"Io voglio una batteria per la mia automobile."
Translation:I want a battery for my car.
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Interesting the hover hints for batteria includes drums.
Often drums / fifes / trumpets were used to lead men to war; indeed they were even used to actually signal the regiments. This carries over today as a battery drum line.
I happen to know this because I have marched in various drum and bugle corps; I played baritone and soprano bugles :-)
You are right. Battery was probably named so because an electrical discharge may "hit" you. See https://www.duolingo.com/comment/301708
Actually the word battery usually implies a collection of objects ordered in a specific way that makes that object useful. An electric battery is actually series of electrical cells stacked on top of each other in series. Battery chicken farms use a series of cages all stacked together. A missile battery uses a set (or battery) of missiles. In italian and other languages a set of drums or other percussion instruments are called a batteria for the same reason.
Nerdy but interesting!
never, ever heard of "automobile", except in very formal documents (like a license) - always "macchina"
"Automobile" is always feminine, I've never heard anyone referring to "l'automobile" as masculine. E.G. "la mia automobile è una Toyota, mentre quella di mia sorella è una FIAT". Even the brands are referred to as feminine, because they imply "l'automobile" before: "la Ferrari, la Ford, la Volkswagen, la Chrysler, la Volvo ecc."
It can be any kind of battery. (Batteries (AA, AAA, C, D, 9V etc) for electric devices, like radios, remote control etc., are often called "pila").
"Batteria" could also mean: the drum set; a set of pots (Batteria di pentole); a set of artillery (Batteria d'artiglieria); a preliminary tournament in sports like swimming (Batteria di nuoto) and in general an array of similar things or persons/animals (a.e. Una batteria di cani).
I translated this as "I want a new battery for my car" and was marked as incorrect, the "correct" translation offered was "I want a battery for my automobile". In previous exercises automobile (Italian) has been translated as both motor and engine, now it is offered as automobile (English), which are we students to use and how are we differentiate between these three alternatives?
Furthermore, should one wish, or need to purchase a battery for ones car/automobile/vehicle surely one would require/expect that battery to be a new battery, both in the sense of not previously having been fitted to a car/automobile/vehicle, and new to ones own car/automobile/vehicle as well. Which supposition means that my translation was correct and DuoLingo was wrong to mark my translation as incorrect.
"La mia automobile" is correct for "my car" and for the specific context of the lesson sentence. However, an Italian will refer to their car as "la mia macchina" (my machine)...a strong reflection of Italians love for their cars (a country with one of the highest per capita car ownership) and the nation's formidable (luxury) car industry (FIAT, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo, Maserati...). Gli italiani amano le auto veloci e il cibo lento (Italians love fast cars and slow food).