43 Comments
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Could be a good question to ask before inviting someone to a party.
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I just realised how ridiculous I must look when I do Duolingo.....While I answered this question, I had my face set to match the question as if asked like, "How many pieces of cake DO you EAT?"
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The answer "How many pieces of cake do you eat?" doesn't sound sound right to me as a native English speaker. Im not sure whether the grammar is correct.
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Agree! It doesn't seem very natural as a 'stand alone' question...but if I said, "I'm not invited to the birthday because I eat too much cake," and you replied, "How many pieces of cake do you eat?" ...probably preceded by 'Really!!' ....you can see how it works in that context. Italian structure is often quite different to English and therefore you'll find quite a few odd translations...where the grammar is sort of ok, but it just doesn't seem 'natural' in English. Just go with it....and good luck with your language learning.
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I'm also a native speaker and the sentence sounds fine to me. The grammar is perfectly correct. Now, present tense can also be translated as you probably know as a progressive: "How many pieces of cake are you eating?" but it all depends on context and I'm sure there are a number of scenarios that could warrant questions phrased either way.
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I translated as " how many pieces of cake are you eating?" and was told it was wrong ??!!
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Of course it's correct. It's just that it's a question that's unlikely to be asked, because as you said it sounds odd. Clearly it's syntactically correct. You'd be more like to say "How many pieces of cake would you like?" but that goes beyond the simple grammatical tense being used here, since this particular unit is not about the conditional. Just go with it.
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Would you not say "quante pezze di torta mangi"? I was just wondering because "torta" is a feminine noun so it kind of confused me. But it reminds me of "quanto costa?" which uses "quanto" even though "costa" is feminine.
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No, the plural of the word piece / pezzo (masc) is pezzi, so how many pieces is 'quanti pezzi'. It has nothing to do with 'torta'. Furthermore, in the question 'quanto costa', the word 'costa' is not a noun it's the verb "costare" (3rd. sing), so that phrase is asking 'how much does it cost'.
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Ah, sorry about that! I see what you're saying. It makes sense. I also had NO idea about the verb "costare" because I learned it solely as a phrase in my Italian class and I never really thought about it much, but I get it because "costa" on its own would be "(it) costs", right? I was curious, I had a feeling I had some misconceptions lol. Thank you, kind fellow! A lingot for you :D!
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I think it's because there's no 'the' in the italian, but also because in english one would normally just ask 'how many pieces of cake...' rather than 'how many pieces of THE cake...' - not that that's uncommon or incorrect (for english).
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minimi...It could be either depending on context. "are you eating" would imply at the moment or in the near future. "do you eat" could refer to a food eating contests or simply as a general comment.
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... having read this just after "la forma è molto importante".... i think they should just have a section for "making passing comments"
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is this how one would ask "how many pieces of cake do you want?" in italian?
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Would how many pieces of cake you eat also be acceptable translation is that too anglo slang
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Harald: yes, too slangy. Ditch it! :-) I doubt even those used to speaking exclusively in slang would say that. It'd make even inveterate rappers from the hood cringe. :-/
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Makes no sense at all in english in present tense. So does it mean how many do you intend to eat or how many have you already eaten or how many are you eating now. Ok I can think of a situation but it sounds like future tense - Q. how many pieces of cake do you eat when you are very hungry?
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Decisions... but I want it all, so I get it all. I want to eat the whole cake...
