. :-)
"Mezzi": duolingo lacks a translation. "Mezzo di trasporto" means medium of transportation, and "mezzo pubblico" (public medium) means a public vehicle such as a bus or train.
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OK, good to know. But, is "mezzi pubblici" used in Italian everyday speach as public transportation?
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Yes.
Strictly speaking, "public transport(ation:US)" is trasporti pubblici, while mezzi (= "means") refers to the vehicles. But even in English we sometimes confuse the two, as in "the buses are disrupted today". European city transport is typically multi-modal (buses, trams, metro, etc.) so it is natural to refer to them together with words like mezzi.
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"Mezzo" is the equivalent of the word "means" in English. A "mean" can be a middle, or average (as in the difference between statistical "means" and "extremes"), or it can be a way or mode of doing something (as in a "ways and means committee"). The Proto Indo-European root of both words, "*me-," means "between" - which makes sense in all cases.
A similar English word would be "medium," which can also signify both "middle" and "means," and comes from the same root.
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Wow, we have that root "me-" in Russin too, never noticed the connection. Thank you!
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Similar to Spanish where you can use "medio" (half) with different meanings..
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Soglio. Perhaps native American speaker in this case. Native English says public transport for bus.train tram as you say.
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I'm not sure what you're saying, but British English seems to favor "public transport," whereas US English uses "public transit" or "public transportation." Duolingo leans toward US English.
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Judging from many, many old comments elsewhere, Duolingo started as a US English site, but has used feedback to include worldwide variants. Still a work in progress, but commendable. Here, both the US and English forms are accepted now.
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A lot of people in Italy learn the British words (there are some things that they say differently in England than they do in the U.S.) So I would sort of understand if it was using UK English.
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So i mezzi pubblici and i trasporti pubblici are synonyms then or is there any obscure difference to be aware of ..? :-)
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although awkward in English, why isn't it public transportations? How do you signify the plurality of this?
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In English, "transportation" is a mass noun: you would not say "transportations."
One of the translations given by Duolingo for vogliamo in this instance is 'we take' . So why is it not correct to use it here.
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Never, ever trust Duolingo's hints. They are often not translations, and often misleading. Think "clues".
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Mezzi pubblici is very confusing to me so I just typed in "Vogliamo trasporto pubblico"and DL accepted it. My question though is would "trasporto pubblico" be acceptable/understood in Italy?
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Excellent question. Answer 'Yes!' In fact it would be less likely to cause confusion. Il trasporto pubblico = public transport as a generic concept. I trasporti pubblici refers to the whole public transport system of a geographical area (anything from a town to the whole country). It's what you'd ask about at an information desk.
Mezzo pubblico is short for mezzo di transporto pubblico (means of public transport) and in the singular it can refer to a public service vehicle. Duo's sentence actually implies "we want buses, trams, etc." and is as much a complaint from citizens as a sensible query from tourists. Better to ask dov'è l'autobus per ...?
The plural is used for generic transport (-ation in the US). Hence i mezzi di trasporto su ferro = rail transport.
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The relevant definition of mezzo here is "means [of transport]", not "half" or middle". Automezzo in an Italian native dictionary: veicolo a motore a quattro o più ruote, i.e. any motor vehicle with four or more wheels.
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what is the difference between using mezzi pubblici versus trasporti pubblici?
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You really should change this to public transport Public transportation is quite different and does not refer to bus or train.
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In the US, "public transit" and "public transportation" are in common usage. (If you google the terms, you can see that both are also used officially. "Public transportation" is the more common term.) "Public transport" is apparently a British usage, and is not generally used in parts of the US where I have lived. [US Native English speaker]
