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- "It is the national book week…
"It is the national book week."
Translation:È la settimana nazionale del libro.
103 Comments
The question is where are the clauses. Is it "the [(national book) week]" or "the [national (book week)]"? What is considered to be "national"? If it's the book, shouldn't "nazionale" be pushed to the end of the sentence?
Yeaah, I also thought that it was a week for national book.. So i wrote la settimana del libro nazionale and also got wrong..
1220
"It is the national book week."
To me it is rather the national week, and not the national book, - is there even such a thing?
There is a week in September dedicated to reading and books, often referred to as La settimana del libro, or La settimana NPL, (Nati Per Leggere = born to read) .
That would be a holiday celebrating the 'national book'. It makes far more sense to have a national holiday celebrating the book.
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Even so, wouldn't the English clause for a week about the national book be "the national book's week"?
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I just wonder if there is something like 'the national book', - can you, or anybody, give me an example of a book that would/could be called 'the national book'?
I think it must be the week that is the celebration. We have things in America like: february is black history month or nurses' week etc. I think they are national things. I always see them marked on my calendar. I wonder why i've had so many questions about national book week though. It must be an extremely important event in italy. Ive had this question probably 24 times now so far.
I had the same and was marked wrong, yet Google Translate agrees with us
That wouldn't be a problem in English. If it were the book that is national (and I'm having difficulty trying to imagine such a thing), it would be "It is the week of the national book." But usually in a simple sentence like this, it is the week that is national, book being another descriptor in this case.
The problem with this sentence is that a week can't be national. Events, books, etc. can. Thus, the logic here, in my mind, fails. However, very often what is logic to us does not necessarily match the nuances of another culture, or other cultural perceptions. In that case, those perceptions may actually be national.
Even tho I agree with you look at March 8, and international Women's day. The day is international , not the women
Sorry, but that's your own problem, Nadia, and not of the languages'. Both in Italian and in English the idea and phrase of a national week work perfectly fine.
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yep I totally agree my answer was based on the same thing, it should be accepted: È la settimana del libro nazionale
• la settimana nazionale di ecc.
• [ the national week of etc. ]
• la settimana nazionale della riconoscenza verso gli infermieri.
• [ the national nurses appreciation week ]
• il mese nazionale della donazione di sangue
• [ the national blood donor month ]
Hope the above help to clear up the confusion.
:) KK
ottobre 2019
- 1220
"It's the national book week."
To me this is rather about the national week . . . and not about the national book
È la settimana nazionale del libro = It is the national week of the book
~ It's the national book week.
But in Italy it's often just called La settimana del libro = The Book Week. Sometimes it is referred to as La settimana NPL = Nati Per Leggere.
It is a week in late November when we among other things are invited to come and read for children at the local library.
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@Mazzorano
That is indeed the question.
Is it a holiday celebrating Italian books,
(as opposed to translated or foreign language books)
or is it a national holiday for all books?
Both are reasonable interpretations that exist in other countries:
The Hebrew book week = שבוע הספר העברי
later to be expanded to "שבוע הספר" becoming National week of all books.
(I see you take Hebrew. Hence the example.)
This being Italy, a country well known for protecting local products,
the interpretation of {(national book) week} makes sense,
even if the person who composed this exercise meant national week of books.
I am a native English speaker. We would not use"the" here. "It is National Book Week" The words should also be capitalized..
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I disagree. You could use either. Capitalising and removing "the" means you are naming the day, while here it is explaining what the day is.
The Italian translation helps with this, because it would more literally be translated as "the national week of books" (well "book", as I discovered after failing the question lol). You cannot remove the word "the" here.
Sorry, Elena, but that's just wrong. What you're explaining is what would happen if this were the official or actual name of the event, but as Finkie said, it isn't, and that's correct English too. There are a vast number of events where "national" might make it sound official, but it is not their name, so it's incorrect to capitalize it, and "national" is simply a synonym of "nationwide".
In Australia, the schools started it and they celebrate a national book week every year. Now many libraries etc to do this. Thats how I took it and of course got it completely wrong! I guess many nations do the same
I wrote "dei libri"... I suppose it would be some national week to promote reading and books in general whereas the "correct" answer sounds like it's about one particular book to me.
In Bulgarian, just as in Italian, the plural "dei libri" wouldn't make sense in this particular situation. However, as comfortable as I am with this way of expression, "the national week" is what threw me off. Different cultures express things differently. I'll try to memorize the example as a set phrase.
Could a native italian speaker please say whether "la settimana nazionale di libri" would be correct / acceptable? dei libri would mean "of the books" and I am trying to say "of books (in general)"
I really hate this sentence. I get it, it's correct, but the word order and the "del", I just don't get it, and it makes me crazy.
Thanks for letting me vent. :)
"del libro". di il libro. di+il=del. It's called an articluated preposition, because you have to mix articles and prepositions in Italian (mostly).
Would someone please explain why, on the "You are wrong" response, the translation is given as "E la settimana nazionale dei libri" and yet on this page the translation is given as "E la settimana nazionale del libro". The first gives the plural answer, this one gives the singular answer. As someone trying hard to learn Italian, this inconsistency (without any explanation) is confusing and frustrating. I can accept that both translations are correct, but could someone explain why ?
trev756863- i would say in short that duo paid administrators cares less about accuracy than money. an educational tool that caters to pearson education (of all money-grubbing organizations) is the root of the failure of duo to become a top notch organization. duo relies on the goodness of heart of the many many volunteers but apparently without giving the volunteers the support they need. in fact, i would claim that duo admin boarders on educational malpractice.
I must be improving! I instinctively understood that "It is the national week of the book"! AND it makes sense in both English and Italian!
"È la settimana del libro nazionale" should also be accepted. Prompt! .
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some sayings in Italian seem backwards and not accurate the way it is spoken in English ... it is the week national of the book ....sounds awkward and very wrong in English ... to me it is amazing Italians understand each other at all because sometimes it flows exactly like English and other times like this it seems backwards
No offence meant, but is it such a wonder that different languages have different grammar rules rather than just being word for word translations? It's perfectly logical, you're just not used to it yet.
I've rarely encountered or, more likely, never encountered a case in either Spanish or Italian in which a noun and an adjective modifying it are separated by a prepositional phrase.
Surely the use of a composite preposition in "Del Libro" suggests a specific book, (maybe the Good Book?) rather than a general reading initiative.
Then again I can see a situation in Italy where everyone reads the national book, the Ddivine Comedy, once a week every year.
No, it does not suggest a specific book, similar to English. In this phrase, book/libro has the meaning of a concept, «institution» if you like.
Maybe - amount of book reading in Italy is pretty low I think. And bookshops are quite expensive.
If it's a compound adjective modifying the noun you would need a hyphen. It really could be two different translations. Like a five-fingered glove for example
del = de + il. dello = de + lo.
So it is 'settimana del libro' but 'dello squalo'.
This challenge should have been posed only once or twice by DL. Otherwise, this sentence is not very helpful to learning Italian.
i feel this is far too confusing for this stage in duolingo the word order is open to interpretation
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Yes, but they only make sure people behave.
If you need to contact a Moderator, you can try the DailyDuo post:
Or, if more serious, you can report abuse:
If on the other hand you're referring to the course Contributors,
(those who write the course and correct mistakes in it)
they rarely show here. The proper way to report a problem with a sentence or translation is the report button, or the Italian forum:
è la settimana del libro nazionale is correct according to Google translate
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"it is the week national of the book"????? How am i ever gonna get similar ones to this right? No Sense to it.
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What are you asking? Are you not aware that in the romance languages, the adjective follows the noun??? It's impossible that you don't know that given your streak and your level, so what is it that you're asking?
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Just getting a bit frustrated that's all. My own English is gonna let me down I think! I'm not up on pronouns and stuff. There just doesn't seem to be any rules!
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I know the feeling . . . I may be able to slowly construct a half decent sentence, - but it seams I will never be able to take part of a conversation.
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I'm still not getting what is bothering you. There IS a rule -- the adjective follows the noun. The expensive shirt = la camicia cara = a camisa cara = la camisa cara = la chemise chere. All you have to do is memorize that order and you're done.
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I'm ok with one's like your examples, but that one I don't even know which is the adjective or noun or verb. ☹️
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OK, yes, I understand better now. Yes, this is a more complex sentence and therefore harder to translate. All I can say is practice, practice, practice. I know that's not much help, but it's all I got.
- 1220
It's the week of books in Italy.
There are special events at all libraries, lots of reading for kids and book stores advertise it.
Does anyone else felllike the adjective "national" should pertain to th ebooks not to the week? I think the English sentence is unclear here. Any thoughts?
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Last year "La settimana nazionale del libro" was from November 16 to 24. It is also called "la Settimana Nazionale NPL" (Nati per Leggere ~ Born to read).
Libraries and book stores arrange e.g. readings for children to promot and inspire to reading of books.
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To me, this sentence isn't quite clear. Is it "the national week of the book"? Or if it "the week of the national book"? This is why I think either "è la settimana nazionale del libro" or "è la settimana del libro nazionale" should be accepted. Any takers?!
- 1220
"It is the national book week."
To me this is rather about the national week and not about the national book, (- does such a book even exist?).
There is a week in late autumn dedicated to reading and books. It is called La Settimana Nazionale del Libro and sometimes La settimana NPL (Nati Per Leggere ~ born to read). It's a national week dedicated to reading stories to and teaching children to read books.
marninger- you keep repeat that explanation and it is not helping at all since the vast majority of Italian learners here are not Italians and they have no clue about national events in Italy. So if some one might think that like all Italians are very proud of their national culture, people easily can think that this is a week dedicated only for Italian books, and celebrating Italian writers and publishers. Like they have Radio Italia and their slogan is "radio italia - solo musica italiana" So most of the learners don't come here to learn about italian national events. there are some other culture learning resources for that. we wanna learn to speak and understand Italian, not aobut their week of books. So in my opinion if there is no gramatic explanation to that both interpretations are valid depends on how you feel and know about Italians and their culture, and it has nothing to do with learning the language, so or it is just not relevant exercise or both of the option should be accepted
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I would say the English sentence would be better as "It is national book week." To me with "the" I read it with two possible meanings. 1) There is more than one national book week and this is the 'big' one. Which is not the sense I get from the Italian. 2) It is about a week for one "national book", "the national book." Which wouldn't match the meaning of the Italian.
Other than those two interpretations, "the" here is just awkward.
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Yes in Australia the schools designate a special week of learning to read books. National Book Week. It is a week celebrated by the nation for children to read books and improve their skills. Therefore the word national refers to the week not the books content.
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In Australia the schools celebrate a week of reading books. National Book Week, so the nation as a whole has children reading any book chosen to improve their skills. Therefore national is not referring to the books content, but the country. I also got this wrong as i struggle with Italian grammar
Please please please, enough with this challenge. Getting it right, on most occasions, does not improve my Italian learning experience. Fai bravo, DL.
E la settimana del libro internaziole is the correct answer.
For the one that DL gave it should have been it is the book national week !
For the clause "[national (book week)]," as in 'national week of book,' there should be a comma; "national, book week." That way we would know that the word national is describing the week and not the book.
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My answer was correct, according to Google translate. They need to fix this question - it's misleading.
Google Translate will do its best with whatever you give it. The circumstance that Google Translate accepts your string of Italian words and returns a string of English words that satisfies you won't mean much to the course contributors.
