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On Duolingo you will find that Lei, Suo, (Suoi) are capitalized to indicate formal you. Lowercase is simply he/she/it. Such capitalization is far more frequent in official documents than in everyday Italian. However, Accademia della Crusca and teachers of Italian as a foreign language support this distinction, and we have implemented it for pedagogical reasons. Imagine if today was the first day you decided to learn a second language, how confusing it would be to deal with lei (she) and Lei (you)!
It is quite funny to see the same questions being ask over and over again. To be fair, if I had not taken Italian in school I would be confused as well. I think this app is great but it would be even more helpful if it offered mini lessons to explain common questions :-)
http://duolingo.wikia.com/wiki/Italian
This is the closest thing there is to a comprehensive Duolingo tuitoring program. It answers every possible grammar question; along with tons of advice about navigating Duolingo app in general.
Why is not written l'acqua? How do I know when water, food etc. should be definite or not?
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- 1854
From what I'm given to understand, it can go either way, but using the definite article (l'acqua) indicates that it's a general situation (opposite to English where the lack of the definite article makes it a general situation: I drink water vs I drink the water).
I have the same question. It didn't accept it as a correct answer, but I thought the definite article was used in previous lessons.
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L'acqua is 'the water' acqua is just 'water', I guess there's not much difference on the use. It's just like 'A horse drinks water' and 'A horse drinka the water'
L'aqua means the water, if he first and last letters of the word are vowls then it wouldn't be la aqua it would be l'aqua
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Does "I suoi cavalli .." mean "His horses.." or "Her horses.." ? (The answer-choice says Her, but the translation says His) If they are the same, how do you make the distinction if you need to be unambiguous?
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They are the same, in context it would be clear whether you were talking about a male or female. It is possible to make a distinction by saying l'amore di lei, her love, or casa di lui, his house, but these are particularly emphatic. You're perfectly safe sticking to suo in most cases.
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'Suoi' is for masculine plural nouns and 'sue' is for feminine plural nouns. (In this example, cavalli are are masculine.) Hope this helps!
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suoi is for the plural form, while "suo" is for the singular form (as in "il sue cavallo).
The top part you said was right. Suoi for male plural and suo for male singular but its not "il sue cavallo" Calvallo is singular male so you dont need plural verion of his/her. And since its male you need a male plural. " I suoi cavalli" " il suo cavallo" Hope this helps
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- 1854
The grammatical term is "masculine" and "feminine", not "male" and "female".
After going through all the comments i still dont understand why the solution to the exercise offers Her. How do you come up with that?
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Exactly what happened to me!! I think we did right. It can be both his and her
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what's the difference between 'le sue' and 'i suoi'? I thought they were both his/hers plural
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il suo masculine singular, la sua feminine singular, i suoi masculine plural, le sue feminine plural
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I know lui is he but can lui also be used as 'you' when calling someone
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Lei (with a capital L) is the formal "you, singular".
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This is both his and hers. It depends on the context of the situation usually, when distinguishing the gender of the person you're talking about.
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I thought the verbs were supposed to match the nouns? Can someone conjugate for me please? I; you; he/she/it/; you all (collective you); they; we...?
If her horses drink water, my horses drink a mixture of blood, sweat, and the saltiest tears.
Is there a separate present continuous in Italian? The system wouldn't accept "His horses are drinking the water". There are inconsistencies elsewhere such as when I translated "pesce" wrongly, I was told to use "seafood", yet in a later lesson it told me that "seafood" was wrong and insisted on "fish".
"I suoi cavalli" can be translated as "her horses," "his horses," or "their horses." The possessive adjective "suoi" is specific to the "the horses" and not to the owner of the horses.
How are you meant to know whether it is referring to female or male? I Cavalli is male but when I hover over "Suoi" it say its male or female.
How are you meant to know whether it is referring to female or male? I Cavalli is male but when I hover over "Suoi" it say its male or female.
If the article is masculine or feminine depending on the noun how can you tell if it refers to his or her item?
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Wouldn't suoi cavalli be "their horses"? Not "her horses"? I'm confused.
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Wouldn't suoi cavalli be "their horses"? Not "her horses"? I'm confused.
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This is like Portuguese "Seus Cavalos bebem Água/I Suoi Cavalli Bevono acqua", Suo=Seu, Suoi=Seus = His/Yours. See.
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How do I know it's "her" horses and not "his"? Because, in the sentence e.g. I suoi cavalli non mangiano il cioccolato. The translation is : His dogs don't eat chocolate. I'm confused. I guess it depends on the context?
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Does suoi mean his? It gets a little confusing when the subject pronoun is not in a sentence. Can suoi also mean hers?
I suoi cavalli bevono acqua = he's horses drink water but apparently that's wrong and it's Her horses drink water when in reality suoi is not feminine or masculine.
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Isn't "suoi" a male possessive pronoun? So it would be" his horses drink water" Or am I wrong?
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I don't understand why this doesn't also mean "HER horses dronk water". Duo does not accept this translation. Can any one illuminate please?
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It can mean both, because "suoi" agrees with "cavalli".
How was the question presented to you? If it was multiple choice, did you select both "Her horses..." and "His horses..."? Otherwise it would mark you wrong for missing a correct answer.
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Either it glitched or you made some other error, and it corrected you with the top translation.
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Can someone please explain why if "his" is "suo", and "her" is "sua", i keep getting "sua" as the answer for "his" as well.. very confusing
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The gender of the possessive does not refer to who owns the thing. The gender of the possessive refers to the thing, just like any other adjective.
Since "cavallo" is masculine, it takes masculine adjectives, including articles and possessives. It is always:
il mio cavallo
il tuo cavallo
il suo cavallo
il nostro cavallo
il vostro cavallo
il loro cavallo
No matter what the gender of the owner is. Therefore "suo/suoi/sua/sue" can be "his" or "hers".
The explanation of the use of the capital letter for "formal" is confusing because I think of the formal as being "non personal". Thus the two 'yous' tu versus lei. Apparently that is not what is being referred to. I am still confused.
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Formal as in polite. Meaning anyone you are not on a first-name basis with. Bosses, teachers, etc.
Thanks, I thought that might be but wasn't sure. I tend to use you, but it appears that usually the 'right' answer is either he or she most of the time.
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Duolingo is focusing on the primary meaning/usage of "lei", which is "she".
