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- "Lei è una ragazza dolce."
41 Comments
Doulingo is becoming naughty...how is "she is a sweet girl" something about food?? This girl must be very sweet to get a mention in the food section
Its not naughty, its just something people say, and relevant in common conversation. I've heard old people say that about people.
Would this mean that the girl tastes sweet, or that she has a lovely personality. I would assume the latter, but you never know.
It's more or less like in English, it's usually the latter, but it's not like you couldn't say it after soaking your girlfriend in honey :P
Could you say "Lei è una dolce ragazza" too? This sounds better for the non-literal meaning of "dolce" in Portuguese...
Yes, "dolce" is one of those adjectives that can be before or after the noun; putting it after only shifts the focus on the adjective instead of the noun, and so it's especially common when there are more adjectives.
Are all adjectives able to go either side of the noun or only certain ones? how do we know?
Most adjectives follow the noun, however some common ones do come before. Here is a list:
http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa072199b.htm
Remember it is just a generality. Some change meaning depending on whether they come before or after the noun. Check out Sandra's post here on that:
https://www.duolingo.com/comment/2572730
Lastly another good post from Sandra here:
But it specifically says that dolce is referring to taste. Can anyone explain this?
That's what I got told too. Italian don't use "dolce" for people, instead they say "carino" or "carina". But probably nowadays those Italian who speak English and/or watch dubbed Hollywood movies might say something like that.
Dolce & Gabbana is a luxury Italian fashion house founded in 1985 in Legnano by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. The two met in Milan in 1980 and designed for the same fashion house.
Strange as it is, gabbana is also an ancient and disused Italian word (of Arabic origin): https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gabbana
In the definition of dolce, Duolingo has put "sweet (taste)" and "kind". In English, you can use "sweet" to refer to taste or personality, but since Duolingo drew the distinction, I figured it wasn't the same in Italian. But when I wrote "She is a kind girl." I was marked wrong!
Welp, here's me not sure if I should say this about someone to be honest. Remind me why this is in the food section?
Please report in the report field that the audio is bad. Many Italian recordings unfortunately are bad.
No, some go in front and some can go either way (dolce actually being one that can go in front or behind.) I don't know that there's a rule--you just have to learn it.
so there's like no way of telling where thy go like in english the adjectives went before nouns but the adverbs could go before or after?
You just have to learn it, yeah. You'll pick it up over time, and repetition. Native speakers help a lot, too. Immersion.
Most adjectives follow the noun, however some common ones do come before. Here is a list: http://italian.about.com/library/weekly/aa072199b.htm
Remember it is just a generality. Some change meaning depending on whether they come before or after the noun. Check out Sandra's post here on that: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/2572730
Lastly another good post from Sandra here: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/2531606
If this girl is sweet, I wanna taste her..... after all, this is the food category.
I really hope there's also the male version of this sentence, because if not this could be quite sexist
Well...I clearly hear "Lei e un ragazza dolce". Not "una", as it should be.
