"I suoi cani non mangiano il cioccolato."

Translation: His dogs do not eat the chocolate.

[dean2308]

PS: chocolate is poisonous for dogs!

[RubenB.1979]

Grapes, onions, garlic, raisins and avacados are also bad for dogs.

[Hekko2]

Also sweetener xylitol, which may be found in some chewing gums for example.

[RosettaY]

Yes, I can confirm that. If you love your dog, you should not give him chocolate. It is the theobromin content in the chocolate, which is so dangerous, also for cats and some other animals, but not for humans.

[iacjos02]

Very bad for "le cane"

[Kharas18]

I once had a dog jump up and eat 2/3 of a fresh brownie tray

[Kilyle]

I'd like to point out that in English, using "their" to mean "his or her" is reasonable, particularly if you're writing for certain venues (where assuming a gender would be offensive yet using awkward "his or her" constructions would be worse).

I like that this doesn't accept that form, because it reduces confusion for the student trying to master singular/plural forms in the Italian, but it is at least worth noting.

[acompletecircle]

Yeah, but as a native speaker of another latin-based language actually very similar to italian I can say that we don't use their when we don't know the gender, if we ever have to refer to the person we say 'the person' or 'someone' (for general statements). However, if you are just speaking about someone's belongings/possessions, since the gender of the possessive pronoun always matches the gender of the noun, it can apply for someone of any gender.

[Kilyle]

I realize that the plural "we don't know the gender and don't wish to offend anyone" form is probably not widespread outside English, and was speaking solely of the accepted English translations of the sentence. "His dogs," "Her dogs," and "Their dogs" would all work in English even though the Italian is distinctly singular with the pronoun; the English "their" works as a singular in this case, although it still conjugates like a plural.

I'd also like to note that there are people who reject the singular use of "their," so you should be careful to avoid it in documents for school or work - just in case someone runs by this comment while trying to learn English :)

[ellieb09]

In documents and school papers, you use the term "one" to keep from offending the reader. "One" is used in place of you/he/she/it. So, you would say, "One has dogs that does not eat chocolate."

But that's only for extremely formal cases. Any other time, it sounds pretentious.

[ieXEZn2E]

You should say "one has dogs that DO not eat...." Or, "one has a dog that does not eat...."

[PeterSheppard16]

Can't 'suoi' apply to feminine possessors as well?

[blasler]

If you are speaking formally, can't this also mean 'your dogs' ?

[acompletecircle]

In formal writing the suo/sua/sue/suoi need to be capitalised, so here it is implied to mean his/her.

[jackfate11]

Why does it need to be "il cioccolato" as opposed to just "cioccolato"?

[acompletecircle]

It can be, in the more general way (as in when you're stating general eating habits)
But nouns in italian need an article before them generally, and I think duolingo is just insisting on that to make people remember they need an article in most cases.
This is clear with other sentences like: Il cavallo beve acqua, Il cane non beve latte, etc.

[VivianNaza]

Why is suoi "her"?

[spanishcabbage]

It could be either him or her. The masculine or feminine pronoun is referring to the object that they own

[RoslynJS]

Here's some sensible advice: all dogs should not eat chocolate!

[LesliePara7]

"His dogs cannot eat chocolate" would be a more appropriate statement. It is common knowledge that dogs CANNOT eat chocolate - it is highly toxic and very dangerous causing death of the animal.

[DaecanTee]

How do you say 'his dogs cannot eat the chocolate' in italian, when 'non mangiano' is 'do not eat'?

[Adiyyyyyy12b]

Ciao. the verb "can" in italian is "potere" ->io posso, tu poui, lui/lei puo', noi possiamo, voi potete, loro possono. so "his dogs can't eat the chocolate would be -> "i suoi cani non possono mangiare il cioccolato . hope this is clear enough :)

[solangefer236443]

Very well said

[leoalpha5293]

Why not your dogs?

[veronicaro20047]

The polite version of your is the same as if i were to say his hers or its. With no other context, "your" is also a correct translation if we wanna get technical. I mean hey if you let me translate "voi" as "y'all" i think this is an acceptable assumption.

[selezian]

It will be written with a capital letter, no?

[guiaugusto91]

So how can I write "her dogs do not eat the chocolate"?

[selezian]

The same. Depends on context.

[KarenMalon9]

When the correct answer comes up i cant see my original answer so cant see where im going wrong

[iamvered]

"His dogs do not eat chocolate" should be correct for this sentence. "Il cioccolato" as a generality? His dogs don't eat chocolate. I suoi cani non mangiono il cioccolato. Yeah?

[iamadumbdog]

U wrote "code 100110100011" and i passed

[fanticreader401]

when do you use the article with a noun?
jo

[deactivated user]

What's wrong with my answer?

Your dogs don't eat the chocolate.

[Fabian0613]

"i suoi cani" = his/her, no "your"

[sarahsireci]

Good to know.

[Sinead451958]

Some typos are ignored, others not. Confused

[Hekko2]

Sometimes I make the same typo in two sentence in the same excercise, one is ignored, one makes my answer wrong.

[Kentongrello]

can someone tell me why I suoi cannot also be her please because i put her dogs instead of his dogs and it marked it wrong.

[Hekko2]

It can be her dogs, either you made a mistake elsewhere in the sentence, or it should have been accepted.