"I miei genitori sono degli avvocati."
Translation:My parents are lawyers.
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It's because in Italy , lawyers are considered a social class, or part of a social class of a certain type of people who are professionals. By saying "of the lawyers" you are simply recognizing this fact. My parents are in that group known as lawyers
Not so much a "social class of professionals" but any group of people in the same line of work. Lawyers, doctors, butchers, postmen, mechanics, etc.
Italian here. This has nothing to do with being part of a social class, you're dead wrong!
Here "degli" is not a (articulated) preposition, but a partitive article. You can use partitive articles with any noun, not just with professions. E.g.: passami del latte/del burro/del sale; i nonni ci hanno regalato dei cellulari nuovi a Natale.
Quoting user marziotta, who provided a good explanation further down in this comment section:
"I miei genitori sono gli avvocati" would mean that they are specific lawyers (maybe the only in the room, in the town, or the ones somebody spoke about two minutes before).
You can translate "My parents are lawyers." both as "I miei genitori sono avvocati" and "I miei genitore sono degli avvocati"
(you can consider "degli" as "some", the plural of "un")
Is it sort of like how an English person might say 'I'm in law' or 'I work in retail'? If you're telling someone what area you work in rather than your exact specific job?
Read CivisRomanus explanation about the difference between using/omitting un: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/23014358/My-father-is-a-lawyer
In the sentence where you choose the Italian words it was accepted without degli. I considered it first left it out and it indicated that its right. But than when it got read out they used it. I am confused do we can use it or do we have to use it?
Or it's the partitive article, my parents being a (tiny) subset of the whole possible set of lawyers.
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Why is the sentence" we are not mailmen" then not translated as "non siamo delle postini"? Or should that be accepted as well (although it wasn't).
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I don't think mailmen are a social class in itself. They are, like is said in England, part of the Working Class.
I wrote "my parents are some lawyers", it was wrong. So my question is - why "degli" at all? Can we say "I miei genitori sono avvocati" without "degli"? And if it's the same meaning as with "degli", what's the difference?
A guy said it over there, its like belonging to the lawyers/attorneys class, so youre "of the lawyers"
Still it would be nice to know if the sentence without the "degli" would also be alright, and the meaning changes by dropping the "degli".
I wrote "My parents are some of the lawyers" and it was counted wrong. I can understand there's a difference, but now I'm wondering how that would be said in Italian if at all differently.
For future generations: I think you can say that like this: I miei genitori sono alcuni degli avvocati. alcuni/e = some
Check out this site. Now, learn it all 'cause you'll be tested on it.:-)) I just watched an American crime program where the arrested man kept repeating: "A lawyer, I want a lawyer......." again and again.
It is, an advocate can either be a specific profession in the context of a legal system (typically referring to what one would consider either a defense attorney or prosecutor) or can be someone who advocates (i.e. defends or promotes) a certain cause.
In Italian, this form is used to emphasize the fact that someone belongs to a group. This sentence could also mean "... belong to the group of the lawyers", anyway the correct translation is "... are lawyers".
"I miei genitori sono gli avvocati" would mean that they are specific lawyers (maybe the only in the room, in the town, or the ones somebody spoke about two minutes before).
You can translate "My parents are lawyers." both as "I miei genitori sono avvocati" and "I miei genitore sono degli avvocati"
(you can consider "degli" as "some", the plural of "un")
So, if I wanted to say "my mother is a lawyer" I couldn't say "mia madre é della avvocata"? It only works with plurals?
Oh, and what about "my aunt and my mother are lawyers"? I would have to say "Mia zia e mia madre sono avvocate" or can I say "mia madre e mia zia sono delle avvocate" too?
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I wrote 'my parents are solicitors', because we don't use the term lawyer much in the UK - it should be accepted
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"My parents are solicitors" should be accepted (I reported it) as this is the common way to say this in British English.
Ok now they changed the translation to "my parents are lawyers." I guess I am just going to have to concede that I really don't know the nuances of Italian enough. I guess I want to be right all the time but the language has many twists and turns that are frustrating for the student. It Is part of the process to be wrong !
i have another wonder: earlier in this lesson there was one saying 'lui fa il conduttore' [e.g.] with the explanation that in Italian they use "fare" for describing the job done; 'avvocato' is also a job - how come here is a different rule? [ok, I understand the social stance someone outlined in the comments before; I'd like to understand from the grammatical pov]
cosi, e giusto. scritto cosi e duolingo ha detto che ho sbagliato. :( comunque, grazie!
What other professions would you use "degli" for, in this same sense? Doctors perhaps?
Any profession. You can use "degli operai" (workers), "dei contadini" (farmers), "dei dottori" (doctors). It could also be used in other cases, for example "degli stupidi" (stupids), "delle persone gentili" (kind people). As I said before, it's only an emphatic form, it could also be omitted.
If you have to use "degli" for avvocati, then why the Tip from DL doesn't use the form "da" in the example? They just say "Mio marito è un avvocato"
"Gli" is not an article that would become a conjunction. Only il or la.
Not correct. "gli" is an article, but it's plural. Only singular articles use the apostrophe. You could find "gl'avvocati" in ancient Italian writings, or in poetry, but in current Italian it is not correct.
i think kind of like "my parents of of the lawyers" - a bit like," they are of the ruling class" in english. Just my take on it so i can remember this.
Why is it "i miei genitori" and not "miei genitori"? I though there are no articles for close relatives.
How would you say “my parents are the lawyers” as in they are the specific lawyers? I handed this to Google Translate and it said “sono avvocati” or “sono degli avvocati” exactly as I would expect
Why is the term "degli" used in this sentence? Why not just "sono avvocati"?
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From the previous posts I think it is a way of indicating their social status as in they are “of the lawyer profession “ as opposed to sono avvocati which simply describes their qualifications.
Why not:"i miei genitori sono avvocati? Why do you need the "degli"
If you can say 'mio cugino', why can't you say 'miei genitori' without the article?
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I've read from tips that dropping the article only happens for singular close family members. We keep it in this example because we speak of both parents.
Can we say the sentence without degli? Is there a difference in the meaning?
Yes, "degli" is obligatory. "Gli" is used for jobs which italian admire the most such as lawyers, judges etc.
Why is it OK to use the definite article 'i miei' here? (A response to another question said it was not appropriate with family members).
Because it is rule of a plural. Mia sorella = Le mie sorelle. Mio nonno = i miei nonni and so on.
Is there a difference in use for: "Lei fa l'avvocato" and "loro sono degli avvocati", as in the meaning of one 'does' advocatory and the other 'is or are' advocate? Is it linked with the comment from yttap09 ?
if it's mio zio (no article) why is it I miei genetori 9with article)? Is it because it starts the sentence?
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Because the dropping the article rule for family only applies to the singular pronoun. It's also i miei figli etc.
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why is the word degli necessary ? please help. without it, the sentence would still mean the thing.
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Italian nouns (almost) always need an article even where English would never use them. (It's us that are being lazy).
My (Italian) husband's explanation: degli in questo caso significa che che fanno parte di un gruppo. I miei genitori sono del gruppo degli avvocati. il verbo essere viene eliso e rimane quello che hai scritto. Si usa, ma non di frequente. Meglio i miei genitori sono avvocati.
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I'm English and we would be more likely to use the word solicitor. It was incorrect, so I flagged it.
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The distinction between The Lawyers and Lawyers is not clear in this example so both should be acceptable or tell me how it differs in Italian.
I am sad, it didn't accept 'solicitors'. Duolingo need to be more inclusive overall in acceptance of different words for professions.
