- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "Sono un poliziotto."
124 Comments
802
Is there some good reason why “I’m a cop.” isn’t accepted? Might be the first time I’ve noticed a common American term missing from the available answers.
I reported it. Some people don't think it's respectful, but I've heard plenty of police officers refer to themselves as cops (or as coppers if they're British). If people were making this argument about the many, many worse slang terms for police officer I'd get what they were saying, but I think most people in some places use "cop" almost always and "police officer" almost never.
We had a friend of the family who was chief of police. He explained to my father that he was perfectly fine with being called a cop. He said it stood for "Constable On Patrol." I have no idea whether or not the name origin is accurate, but I do know that he was okay with being called aCop. :-)
(if that helps)
143
Interesting to hear that, I'm from Toronto and while on the news we hear police or officers, saying cops is fine right up to the chief of the the service. (I've seen this in most of Ontario to be honest). They tend to be pretty friendly too
English does not have an international standard body (the way Italian or French do), so you'd have to qualify "standard English" with a country or other, self-proclaimed authority (e.g. Webster, SAT). From what I've seen, UK standard English prefers organizations (such as the police) to take a plural, US standard English prefers a singular.
Commissario de luca was on Brit TV the other day eschaeke. I seem to remember that at one point, navigating his way between the fascists and communists he said at one point "sono un poliziotto" - signifying a professional pride - one not wanting to get involved in possibly messy even compromised fights and point-scoring/score-settling. Just someone trying to do his job/establish some order and truth in Italy. Apologies if my memory is faulty - have deleted the BBC download of episode 3 which it possibly occurred in.
749
Do you mean the difference between "sono" I am and they are? [Loro always means they]. You cannot know the difference unless you know the context, just as "ha" can mean he, she or it has.
Yes, I mean the word "Sono" which can mean both "I am" and "You are". How do you know which one is being used? I know if it says "Loro sono" it means they are. But in this case it doesn't say that. It only says "Sono un poliziotto." So how do I know if it says "I am a policeman" or "They are policemen."?
749
In the example you have given, you would have the context. Because if there are more than one policemen, you would have the plural noun "sono poliziotti" - Italian is much more helpful than English because of the way that nouns change to give us the gender and the number
605
I am still confused about when the article is required and when it isn't with professions
18
'Police' refers to many, 'I am' just one. Or: 'police' is an adjective, so if it has an article, ('a') it needs a noun after it, e.g. 'a police woman'.
Is the indefinite article necessary or even correct for an unmodified occupation?
Political Correctness gone mad! Poliziotto is surely masculine. Are we all genderless?
436
Now I finally remember not to write un or una, now DL does?! In pevious lesson it was lavora come postino. Lavora come un postino was marked wrong.....
329
- I can't her the "un" in the standard speed speech. 2. I thought that when saying what your job is the indefinite article isn't needed. Am I wrong?
247
Poliziotto can mean Policeman Policeofficer Policemen What cause the the correct choice. I feel that you assign random answer to all questions that at similar.
383
Since it can not be posted at the right question I am going to post this at every other question, so maybe someone notices it!:"The doctor in italian is la medica/il medico. Il dottore/la dottoressa is anyone with university diploma"
383
As this can not be posted at the question with the problem(I have tried over 30times) I am going to post it elsewhere: The doctor in italian is la medica/il medico. Il dottore/la dottoressa is anyone with university diploma
383
This for some reason cannot be posted: The doctor in italian is la medica/il medico. Il dottore/la dottoressa is anyone with university diploma