"It is the national book week."
Translation:È la settimana nazionale del libro.
122 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
966
Even so, wouldn't the English clause for a week about the national book be "the national book's week"?
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.
354
In Finland we have a "national book" called Kalevala and the day dedicated to that in feb. 28. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala. So i also answered è la settimana dal libro nazionale.
Why exactly would this be talking about a specific book? Seems to me that national book week is a nationwide holiday dedicated to books as a whole, just like if you said something like a "national chicken week". We wouldn't be celebrating a specific chicken but rather it would be a national holiday to celebrate chicken.
So that would mean that the sentence is correct: it's the national week of the book, so the nazionale describes the settimana.
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.
• 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
1355
yep I totally agree my answer was based on the same thing, it should be accepted: È la settimana del libro nazionale
"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.
1360
@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.
1216
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.
456
Elena18, you are correct. In English anything "national" is official and would be capitalized. We would not use "the'. Using "the" here means that it is the book that is national - to native English speakers, anyway. It's the difference between National Ice Cream Day and The National Mall . . .
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 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.
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.
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
22
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?!
"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
1360
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:
3409
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?
3409
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.
3409
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.
1447
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.
3409
What's somewhat wrong (or at least hard on the ears) is the inclusion of "the". It should just be "It is national book week." Your suggestion is very clunky and not anything that someone would say in conversation.
1360
Libri = Books
Libro = Book (singular )
It is the national book (singular ) week.
È la settimana nazionale del libro.
3409
Are you joking? You're name implies you're a native English speaker and yet you're suggesting a phrase that no English speaker would ever utter. Please explain.
1228
My answer was correct, according to Google translate. They need to fix this question - it's misleading.