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- "Chi ha il tempo per pensare?"
27 Comments
Is that really a correct sentence? Like "It is not nobody has time for that'!? I'd express that along the lines of "non c'è nessuno chi ha (il) tempo per quello" or, simpler, "nessuno ha (il) tempo per quello". Can a native speaker confirm or correct this, please?
It literally means "for" like it does in English. "Who has time for thinking?" would mean the same thing in English.
In Italian you have to learn which prepositions to use with infinitives in different situations, or if you should even use one at all. Such as:
"I love to eat." = "Amo mangiare."
(No preposition, because it's a simple use of an infinitive as a noun.)
"I eat food to survive." = "Mangio cibo per sopravivere."
(It's "per" because you eat food in order to survive").
"I have food to eat." = "Ho cibo da mangiare."
You use "da" when it's in a transitive sense; "noun da transitive verb".
"Let's go see the elephant." = "Andiamo a vedere l'elefante." (There's not really any reason I know of as to why it's "a", but it is in this type of sentence. It could be changed to "ad" if it precedes a verb starting with a vowel.)
915
Never mind, "thou shalt not pass" anyway ;)
(Even if Tolkien wrote it less arhaic "You shall not pass!" It was archaized in the firstU.S. pirate edition AFAIK and lived on.)
I translated this as "Who has time to think?" The Correct Solution informed me that "You need the article "the" here." Can someone please explain why.
well, there is a slight nuance about it, if you want to be nitpicky. i would use your translation as a general statement that i'm always busy, and duolingo's answer as a statement that in a particular situation (e.g. a test) i don't have the time to think the situation over.
If in a moment of mad masochism you assembled all the posts I have made on duolingo, you would see one predominating theme: at least as much of a statement's meaning comes from context as from the dictionary meanings of the assembled words. But duolingo won't listen. Therefore, if duolingo wants to say my translation is wrong, it must supply a context. If you want the translation to be "Who has the time" you might write "I forgot my watch. Who has the time?" If you don't care whether someone answers "have time" or "have the time", then you could use your scenario (because, unlike you, I would say "On a test I don't have time to think"). Perhaps the difference between you and me is simply the way things are said in our different parts of the world. That doesn't matter. What matters is that, if you are trying to teach someone a language, you cannot arbitrarily tell them something is wrong (a) unless there was a clarifying context and (b) an explanation of what was wrong. It is very frustrating, to put it mildly, to have to make such an obvious point again and again, wasting time writing in English when I am supposed to be practicing Italian.
personally, I don't care too much if duolingo marked me wrong. I mean, sure, it's annoying if it's the last question on the lesson, and it's the one that fails me. But hey, if I finished the lesson with half a heart, it means I could probably use doing the lesson again, so thanks duolingo for giving me the opportunity to.
About learning: I don't take duolingo's (or anybody else's, for that matter) input as Word Of God. If it doesn't make sense to me, I look it up, ask someone I hold as an authority or do any number of other things i need to satisfy myself on what's right, and why.
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I also have the impression that I'm more concerned about the correct English translation than about learning Italian. Moreover, it can get even uglier than that - I use "grammatically dubious" English translations (offered and accepted by DL) because I know my correct and natural English translation will cost me a heart :)
But, anyways, I think that sometimes they care more about us translating texts into our mother tongue correctly rather than learning the language because our correct translations will earn them Benjamins.
Either way, I love DL and think it's a great tool for those who cannot afford to study languages.
- 343
"What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare? No time to stand beneath the boughs, And stare as long as sheep or cows
No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass
No time to turn at Beauty's glance, And watch her feet how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began
A poor life this if, if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare"
(Leisure by W H Davies)
It's because, unlike in English, you need to use the definite article (in this case "il") with dates, time and years. all'una = at one o'clock, sono nata il primo maggio = I was born on May 1st. Although your answer is certain to be well-understood I think Duolingo are emphasizing the use of the definite article in these cases. Hope this helps.
Well yes, but since in English the article is not necessary Corbett75's answer is a correct translation.
Thank you for your answer, Chris, but I think it proves my point. The examples you give exemplify the use of the definite article to locate an event at a particular time (hour, day, month, etc.). That is one of the reasons I did not use it: the sentence is about time in general. But there is another reason I didn't use it. I have seen examples where "ha il tempo" is translated by professional translators as "has the time", but also examples where "the" is omitted. For example, the following is from Andrea De Carlo's 2006 novel Mare Delle Verità: "Nicoletta ha detto "Tutte le volte che gli chiedevo di occuparsi di suo figlio e lui rispondeva che non aveva tempo! Che non aveva tempo, ti rendi conto? ! " In the English translation of this novel by Aaron Maines this is: "Nicoletta said, "All those times I asked him to spend time with his son and he responded that he didn't have time! That he didn't have time, can you believe that?!"" I am not saying that the use of "the" in the "Correct Solution" is wrong. It's just that my translation is at least as good.
Deeper and deeper! I so enjoyed your reply! I hope the moderators pick up on this one!
I think they did, because I just answered without "the" and was considered correct.
I respectfully offer another opinion. Duolingo is not a translation program and it should not be teaching us how to translate Italian into English. It should teach us how to speak and think in Italian. Therefore we should attempt the most literal translation that is correct. Even though "Who has time to think?" is correct as far as meaning goes, I still put in "the" and "for" because that's how Italians construct the sentence.
