53 Comments
I am grateful to all of you who have objected to having met Sunday. This really reminded me of how little I know of English English... I would have expected it acceptable as a parallel construction to "we met yesterday." Terse, yes, but at least serviceable here in the US.
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It is if you would like to express you and 'Sunday' met each other :) This would be an absulutely correct sentence in the novel The man who was Thursday.
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"When did you two meet?"
"We met Sunday."
And if that's not good enough for you, "We met Sunday after the football game"
Perfectly fine. It's not Shakespeare but it's acceptable.
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It would be we met on sunday, we met sunday is a colloquialism which is not really acceptable in translation of learning a new language.
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Is this a reflexive? If so the sentence would mean "We met each other" - this would make the addition of "ci" more understandable.
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I think that's correct. It's sort of like 'we met each other'. you could otherways say 'we met someone else' . You need that ci to tell you that we are meeting each other as opposed to someone else.
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You can't say that you met someone, though. I said "we met you" and it was wrong
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Ci is reflexive on "Us". "We met ourselves Sunday."
So it's "We met each other on Sunday"
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why is this conosciute? I thought conosco means to know. Meet i thought was incontrare. I am just trying to figure out what make conosciute more sensible in this context
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I think, conoscersi also has the meaning of "to get to know somebody" and "meet" is used in this sense here "We met Sunday".
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Well, they can overlap in meaning, but there are some differences. You would use "ci siamo conosciute" if you have met someone for the first time. Besides, it implies you got to know each other at some minimum level, at least your names. If you say "ci siamo incontrate", you're not necessarily talking about someone you didn't know before. It could be that you and a friend just happened to be at the same place and quickly greeted.
I think "ci" is actually a "reciprocal pronoun." "The plural reflexive pronouns, "ci "vi," "si" are combined with the first, second or third person plural verb to show reciprocal action-here "we met each other." Reciprocal pronouns show two-way action. Another example, "Si parlano al telefono"--"They talk to each other on the telephone."
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"Ci siamo conosciute domenica" means that there were only females meeting on Sunday. As soon as there would have been just one male (even if there would have been a million females), it would become "Ci siamo conosciuti domenica".
As a native English speaker, I'm quite confident I've never said "we have met Sunday." We had? Sure.
but we are asked to translate it into English, and hopefully good English
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Confused why the 'ci' is here. Is it always needed if when coupled with words ending in 'iamo'?
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-iamo is just the verb ending for the first person plural. Ci can be a frustrating word because the rules are a little messy. Observe the following: noi beviamo il caffè, noi andiamo via, noi lo mangiamo stasera. None of these actually require ci or ce, but it can be used to strengthen or alter the meaning of the sentence: noi ci beviamo il caffè, noi ce ne andiamo via, noi ce lo mangiamo stasera.
For this sentence in particular, ci is necessary because there has to be a way to express who met who. For example, "le abbiamo conosciute domenica" = we met them Sunday. You don't want that kind of confusion! Here, the verb is actually conoscersi conoscere + reflexive pronoun. There are other verbs that can be reflexive (or not):
- Sentirsi: mi sento stanco/I feel tired
- Sentire: sento qualcosa/I hear something
- Chiamarsi: mi chiamo Dario/my name is Dario/I am called Dario
- Chiamare: chiamate la polizia!/call the police!
- Vestirsi: perché non ti vesti?/why don't you get dressed?
- Vestire: la ragazza veste il suo cane/the girl dresses up her dog
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It helps me very much knowing that the verb is actually conoscersi. Makes perfect sense now!
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Can you maybe clarify why "siamo" is used here instead of "abbiamo"? Or it doesn't matter which one you use? Thanks!
Reflexive verbs require "essere" and the past participle has to agree in number and gender.
Ci siamo conosciute = We met each other (a group of girls or women).
Ci siamo conosciuti = We met each other (a group of men or a mixed group).
Abbiamo conosciuto la ragazza. = We met the girl. . (NOT reflexive).
Conoscevamo la ragazza = We knew the girl. (imperfect tense; not covered yet).
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why conoscere is not accepted as to know , v.g.: io lo conosco/ I know him?
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That "conosciutE" let me to translate "We met her." Sure, DL didn't accept. Could you explain my mistake, please? Thanks.
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[QUESTION]
How do we make a present continuous tense using a reflexive verb (e.g: He is sitting with me)?
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The reflexive pronouns imply that you are doing an action to yourself or that the action implies reciprocity. The first, you can think of verbs like regret, it doesn't require an object, you can't regret someone. You feel regret. The latter take this sentence as an example. You need the reflexive pronoun to indicate that the action is between you two, otherwise the sentence would mean that you both met someone else. Syntactically it is also used to indicate the direct object, much like the dative case in German. "Hanno ti conosciuto" - Here the subject is loro, the verb is conoscere and the object is ti, dative for tu.
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When "ci" is followed by the verb essere (to be).
- Ci sono... = there are...
- C'è... = there is... (remember; c'è = ci + è)
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I know i have problems with these clitics, but I would be more than grateful if anybody could tell me the usage of "ci" here.
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You would do yourself a favor by reading mukkapazza's post above and make it a habit of reading the posts.
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I wonder the same el-montunero: Can you maybe clarify why "siamo" is used here instead of "abbiamo"? Or it doesn't matter which one you use? Thanks!
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Does this indicate a particular Sunday "We met (last) Sunday" or is it a general statement "We met (on a) Sunday"? How are these versions of meeting expressed in italian? Thank you!
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Unfortunately the android app only allows me to enter "we met Sunday" and not the proper English of "we met on Sunday"
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"We met Sunday" isn't correct English. "We met on Sunday" would be acceptable.
