"Ho un gatto e un cane."

Translation: I have a cat and a dog.

[HaydnMorri]

If the next word starting with a vowel turns 'e' into 'ed' why does this not apply here?

[alkajugl]

A year and nobody has answered this question. Why is it "ed una regazza" but "e un cane"? Does the gender affect the rule here? How could it?

[JoyReynold]

Precisely the question I was going to ask

[pizza7]

It sounds like she says 'una' in front of 'gatto' to me

[marziotta]

It doesn't exactly sound like "una"... anyway the Italian audio is pretty corrupted overall, I wonder if duolingo wants to re-register everything...

[jayofmaya]

Rule of thumb: Ignore rules of thumb.

[crc101]

Are e and è pronounced differently enough to be distinguishable in everyday speech? The accent makes it obvious in writing but the recordings sound very similar

[LorenzoLM]

They are similar, but i hear "it is" (é) as slightly shorter and with more stress

[Rae.F]

Did you mean è ?

[ErikFish2882]

Same question.

[ElakVarg]

As far as I know, no.

[m.tastic]

To native speakers, does "Ho un gatto ed un cane." sound natural?

[luca597564]

Yes...in my house..io ho una gatta ,un cane e 5 pesci Rossi..:)

[Erika-Sanchez]

whats the difference between e and ed? anyone?

[Rae.F]

They're the same. But sometimes "e" becomes "ed" depending on the sound of the next word. It's kind of like "a" vs "an" in English, but that's not a perfect analogy. http://italian.about.com/od/grammar/a/aa091708a.htm

[Hugh16]

Can someone in Duolingo please answer the e vs ed question?

[Rae.F]

It's a little bit like "a" vs "an".

[Edgard933675]

Am i the only one here that got this wrong because switched dog and cat? Hahaha

[paulgg]

and did not allow Ho una gatta e un cane

[dottcha]

why does the audio shut down for an hour everyday?

[bluerba]

Why is gatto sometimes spelled gatta? I have never seen masculine/feminine spellings with the names of other animals.

[Rae.F]

Common pets and farm animals get masculine/feminine according to their biological sex. All other animals get one grammatical gender for the entire species.

[bluerba]

Thank you. "Cane" can go either way I suppose ?

[Rae.F]

No, it's just irregular:

il cane; i cani
la cagna; le cagne

[bluerba]

I never knew that...thank you again.

[bluerba]

Ciao Rae.F, I don't think it's worth reporting, but I just now typed cagna and cagne in Duo's dictionary, it doesn't recognize either.