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In my grammar book it says that when we talk about places in general with the "in" preposition then we don't use indefinite articles.
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Grazie!!! I am not sure what places "in general" means exactly as I would suspect this actually refers to the person's kitchen but I DO appreciate the feedback from a grammar book!
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I think you could say it that way, but "la" is unnecessary because it's just assumed. Like with "in tasca".
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I read that if you talk about your kitchen or a familiar one to you, you need to use in cucnina. But if you use nella cucina, you add a nuance that the kitchen is unfamiliar to you, like a kitchen in a hotel.
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As GidiZisk said, places that are familiar to you and the hearer needn't take an article.
"Nella cucina" is wrong because your kitchen is extremely familiar to you, and is a generic name for a place that pretty much everyone has. An Italian speaker would say "in cucina" for that reason.
The same with other places that are generic names of places, like churches or offices: "in chiesa" and "in ufficio", for example.
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I haven't thought until now that it comes from the same reason that both house rooms and some outside places are considers to be generic.
Notice that with those outside places it is ok to use the definite version in some cases. Vado In chiesa means I attend mass (the emphasis is on the action of being there) and Vado alla chiesa means that you go to THE church (not necessarily in order to pray, but it could be. In this version you also tell which one). Slightly difference in meaning and different emphasis.
From the same reason I deduce that saying nella moves the emphasis to THE kitchen, and it will not make seance if the kitchen is mine or is familiar to me.
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Yeah, you're right on that. Affixing the article to the preposition places emphasis on the act of entering, without specifying what it is that you're doing in the location.
"Vado nella cucina" would emphasise the physical act of entering the kitchen. "Vado in cucina" means that I am entering the kitchen with the intent of cooking, or something related to kitchen duties.
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Actually I'm not sure what is logical to use if you don't have a special intention in your own house, like a kid walking around the house bored. Nel cucina does not feel right because You don't really want to emphasis the kitchen, but there is no special intention either
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I'm not sure either as I'm neither a native speaker, not particularly excellent in the language.
However, from what I've been reading, it seems that the logic follows that when you say "in cucina" or some other generic place, the hearer infers that you are going there to carry out a purpose that the place is intended for.
Other than that, I am unsure.
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I answered I don't have a carpet in kitchen and the answer was wrong I didn't write "my kitchen"!!! Where's this "my" in the sentence
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"In kitchen" is just wrong in English. You need an article or possessive. In the kitchen, in my kitchen, etc.
Yes you do. But what is the article or possessive in the Italian sentence? Did they left out a word?
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Why do we have to say "a carpet"? Is there a subtle meaning I'm missing? " i don't have carpet in the kitchen " sounds fine to my american English ears.
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I suppose they mean a rug as opposed to wall-to-wall carpet.
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Because the sentence is "un tappeto" = a carpet / a rug
"I don't have carpet in the kitchen" would be different. I'm not sure if Italian uses a different word for wall-to-wall carpet (google has suggested "moquette" is the Italian word for fitted carpet). But even if tappeto is also used for that type of carpet, it would still be said differently - it wouldn't be "un tappeto".
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Could "I do not have carpet in the kitchen" be a valid translation?
In American English we would be more likely to say, "I do not have carpeting in the kitchen."
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I disagree; to me, "a carpet" evokes an image of a rug of some sort while "carpet" in this sentence would be akin to saying "The kitchen is not carpeted".
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Except that in this case, they do not mean wall-to-wall carpet and they do mean "a carpet" as in "a rug" which is also accepted as correct.
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Rug and carpet are not quite the same. A carpet is fixed, a rug is movable.
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- C’è (from ci è) = There is
- Ci sono = There are
Esempi:
C'è una pagliuzza nel mio occhio. / There is a speck in my eye.
Non c'è bullismo in duolingo. / There is no bullying on duolingo.
Non c'è un tappeto in cucina / There is no a rug in the kitchen.
Ci sono gentili persone in Italia./ There are kind people in Italy.
In short, that's it! :)
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I answered that and it was correct. I based it on the fact that "tapete" is the Spanish word for rug.
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once again I do not understand when and why they omit the article in the sentence and in others they insist having it
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In English we say "at the library" or sometimes "in the library" but we say "at church" or "in church" ("at the church" is acceptable but doesn't convey the meaning being inside the church) and "in [name of place, e.g. Duncan Donuts]." We say "in the car" and "in the canoe" but "on the bus" and "on the plane" (you're not on top of it, you're inside it, so that's really weird). We say "in progress" but "in the middle" which is inconsistent.
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I do not believe it is the quirk of the language rather that it is the quirk with Duolingo.
No, 'in cucina' rather than 'nella cucina' is used a lot. There's a whole heap of other examples where 'in' is used where what is meant is 'in the' with the 'the' being just implied. It's not the standard formal grammar, but it does appear to be part of the language. It's not just something duolingo has thrown in.
Thats understandable,but is there a grammatical reason why "in" is used here instead of "nella"
There may be. I'm not privy to it, but I do know that 'in cucina' has far more google hits than 'nella cucina' (the first page of hits for that one is a restaurant or cooking school I think in the USA). Is there a grammatical reason why people tend to use contractions rather than I am or you are in English? It's just the usage. I will note that if you are talking about someone specific's kitchen then nella is used. 'nella cucina di Martina' -'In the kitchen of Martina' - In Martina's kitchen.
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Yes, but you might have "a rug" which is sometimes called "a carpet".
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A kitchen mat is the mat you set down on the floor in front of the sink and mayby the working cabinets too. I would have liked to write it here, I don't know if there is an other more specific word for that item in Italian, though.
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I used the word mat too - and got it wrong :( I think in this instance, it has the same meaning as rug or 'carpet'. (at least it does in Australian English) It feels very 'American' English to me.
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I used mat and got it marked wrong. I also said the cat is on the mat (also marked wrong). In my opinion either rug or mat should be accepted here.
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I agree - I prefer to use mat for the type of non-slip piece of floor covering you would have in a kitchen or bathroom and rug for a softer, decorative type in an entrance hall or sitting room.
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A mat is generally considered to be something smaller. Like a place mat on a table or a mat in front of the door to wipe your shoes on. A rug would be something larger like you might have under your kitchen table. A carpet would most likely cover the entire floor or a large part of it. A tapestry, which would seem to be the cognate of the italian tappeto, is something that hangs on the wall.
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"a carpet" is not used in International English (A.K.A. American English, the English Duolingo uses). No article should be placed before "carpet." Thus the sentence should read, "I do not have carpet in the kitchen."
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American English is not international English. In Europe (including Italy) British English is favoured. Also in India as well as parts of Asia and Africa. There's a whole world outside the US of A you know. "A carpet" is fine by the way.
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A carpet exists only if you are buying "a carpet". When talking about whether you have carpet in the kitchen, the article is always omitted.
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The article is only omitted when talking about wall-to-wall carpet, not when talking about a rug which can also be called a carpet. By the way, "a rug" is also accepted as correct here.
While I agree American English is not international English I have never called a rug 'a carpet'. At a stretch a rug could be a piece of carpet. I have never heard a carpet before today.
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I disagree. In Europe American English is mostly favored! As I would say for the rest of the world too. Hollywood influences so to speak. ;-)
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Why do you think that? It may be true for Japan, but in most of Asia, all of India, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, southern and north-western Africa, and Australia, you will pretty much see British English as the primary. A lot of places I didn't say don't speak English anyway. You know, the USA isn't the center of the world? It's just another small part that helps the rest out, and receives help from others. We, as the United States, didn't invade 95 percent of the countries in the world, which is fine, but that's why Britain's influence is so much stronger than ours. They invaded a bunch of places before the USA even existed, setting the standard. You can't say the United States is better than another country just because it is the United States. Do some research before you make a claim. Allora!!
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Tappeto also means rug though, so "a rug" is appropriate here. To make things easier to understand, think of "a carpet" as like when we say "a magic carpet." Using carpet with an indefinite article may be uncommon in English but it's not unheard of.
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It's understood. I see quite a lot of Italian leaving out the possessive adjective where it's easy to figure out what it should be but would usually be required or preferred in English. If I'm inquiring about your brother, I might ask, "Come sta il fratello?" instead of "Come sta il tuo fratello?" even though we would normally leave it in when saying it in English. (Even in English we sometimes hear, "And how's the wife?" rather than "How's your wife?")
Although I thought the standard Italian thing to do was to leave out the 'il' rather than the tuo for family members in the singular apart from a couple of irregulars.
So your brother is 'tuo fratello' but your brothers is 'i tuoi fratelli'
Or is this very colloquial?
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I believe you're correct. It may usually only be for "how is/are" cases where the possessive adjective is left out. But I suppose it could be about whether it's clear, or it may be regional or colloquial. Would you like me to dig out my old textbook and look for examples?
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What the hell??? I translated this sentence: "I do not have a carpet in kitchen." and I got that it is wrong, I should missed a word and the correct translation should be: "I do not have a carpet in 'MY' (?) kitchen." There is no "la mia" (cucina) in the italian version of the sentence! Might be an English native speaker cannot understand that "I am speaking about 'my' kitchen", and he must rape the translation and put there the word 'my' which I missed. I understood the italian sentence well.
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It is not only the 'the' what leaves Italian as implied, there is different understanding of context and logic in the structure of other languages. English needs to use a lot of articles and pronouns which we consider as useless.
Perhaps. And perhaps others might think the Italian's insistence on using 'the' with possessives to be useless. Whereas it's just the way the language works. And if you are going to translate an Italian sentence into English then writing it as a native speaker would is the optimum thing to do.
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Would it be wrong to write "nella cucina" or "in la cucina?" Or do we just have to remember it? Likewise, do most household rooms —like the living room—have the same effect?
Thank you, sincerely.
I put,"I dont have a kitchen carpet" &was incorrect ,to my English ears it means exactly the same as "I dont have a carpet in the kitchen"
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Misspelling it "tappetto" marks you as having made a typo but it passes. Writing "Tapetto" marks as dead wrong. Damn these multiple p's and/or t's.
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I do not have a kitchen rug. I got it wrong. What am i missing?
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A kitchen rug is a rug that its purpose is to be in the kitchen (and by my culture I am not familair with such rug, but maybe a catalog may market it as a kitchen rug), but it can be in anywhere (like a bed sheet that is in the closet). If there is such a thing, it will probably be translated to tappeto da cucina.
Non ho un tapetto in cucina - i do not have a rug (any kind of rug) in the kitchen.
Non ho un tapetto da cucina - I do not have a kitchen rug (in general, but I can have a regular/wall rug in the kitchen).
