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- "We had understood one anothe…
"We had understood one another."
Translation:Ci eravamo capiti.
36 Comments
593
I suspect that here, as in French with 'avoir' and 'être', you always use 'essere' with reflexive verbs. That's my best guess. :)
It's reflexive, then essere should be used. Abbiamo capito is not, then the suffix doesn't adapt to plural, like it always does with essere.
I agree - capire takes avere in itself, but when used as a reflexive verb it takes essere and the ending must agree with the object. So here the "i" on capiti is needed because "ci" is the object and it is plural.
- 1051
When a verb takes "essere" as the helping verb in the past tense, the past participle (capito) has to agree with the subject (we) in gender and number. If it is a group of all females, the answer can be "ci eravamo capite", and if there is a male in the group, it's "ci eravamo capiti".
Good explanation here on "Choosing The Auxiliary Verb in Italian". http://italian.about.com/od/verbs/a/italian-verbs-auxiliary.htm Since "Understand" is an Intransitive verb, it takes Essere, not Avere.
- 593
In English, 'understand' is not an intransitive verb (in other words, it can take a direct object, as in "I understand it"). I believe that this is also true in Italian. Therefore, I think it generally uses the auxilliary 'avere', as in "Ho capito". The reason it uses 'essere' here is because in this sentence it is reflexive. If I have misunderstood this, I hope someone more fluent in Italian than I will be kind enough to correct me. :)
You are absolutely correct, Understand is a transitive verb in both English and Italian. Your explanation seems correct, but I'm no expert. No sooner do I think I'm understanding the grammar I get confused again!
- 1051
Not fluent, but that's correct. The verb here is the reflexive verb "capirsi" which means "to understand each other", and all reflexive verbs take "essere".
I'm not fluent, but my guess is that since the sentence is "we understand each other", the verb became reflexive (in the group of "we").
- 1726
Understand is used as a transitive verb in the simple exercise "I understood" earlier in the unit. The inconsistency is amazing.
- 1051
In Italian, you can use the verb "capire" transitively to express that you understand information. That information is the direct object of the verb. When it is two people that understand each other, the verb becomes reflexive (capirsi) and therefore intransitive. There is no direct object in the Italian sentence. It's not actually an inconsistency, it's just that Italian and English are two different languages.
- 725
Thank you. I'm struggling big time with this set and your answer helps with a small step forward...
But we have: "Hai capito?" or "Avete capito?", answer "Ho capito" or "Abbiamo capito". So apparently the rule goes to the reflexive: "understand each other"
I wrote : "avevamo capito l'un l'altro" which is the EXACT tradution of "one another. So why its is wrong??
It's reflexive, so it takes the reflexive direct object pronoun for us: ci. Here's a good link: http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare116a.htm
I didn't try this, but I thought about it: would "Ci eravamo capiti l'un l'altro" work?
"Ci eravamo capiti a vicenda" why is wrong? "A vicenda" is the actual translation of "One another"
maybe the "ci" already encodes "one another", so "a vicenda" is redundant?
Yes, exactly. If you use "ci" you shouldn't repeat "a vicenda" or other expression with the same meaning.
I was corrected to "Ci capimmo," a form I don't think I'd ever seen before....
Actually it is a reciprocal verb in this instance which is an offshoot of reflexive verbs and takes essere with the usual reflexive pronouns
- 211
So why do the dictionary hints indicate "avevamo" and "capitol"? Eravamo and capitol were not even listed as suggested translations!
- 1051
The hints are automatically generated and aren’t for this specific question. You can report the hints in an error report to bring it to the contributors’ attention.
Noi ci eravamo capiti has been rejected for the same thing without noi. Don't understand why
it's redundant, and doubly so since the verb is reflexive - the subject is the same as the object, and this understanding is embedded in the conjugation of the verb, so an explicit subject pronoun is unnecessary.
in English it should be : we were understanding each other, then we wouldn't use avrevamo instead of eravamo
- 1051
Have you read the previous comments? Using avevamo vs. eravamo has nothing to do with the English translation:
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/297566?comment_id=297567
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/297566?comment_id=563914
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/297566?comment_id=33068704
how do you know when to use Avevamo or Eravamo. The clue say avevamo but the correct word was eravamo
- 155
when "you understand each other" or "they understand each other" it's reflexive (capirsi), and uses 'essere'. when "you understand something" it's transitive (capire) and uses 'avere'.
Reflexive verbs like this, i.e. capirsi, always take the auxilliary verb essere.
