"Loro sono uomini."
Translation:They are men.
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Why the plural of "uomo" is "uomini" not just "uomi"? Is it another rule which is not mentioned here or it's just an exception?
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It comes from Latin! Homo in Latin means human, and the plural is homin-es. Long live Latin!
It will live long. Along with Greek, it is both in science and our modern English today.
Most languages have some kind of root in latin, especially european languages :)
Its hailarious how the word "uomini" sounds like the word "wo-men" in english xD
The n is not sounded on the audio. Pronunciation did nkt accept my audio without the "n" sound. With the "n" spoken in "uamini" it accepted it. Again, the same problem in French. Great Duo program but 0 reliable audio.
The n is not unspoken, its just very soft. When you speak italian some letters might not be pronounced because if you are fluent you tend to go a little fast not spell them perfectly. But i swear to you that i have never prnounced uomini without an n on purpose
Couldn't "loro" also be the polite form for "you" (plural)? If so, Duolingo should pass this translation as correct...
you're absolutely right, but I guess noone uses formal language just to say that someone is men ;) so from the context you can read that it has to be "they"
If you add a subject (but remove the pronoun) you may be able to find out what the pronoun is in translation, for example: "Sono uomini." Since "uomini" is plural for "uomo" (man) you can tell it's in the third-person plural form ("We are men" would be "Noi siamo uomini").
"Uomini" isn't the subject, but rather the predicate of the above-mentioned sentence. Linguistically, "Io" (first person, singular) and "loro" (third person, plural) should not share the same form of the verb "to be" "sono."
NancyWilder.... Why not? (ist person singular and third person plural share the same form) I really don't follow your argument. Just because in English the first person singular and third person plural of the verb 'to be' are different I don't see that it follows that this 'should not' be the case and is 'linguistically wrong' in Italian! Surely you aren't suggesting Italians speak their own language incorrectly??! English conjugates the verb 'to be' with all plural forms the same in the present tense and different in the singular, in the past tense of course English does it similarly, I and he/she/it was, and all the rest 'were' (unless you count the archaic forms of the second person singular thou art and thou wast) However, in Welsh for example, first and third person plural for to be are the same in the present - rydyn, the rest are all different - (rydw i, rydwyt ti, mae e/hi, rydyn ni rydych chi, rydyn nhw) ie ni (we) and nhw (they) share the same form of the verb but not 'you' (unlike english) are you going to tell me welsh is linguistically wrong to share that form of the verb too? It's also only true for the verb 'to be' in English, for example I eat, swim, fall AND they eat, swim fall etc Same in the past, every person 'went': same form of the verb 'to go' for all pronouns. (Welsh is all different, save for 1st and 3rd person plurals)
You need to conjugate the verb according to the subject: http://italian.about.com/library/verb/blverb_essere.htm
From my perspective, you should use siamo when it comes after Noi and use sono when Loro. "Noi siamo" "Loro sono."
"Loro sono gli uomini" would mean "they are the men." Here, "uomini" is the predicate of the sentence (the sentence only indicates that they are men), following the copula "sono," so the article is optional, depending on whether or not the specification is intended.
Is there a specific reason why uomo turns into uomini but donna not into "donni" or so, but donne with an e?
