"I eat steak on Friday."
Translation:Mangio la bistecca venerdì.
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1252
This question is from like 4 years ago haha but in Italian the preposition is just not needed. We translate "Mangio la bistecca venerdì" into English as "I eat steak on Friday" because it sounds more natural than "I eat steak Friday".
If we wanted to say "I eat steak on Fridays", meaning every Friday, we still would not use a preposition but a definite article. "Il venerdì mangio la bistecca".
In Italian we just don't need to use prepositions before the days of the week. We do however use prepositions with months and seasons, but not the days of the week.
For more info about proper use of the days of the week: https://www.thoughtco.com/italian-vocabulary-days-of-the-week-4086512
For more info about proper use of months and seasons: https://www.thoughtco.com/italian-vocabulary-italian-calendar-months-4087628
- 525
Interestingly "I eat steak on Friday" would (at least in BE) generally be taken to imply that this happened every Friday (=> il venerdì) while if you use the present continuous, saying "I am eating steak on Friday", this could only mean this is going to happen next Friday (without any indication about what will happen on any other: => venerdì.
- 260
Thanks. Links v.helpful especially the second for the a / in debate on usage with months.
yeah, that baffles me too.. one possibility is that maybe in Italian language, the prepositions are optional, just like the subjects (Io, Noi, Loro, etc)... btw, can someone verify this?
- 525
Prepositions are very much not optional. Where they need to be omitted, their omission is not optional either!
I wrote "mangio bistecca venerdì" and it said I should use "la bistecca" instead of "bistecca" because it should be definite. But the english sentence is indefinite ("eat steak") it doesn't include "the". Can anybody explain?
Why no "a" venerdi? Sometimes it's used with days and sometime it isn't. Is there a particular rule
You could use "il venerdi" but not "a venerdì". Here " a" would mean "to" which doesn't make sense. "Mangio la carne il venerdì" would be fine though.
No, this will completely change the meaning. If you use di or il/la this means every friday.
Lavoro la domenica Lavoro le domeniche Lavoro di domenica All means I work on all Sundays.
Lavoro domenica Lavoro questa domenica Lavoro la prossima domenica All means I work this/coming Sunday.
Why is this sentence not (Mangio la bistecca su venerdi) or just (Mangio bistecca su venerdi)
- 1745
'Su' is a very literal translation for 'on', meaning physically on. As you cannot be 'on top of Friday' it would not make sense to use 'su' here. The Italians instead prefer to use 'il' before weekdays in cases like this, or may even use no proposition/article at all
Can't su also mean about? Like "I read a book about Bach" is "Leggo un libro su Bach."
Indeed when indicating topics su can be used. However, I think in this case, since the topic is a person who has no article, it would be 'su di'.
Since the English sentence did not limit my steak consumption to one steak, why is "la" needed to be correct. It didn't say " I eat the steak ..." Maybe I was really hungry that day and ate two steaks? Then it would it be " bistecce?" Since its not written in the plural why can't "Mangio bistecca" be okay. I want to eat my dang steak in peace!!!
Why is 'Io mangio....' not accepted here?I thought the use of a pronoun is optional but not incorrect
Whats the rest of the sentence you used? It accepts io mangio and just mangio so it may be a mistake further on that made it wrong.
"I eat steak on Friday" - where do you see any indication which article to use? Why is "una bistecca" marked as wrong and I am required to do it again just for the sake of putting "la" there? It's not studying Italian, it's memorising Duo whims (which, judging from DIscussions, no one cares to correct for years).
Here ''Steak'' is without an article ... hence it is indefinite ... why is it definite here ?
The question before had "il sabato mangiamo la frutta", which meant I eat fruit on Saturday. So, for this answer I put "il venerdi mangio la bistecca" and it was incorrect. Can someone explain the difference please?
what's the difference between "venerdì" and "venerdi"? I was told not to confuse them.
Actually "venerdi" means nothing; it's only used when the keyboard or the font don't allow accented letters, or as plain mistake. Dì (with the accent) is synonymous with giorno (from Latin dies).
Thanks for the clarification. The site response made it seem like the word without accent meant something. dies also become di in French lundi = day of the moon / Montag (Ger); maandag (Dutch). All days of the moon. All logical and consistent. Cheers!
How does one know if it's "la bistecca" or "una bistecca", when no article is used in the Italian?
- 525
Caution: I am not a native speaker but this is my best understanding of this question.
Both English and Italian use the definite article to pick out a specific thing already mentioned, but Italian also often uses it to refer to a general category of thing: thus mi piace la bistecca could mean either "I like the steak" ie a particular steak in view or already mentioned, or else just "I like steak" ie steak in general.
So "I am eating a steak on Friday" - concerning a particular steak but one NOT previously mentioned - would be Mangio una bistecca venerdì, while "I am eating steak on Friday" - where the focus of attention is the generic foodstuff - is Mangio la bistecca venerdì. (Admittedly the last sentence is ambiguous in that it could be referring to a particular steak already mentioned; but anyway this is why la bistecca is being used here rather than una bistecca for the otherwise unqualified "steak")
It's a fine distinction but I find understanding such fine distinctions can really help give one a sense of how a foreign language "works". Otherwise it retains its air of mystery and the resultant sense of not really 'getting it' can be very frustrating.
Does "su" imply some thing is on an actual concrete thing (ant on a cat) but not on an abstract thing such as a day or time? Is that why su is incorrect here?
Get a bit confused when to use a, di etc. Is there a rule or depends just on the context.
Whether or not there is context, there should be either an article or preposition before the day of the week.
- 1626
Shouldn't this be "I eat the steak on Friday". Wouldn't "I eat steak on Friday" be Mangio bistecca venerdi (can't do the accent here)?
I am sooooo frustrated with DL right now. The pink corrected response to my incorrect answer was "mangio bistecca di venerdi",but the preferred translation at the top of the discussion board is "mangio la bistecca venerdi"? Please explain, DL!!!
"Mangio bistecca di venerdì" implies that you have a habit of eating steak on Friday, while "mangio la bistecca venerdì" implies that you are going to have steak next Friday. Both are fine, with no context.
What f@#%% accents? There are non to mind in this sentence. Duolingo is really starting to piss me off! They are not that flexible. I lived in Italy and there are so many ways to say things which are correct!
Have you tried holding down the letter in question on your keyboard to see if the accent marks appear on the letter? Someone told me to do so and it worked! Hope this helps.
I put "Mangio bistecca a venerdì" which was wrong, can some explain why? I am assuming its to do with the "a" - I know "a" can mean "to" but I also thought it translated to "on" as well.
- 525
You don't need the 'a' at all for days of the week. To refer to one particular Friday, the name of the day is enough (as in DL's preferred translation here). To refer to something that happens every Friday, you say either il venerdì or di venerdì (or even ogni venerdì or tutti i venerdì). (One other DL exercise has "i mercoledì" but this is a mistake)
For months on the other hand you can use "a" or "in" (which is preferred depends on the part of Italy you are in): a luglio, in dicembre etc.
For completeness I might as well add the situation for places: towns require "a" but countries, continents and regions use "in". This for both being in and travelling to: vivo a Roma, vado in Italia.
- 525
For a (single) day of the week eg (as here) "on Friday", no preposition or article is used in Italian. This contrasts with how you talk about months: "in March" does indeed require the preposition "a" (or alternatively "in"): thus a marzo. But "on Friday" is just the word for Friday: venerdì.
(If you wanted to say "on Fridays", meaning regularly every Friday, then you would add an article and say il venerdì. Be aware that there is a rogue Duolingo exercise which uses the plural article for this (ie "i mercoledi" or whichever day it was, I forget): this is wrong and misleading)