"I cani dei ragazzi bevono acqua."
Translation:The boys' dogs drink water.
99 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
'The boys dogs' is wrong. It needs an apostrophe. It should read: The boys' dogs.
I put that and it counted it correct but told me the apostrophe was a spelling error.
475
The apostrophe should come after the 's' (the boys' dogs) because they are talking about boys plural - dei ragazzi.
I realized that, but the "correct answer" says "The boys dogs" with no apostophe. I reported it.
The Italian sentence said "ragazzi', which is plural. Your sentence says "boy's" which means belonging to one boy, so it is wrong. It should be "The boys' dogs..."
I got that wrong because of confusion caused by a lack of apostrophe, making the options make no sense.
You'd put the apostrophe before the s if there was only one boy. i.e. "the boy's dogs". But because there are multiple boys, the possessive is boys'.
It told me that "The boys' dogs..." was ALMOST correct and informed me that the right answer was "The boys dogs...". Eh... no. We need an apostrophe to indicate possession.
- 475
Exactly! Happened to me, too, in January 2017. I've reported it yet again but they've obviously got no intention of correcting this embarrassing mistake.
still the same in August 2017, no option to report the English sentence as incorrect even
It should be in my opinion, but I am not an English speaker.
Anyway, the best thing is to translate "ragazzo" as "boy" and "bambino" as "child" or "kid"... even if the concepts can be messed up a bit.
Yes you are right it should have been bambino - ( boy ) child bambina - ( girl ) child ragazza - girl. Ragazzo - boy
It would... But you can call even an young adult "ragazzo", it is a word that is bit unespecific - so if you really wish to say "child" in italian is better to use "bambino - bambina". Anyway, yes, it is a correct translation.
Forgot my English for a moment! You know you're getting into a language when you forget your native tongue a bit lol! :)
Guys, my father clarified the matter for me this word works like this:
male dog - cane, pl. cani female dog - cagna, pl. cagne
it is probably an insult in many languages, but in romance languages is actually important to point the sex of the animal "Io ho un cani" "Io hon una cagna" - I suppose. So you can say it in a context that is not insulting.
I put the apostrophe in as the above translation has it, but it then said it should just be boys.
You are right. It should be "the boys' dogs" (because boys is plural). If you see it again, report it.
delle (of the) = di (of) + le (the) used with plural feminine nouns
dei (of the) = di (of) + i (the) used with plural masculine nouns (other than those beginning with z, s+ consonant, etc.)
Duo have omitted the apostrophe after the s in boys'. which renders the word a plural and not a possessive as is intended
Another missing apostrophe here (the second time this one came up): it should be boys' (not just "boys")
It should not be marked wrong because there's no apostrophe after boys. This is not an English grammar lesson it is at basic Italian language lesson
I firmly agree! If this were English, I surely wouldn't have omitted the apostrophe!
- 25
Being that punctuation hasn't kept an answer from passing before, I got lazy and left it out, but this time the grammar police have fought hard enough, there's no leniency for that on this one.
It can be aggravating, but the apostrophe is important in this sentence.
So when di is attached to a noun like "dell'uomo" it takes on a possessive meaning?
Yes, genitivo sassone (possessive case) is translated as of. It's like saying "The dogs of the boys", even if in English it sounds a bit awkward.
As far as I can tell, whenever you have "di" (del, dei, della, delle, dello) in front of a noun, it takes the possessive. For instance, "degli uomini" can either mean "some men" or "mens'" depending on context. Here is another one, "della donna": "woman's"
Hope this helps
Dog is a weird word in italian... If "cane" is the singular form of a male dog, how do I say "female dog"? I mean, isn't the "e" the female plural form? I'm confused.
The dogs' girl is wrong because the dog can not own the girl. That owner of the animal (dog) is the girl. Hope this will help...
according to google translate, female dog is "cagna". not sure if it's considered an insult in italian though. :)
I'm not sure but I think "cagna" means b!tch which is another word for a female dog. I could be wrong though.
The apostrophe ' after the plural boys' denotes ownership or possession in the English language.
Weird, they fixed the error here at the top of the discussion, but they didn't fix the actual answer.
There wasn't even an option to report the English sentence as incorrect (August 24, 2017)
Yes, others have noticed this a long time ago but it looks like it hasn't been fixed yet! Without the apostrophe, the only correct answer is "The dogs OF boys drink water," but this is marked as wrong by the system.
They STILL have not corrected the answer. It SHOULD be "The boys' dogs..." or there should be another "the" button to select to say "The dogs of the boys...". The second choice is awkward in English but not incorrect. There are tons of comments in this discussion from many years ago, but it is still not corrected as of June 2019!!! I reported it today again, 16 June 2019.
I notice that someone pointed out the misspelling of " boys' " as " boys " three years ago, and it's still not fixed. Not very professional, Duolingo.
It's still not corrected. I reported it as wrong because the right answer cannot be given since there is no ¨[boys'] as an option.
It's "the boy's dogs..." not "the boys' dogs..." Possession in this case, because the word "boy" does not contain an "s" in singular, should have the apostrophe before the "s" and not after.
When is ragazzi boys / children. This was used for children in another statement and I got the answer wrong because I used boys.
Why isn't the "'"(apostrophe) mark BEFORE the S in "boys'" ??? Possession is shown with an apostrophe BEFORE the S - non gender specific - Used to show ANYthing's "possession" of something - Get It?.... "anything's" - It seems like I keep getting questions wrong on duolingo, because I write my American English translations with the apostrophe located previous to the S - to show possession or to act in the same way of L'italiano "è " - as in, using it like "It's," ie: to show possession or, belonging to NEVER do you put a singular apostrophe AFTER the S to show possession - UNLESS "S" is the Last Letter, ie: you wouldn't write "the Jones's" - it would written as " the Jones' ", implying the 'possessive " 's " when speaking, but never writing an s with a " 's " - all other things use the " 's "(the apostrophe before the s) to show possesion of something. That being said....... lol...... I believe it literally translates into American English as : " The dogs of the boys drink water" However, what it really MEANS is: "The Boy's ('s=possession, belonging to) Dogs (cani-where "i" =multiple) and using "dei" implies possession)drink water (bevono acqua) where the "ono" implies that there are multiples are drinking- SO- in conclusion, SHOULDN'T " The boy's dogs drink water" be a correct answer?
The apostrophe being before or after the s depends on whether the word is singular or plural. If the dogs belong to one boy, they are the boy's. If they belong to multiple boys, they are the boys' dogs.
Lol -jeez - duh, I get it now - a neuron just fired - i guess if i had LISTENED to myself, and read just exactly what I was actually writing was correct! It was just that I had the ANSWER WRONG to begin with - it's taken me 10 days to get to level 8 and keep everything current too, so my brain plays wicked games on me sometimes- lol
Sorry, but that is not correct. "dei ragazzi" is plural (the boys' dogs). If it were singular possessive it would be "I cani del ragazzo bevono acqua."
All I did was leave the apostrophe after boys off. This should not be marked wrong as this is not an English grammar lesson it is trying to get the gist of Italian. Very bad form
If you write boys dogs you don't put and apostrophe after the s on dogs. So putting it after the s on boys seems like something that would only please the people who obsess over grammer. Everyone knows what boys means. Possession wise. With or without the apostrophe after the s
Everyone does indeed know what "boys" means—it means two or more boys. It's a different word than "boy's" (singular possessive) or "boys'" (plural possessive).
- 475
Exactly! It's not a matter of being obsessive about grammar, it's simply that if you don't have the apostrophe, there's no way of knowing whether you're talking about the dogs of one boy (boy's) or the dogs of many boys (boys')
True, to an extent, but boys is plural possession, not so with dogs, that is plural only!
I had the correct sentence, but omitted the apostrophe on the word boys, plural! A little extreme, no?
Yes, all this is true, but really to mark wrong for not including the apostrophe is a bit extreme! I think!
- 475
This conversation has been going on for years and years. If you omit the apostrophe or put it in the wrong place, you have translated the Italian sentence incorrectly. It's not a question of obsessing about English grammar. Either you want to translate it correctly or you don't. If you don't, then fine, but your translation will be marked as incorrect. If you do want to translate the sentence correctly, then there is no need to worry about apostrophes or to get them wrong. They really couldn't be simpler! You simply put the apostrophe after the word you are describing. For instance, If it's one BOY, you put the apostrophe after the word BOY and before the 's' (the boy's dogs). The apostrophe in that position tells you and everybody else that there is just one boy who has some dogs . If there are more than one boy, i.e. BOYS, then you just put the apostrophe after the word BOYS (the boys' dogs). It's as simple as that! No need to learn complicated stuff about possession or proper use of grammar; just put the apostrophe after the word you are describing. The shoes of the GIRL, put the apostrophe after girl, the girl's shoes, one girl. The shoes of the GIRLS, just put the apostrophe after girls, the girls' shoes, more than one girl. Yes, we are all learning Italian but we need to be able to translate from Italian correctly.