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- Topic: Italian >
- "C'è parecchia gente stasera."
72 Comments
Why is this c'e rather than c'sono? doesn't c'e specify "there is" and c'sono "there are"
It's "ci sono" (elision only before vowels); gente is grammatically singular, so you have to use "c'è", but changing the subject it would be e.g. "ci sono molte persone".
But why is "a lot of" marked incorrect? English is not my native language, so I can't see much difference to "lots of"
"A lot of" is good. It's in fact better than "many" as duo suggests because "people" is (mostly) uncountable.
Ah right -- "la gente". It's surprising that you can use "gente" here, but this is how we learn... I wonder if "popolo" can be used here as well.
I think "popolo" is more like people as in "power to the people". More like a unified group than several individuals.
Since the sentence uses C'è pareccchia, it means - There's a lot of people here tonight.
But the right answer shown to me was "There are several people tonight" — so there is no problem with "several" here.
Thanks, I sure would do it, but there is no way to do it from the mobile version...
I'm not sure which OS you are using, but on Android you just tap on the flag icon (right above the bubble that sends you to the comments). Curious how things are on iOS or WP...
Maybe the problem isn't 'several.' The word 'stasera' means 'evening,' not 'night.'
parecchio seems to be able to mean "quite a lot" or "a lot", "quite a few" or "many" so I am getting really muddled aboout how to use it.
Parecchio is "a lot", "a bunch", not a few. In such a case, I think it should reported. If you are not sure, please ask me.
In BE, "quite a few" is used idiomatically to mean "quite a lot" NOT "only a few" - confusing I know!!
Parecchio can be translated in several ways, if Duolingo doesn't accept some, please report it! :)
Please report as correct all the sentences with the same meaning. Somebody will review your suggestion and add your sentence! :)
are you sure they review???? This is not my impression with the Italian course.
They do with the German course. Just check in your email for duolingo (maybe it goes to the spam) and you will notice if they accept some of your suggestions. Please take into account that the most of the job is made by volunteers, for what I understood.
That is why I said "the Italian course", I have received many notifications from the German,and French courses, but none from the Italian. Yes I know the work is made by volunteers, But I am very critic with the quality of that Italian course. We also voluntarily spend our time (which is also valuable), and some kind of respect should also be given to it. I have read lots of frustrating comments in this course due to the arbitrary solutions, mess of themes and verb tenses, and so on...
I regularly see people complain about something being marked wrong and then updates from other people that it works now. Perhaps they aren't notifying?
Sorry ferrimed. If I get the chance to cooperate with some course with duolingo I will sure let them know this issue. (I am sure you have also used the support feature to tell that this course is not followed.)
Let's see if after the summer holiday it gets better. :)
If you need any help about Italian, please let me know.
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Actually the answer is grammatically incorrect. It should be "There is quite a lot of people..." Since "quite a lot of people" is a singular direct object, not a plural. Translating it "There are quite a lot of people" is simply wrong,
You're correct, Fbeckwith, but in common English usage, "There are quite a lot of..." is at least as frequently used as the grammatically correct "There is quite a lot of..." particularly when referring to countable items. "There is a lot of soup," but "There are a lot of bowls of soup."
You're correctly seeing "lot" as the subject and "of soup" as a prepositional phrase modifying "lot," whereas many English speakers tend to hear "A-lot-of" as a unified adjectival modifier of the plural "people," which they are treating as the subject.
We say 'there are a lot of people', because 'people' is a collective noun, so 'there' refers to the entire phrase 'a lot of people.' We wouldn't say 'there IS a lot of people' – THAT's very bad English.
Tanto = 'so much' (tanti = 'so many'); molto = 'a lot of' or 'many' , parecchio = 'a lot of.'
There are other ways to interpret the words, depending on whether they're used as adj or adv.
Thanks, that helps! Looks like I can equate 'tanto' to 'tant de' in French; molto to 'moultes', aka 'beaucoup de'; and 'parecchio' to 'pas mal de'. Now I just have to keep them straight! :)
"There's a great deal of people this evening."
Can someone tell me why this was marked incorrect?
you are correct, it does. IMO, it's best not to translate word-for-word, but how the thought is generally expressed in English.
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I had no idea there was a difference between "quiet" and "quite" I never caught that until just now :O
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hmm. last example we are told to use tanti for too many shoes and that parecchia can't be used for saying too many.
'Quite a few' is given as a translation for 'parecchia' in an earlier lesson, but not accepted here. I think it's perfectly acceptable.
'The people' is singular in both italian and english so how it is used in english depends on context
