121 Comments
Masculine nouns that start with a vowel always take gli. Know that quite a few linguistic choices were made to improve fluidity of the language, so if it sounds clunky, chances are that it is wrong :)
Il is singular (and masculine) while gli (masculine) and le (feminine) are plural :)
But sometimes even words that start with a consonant take "gli"... gli stupidi (the stupids), gli scimpanzè (the chimpanzees), gli zii (the uncles).
How would Italians distinguish between water in general and in particular? (i.e. here "The men drink water" is marked as correct also, and I've noticed that sometimes it's okay to leave the article off, but most of the time it is necessary.)
Should I say (as I would in English) something like "Non mangio la verdura" if I mean "I do not eat the vegetable (a particular vegetable, most likely)", and "Non mangio verdura" if I mean "I do not eat vegetables (in general)"? Or are they interchangeable?
In your case it would be incorrect to leave off the article since 'the vegetables' and 'vegetables' are entirely different. (N.B. the ending of 'verdura' would change in its plural form.)
Well since i am italian i was born in italy its so easy i cant explain sorry
In a different exercise I translated "the men drink water" as "gli uomini bevono l' acqua" but it was still marked as wrong because of the use of l'. Apparently the use of l there was correct though. I believe both are correct: "Gli uomini bevono l' acqua" and "Gli uomini bevono acqua" and this was just a glitch of the system. Can anyone confirm if I'm wright please?
They are both correct. If an answer gets marked wrong, be sure to use the 'report a problem' button :)
Yes they are both correct, however for this particular exercise the quiz was asking you to write down what you HEAR which contains the "l"
No, even though they have the same meaning, one has the definite article and one hasn't. You have to spot the difference because it's not every case that the article doesn't interfere on the meaning. It's rather different to say, e.g. "The men drink water" and "Men drink water". In the first case, you are specifying a group of men with "the" (Gli uomini, definite article), in the second case you are generalizing that all men drink water (Uomini, without article). Hope it helps!
The rule in English is to use parentheses when referring to a word as a word. For example, "right" not "wright." Also, Gregbradford84, if you do not specify to whom you are replying, specific responses to specific comments eventually become separated. This thread is an example, given that you are replying to a comment that is four comments ahead of yours, and I am commenting on your response.
I read a post in another discussion where it was said that we don't have this actually sound in the english language and that to say it properly you needed to mimic the action we make for a t - lifting our tongue to touch the gums/roof of our mouth. How right they were.....made all the difference for me in pronouncing the word gli.
This 'L' sound you're talking about, is also used as one 'L' in Albanian. To get the normal 'L' sound English speakers are used to simply add another 'L', and you get, 'Ll'. This single 'L' concept is the same as the 'Gl' in Italian.
Well technically the sound is made a little differently. It's like the Spanish "ll" in "pollo" as it is said in Spain. Rather than rest your tongue on the ridge behind your front teeth, as you do when you say a normal "L," the middle of your tongue bunches up on the roof of your mouth.
Probably too much info but here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_lateral_approximant
@MagnesiumO No, you have to pronounce "g", it's gli, not li... you can't say... li uomini, but gli uomini. You have to hear to understand, it's not possible explain by writing.
How is "Gli" pronounce? is the g silent? it sould like "lee" (e.i. lee uomini bevono l'acqua.)
Yes, the "g" is silent, but you shouldn't say "lee" because "lee" is said with the tip of your tongue against your frontal teeth, "gli" is a "long L" said with the back of your tongue, just like you were gonna say the "g" but gives up and ends up saying only the rest, haha!
this is probably a really dumb question, but is the g in "gli" silent? i have trouble hearing and i've tried listening a ton of times and i still can't tell i'm sorry
My native language is Spanish, and I'm use to pronounce the "Gl"phonetically speaking, buy in this exercise if I pronounced, will not let be finish the sentence and will tell me I'm wrong, however if i don't pronounce the " G " the app say i got it correct.... Can a native Italian help? Do we pronounce the "G"?
According to some comments on this thread, the answer is that the "G" is silent, so the closest pronunciation is "lee".
Pls help. Y at times the la is removed ??? In "Voi bevete acqua " Y la isnt there ??
Because when you're using "la", you're saying "the water". It's a subtle difference between "You drink water" (Voi bevete acqua) and "You drink the water" (Voi bevete l'acqua). You have to pay attention to what is being said, even though the meaning is quite the same.
MagnesiumO ! Do you know a apk or site that help us for pronunciation just by phonetic because I think audio isn't enough for pronouncing
Yes, because the article must agree in number with the noun. L' is a contraction for the singular masculine "Il", and "uomini" is a masculine plural. So you must use "Gli" that's the masculine plural for words that start with a vowel. In english "the" isn't flexible in number, that's why translating directly doesn't always work. :D
It might be I didn't listen correctly but do you pronounce the 'g' sound combined 'li' in 'gli' or just pronounce 'li'?
No. l'uomini is wrong because it doesn't agree in number. L' is a contraction for the singular Il, and uomini is the plural of uomo. So, it's right to say l'uomo, but not l'uomini. The same applies to La donna and Le donne.
I am having a hard time understnading why you would say "Gli uomini" instead of "Il uomini".
When singular words start with a vowel (uomo), we use l' but when plural words begin with a vowel, l' is replaced with gli
Does l'acqua mean "water" or "the water"?
It's confusing, the specific vs general case.
Here's a way to make the "gli" sound. Say the word "ugly", minus the "ug-". The tongue starts positioned as with the end of the "g" sound then moves forward forming the "-ly". What do you think? Hit, miss, close or spang on?
Not in this exercise but if you were having a conversation with someone and another person was brought up you could substitute their name in for Loro, like in English if someone says Bob is tall you could reply Yes he is
i love dulingo it helps me learn italian which i really want to learn more italitan keep up the good work dulingo and one more thing love your apps!!!!!!!!!
Gli uomini is 3rd person plural (they), so you conjugate the verb (bere) like loro.
Io bevo, noi beviamo
Tu bevi, voi bevete
Lui/lei beve, loro bevono
It depends on who is doing the action.
We = beviamo You (all) = bevete They = bevono
I recommend you to do some research on italian verb conjugation. It's rather different from the conjugation in english (which is done with the auxiliar verbs). Duolingo has some of these conjugations on your "words" page, but it's not as organized as a specific website. Google has been my best friend on this task!
Yes, when you have the letters "gli" together (even in a word like aglio and famiglia) you actually only emphasize the "l" sound with the back of your tongue. It's not an usual sound in english, so english natives may have some trouble to say it. It's like you were to pronounce the "g" but you give up in the middle of the process and only says the "l" part. I'm a portuguese native speaker, so this sound is pretty familiar to me. Hope this description helps!
"Water" has like a defined article (femenine or masculine) or it doesn't matter which one you go with? Because in spanish it doesn't really matter. It could be "la agua" or "el agua". Does it work the same way?
In italian "water" is feminine, and when using the definite article you must use the contraction with apostrophe, just like this exercise shows. Gli uomini bevono L'ACQUA.
In english is Present Simple and if it is on noun-end of third person regurally then it should have "-s", for example "drinks"
What?
I drink, we drink
you drink, y'all drink
he/she/it drinks, they drink
That only happens with he/she/it.
Gli is audible at normal speed but almost inaudible at slow speed. Please normalise the volume of all words.
Why is the la in l'aqua always mandatory whereas the word birra can both be used wth la and without?
@Raphael939509 It's not mandatory, you can say both, but it depends on the context... "Io non bevo mai acqua, solo tè" (I never drink water, only tea), "io non bevo mai l'acqua del rubinetto" (I never drink the water from the tap). Acqua, not aqua.
When you are learning the Italian language. When you are learning a language, you have to learn the basic words and make sentences with them.
God dam autocratic I did the men drinks some water but I ment the men drinks the water
If you give me lingots I will be so happy!!!!!!!!!!! please give me lingots!!!!!
Can someone please tell me the difference between gli, il and le. Im a begginer :) Thanks.
I'm putting the same exact words and it says I'm wrong. Is water spelled acqua or acgua-w a q or g?
@Totoro_2021 "Il ragazzo" (the boy), "il bambino" (the kid, the child), il quadro" (the painting), "il giocattolo" (the toy), "il tavolo" (the table), and so on, plural is "i", not "gli". Same with "l'"... "l'uomo" (the man) is "gli uomini", "l'elefante" (the elephant) is "gli elefanti" (the elephants), "l'esempio" (the example) is "gli esempi" (the examples). Hope it's enough clear.
Some of the spoken words are discernible but my hearing defect makes most impossible.
You have to stop with this man men ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤, English is not native language
