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- "I cani dei ragazzi bevono ac…
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'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.
98
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.
Surely the apostrophe should come after "boy" like most possessive nouns? Don't they only follow an "s" if the word ends with one in it's singular form?
Martin's dishwasher. Chris' curtain rail.
the apostrophe comes after the s because the word was ragazzi, meaning boys, plural. In the English language you would not write (or say) boys's, it gets turned into boys'.
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.
- 537
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.
- 98
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! :)
I put the apostrophe in as the above translation has it, but it then said it should just be boys.
- 537
You are right. It should be "the boys' dogs" (because boys is plural). If you see it again, report it.
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.
- 537
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")
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.
- 260
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.
- 291
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.
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
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
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."
