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- Topic: Italian >
- "Gli uccelli mangiano frutta."
56 Comments
243
if they eat fruit, that's singular, but it means more than one fruit. shouldn't 'frutti' be used then instead of 'frutta'?
"La frutta" means fruit as uncountable, while "il frutto" as countable: i.e. "L'uccello mangia (la) frutta" ("the bird eats fruit", or the bird eats fruits as part of its diet) and "L'uccello mangia il frutto" ("the bird eats the fruit", or the bird eats that one fruit I'm talking about).
Formica - I'm wondering if a similar construction applies to "the vegetable" in a singular sense?
No, there is no single word to refer to a generic vegetable, except "vegetale" which also refers to trees and fruit; you can use "ortaggio" for most of them though (the group excludes leaves like rocket or lettuce).
This is the first item in a long list where audio DOESN'T fade out after the first word.
It is write that "gli" only comes before plural masculine nouns, but that noum doesn't necessarily start with a vowel. "Gli" is the plural form of "l'" and of "lo", so it also comes before plural forms of nouns that would take the "lo" in the singular, like "gli squali", "gli zuccheri", "gli gnomi".
How do you pronounce it? At first, it sounded like glee - with a hard g and in sometimes it sounds like li and in this example I couldnt really hear it at all!?
It is pronounces like llee with a long L sound, like the the Ls in "tortilla"
does the noun have to begin with a vowel and be masculine? or can i work with feminine nouns that begin with a vowel
Yes, 'gli' is used only when all three conditions listed above are met. The feminine is always 'le'.
gli + first letter is a vocale gli uomi ----- i + first letter is a consonate i gatti -------- I'm sorry but when i press "enter" I do want a "linebreak/word wraping". Sorry for my english...
- 243
yes, all the above + Keep in mind "gli" is only for masculine!! The vowel-starting feminine word will be pluralized with "le", such as "le ore" but I haven't see many examples of this!
As liligrinch mentioned above, "eat THE fruit" would translate "mangiano LA frutta".
can someone explain why the double "c" here is a is a "ch" sound and not a hard "k" sound? I found mostly single c's are "ch" and double c's are "k." Is this just an exception to the rule, or is there something else at play here?
"c" sounds like "ch" like in church before i and e,and like "k" in kitchen before a,o and u
I wrote "The birds eat the fruit" why isn't adding the second 'the' correct??
why do the say fruit and you are expected to put the? and other times you add the and it is wrong
I have an english exam tomorrow and im srudying italian in a country where no one knows what italy is
Is there a word for one female bird and for one male bird ? Is there a word for plural female birds and one for plural male birds ?
Contrary to previous exercise the definite article is not used with the general object noun. No consistency
The birds eat fruit sounds so wrong. Like someone isn't able to talk correctly.
I put "birds eat fruit" because as it's not "la frutta", it's fruit in general and the "gli" would be unnecessary in English. Though in English, "the birds eat fruit" would refer to an identifiable group of birds (the birds in my garden for example.). Whereas "birds eat fruit" would be birds in general, or all birds, or some birds always, so I should have been wrong. (That was a confusing sentence.). Italian is an old and evolving language so everything will have a purpose. So, my question is simple. If my answer actually was correct, what does the gli do?
It shouldn't take off hearts if I accidentally write, "The birds eats fruits".
A wrong conjugation is a special typo, and cannot be considered as a normal typo, because in the most of the cases it's not intentional. It's better to lose one heart once that you make a typo, than not learning how to conjugate a verb.
My two cents.
uccelli is BIRD, not BIRDS!!!!! any1 else have a problem with this? this is a PLURALS LESSON, people!
NO. Uccelli means birds. Uccello means bird. I suggest you take the English version of duolingo. Looks like you need some help with grammar and punctuation. -_-
You are taking Italian for English speakers, but you can also take English for Italian speakers, Japanese for German speakers etc. Lots of different languages to learn with lots of different languages to translate to. Just go to your add a language sidebar, scroll down and TADA!
