"The fish lives in the water."

Translation: Il pesce vive nell'acqua.

[arancia]

Could it be "abita nell'acqua"? Or is "vive" the only correct term here?

[marziotta]

I think that we use "abitare" in general only for human beings.

[arancia]

Thank you!

[danagalizia]

Are you sure about this? I can't find any other source to confirm it.

[italiaoo]

What is wrong with "viva"? ("Il pesce viva nell'acqua.")

[arancia]

The third person present tense conjugation of vivere is vive. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vivere#Conjugation

[italiaoo]

Thank you!

[Aaron.o]

Generally, verbs ending in "ere" and "ire" replace the "ere/ire" with and 'e' for the third person present tense. So vivERE would be vivE. However, say, for instance, the root was vivARE; then the third person would be vivA.

[italiaoo]

Ah, Thanks!

[AyaSwan]

The fish here could be used in singular and plural terms, why the plural is not accepted?

[arancia]

Since the English verb is "lives," we know that it's referring to a single fish.

[MinaHaroun]

Because the articolo diterminativo' "il" refers to a masculine singular noun. If instead plural was referred to then the articolo would've been 'i'.

[Elena_italiana]

Really, don't understand what's wrong with "abita"???

[travellingfemme]

This website helped me. Basically, it says that "abitare"refers to a place of residence. "Vivere" has a broader meaning. It seems like you can use "vivere" for both circumstances but not "abitare".
http://www.livinglanguage.com/community/discussion/comment/1936#Comment_1936

[martingale]

Why is "Il pesce vive in l'acqua" wrong? Does "in" mean "in the"?

[Raisa-Ioana]

in + la = nella

[martingale]

Thanks!

[luciana.gu1]

What's wrong with "vive"?

[MinaHaroun]

Nothing. I got it correct with choosing 'vive' although I thought it ought to be 'vivo' which wasn't given at all xD
but I was wrong since that it is a verb not an adjective.

[dannygofwts]

But which is more common? Vive or abita? Or is it the same?