"He reads."
Translation:Lui legge.
26 Comments
why is it that Legge refers to he? Whether it is lui or lei you use Legge for both. so legge on its own refers to he or she but not one or the other specific
I'm italian and today I started to do this lessons because I found many exercises which helped me to learn english,too!
Absolutley grateful for the stimulating comments, really good stuff! Great links as well though it feels to be above my skill level The moment.
EGLI (EGLI!!!) legge. "Lui" is essentially HIM, and only in certain cases can be nominative. Are you able to understand, DL? Which kind of language do you teach?
Hey, how come "leggE" refers to "he reads" and "mangiA" refers to "he eats"? I think if I understood this it would make everything a lot easier.
"Lui" was originally the form "egli" took as indirect object; nowadays egli only survives in literature and highly formal speeches, so you'd be safe assuming it to be an alternative for lui in the subject.
Okay, thank you very much! In modern italian, though, how many visibly different cases are there? Just nominative and some sort of accusative?
Well, noun inflections only survive for personal pronouns, just like with "I" and "me"; but they aren't really cases anymore as they aren't always tied to the role in the sentence, but they can depend on usage (clitic/extended).
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As subject: io, tu, egli/lui, ella/lei, esso,/essa, noi, voi, essi/loro (e.g. io indico lui a lei)
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As object: me, te, lui, lei, sé, noi, voi, loro (e.g. io indico lui a lei)
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As clitic direct object: mi, ti, lo, la, ci, vi, gli (e.g. io lo indico a lei)
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As clitic indirect object: mi, ti, gli, le, ci, vi, gli (e.g. io le indico lui)
Both clitic can be fused: io glielo indico, or io te lo indico (ti+lo). Yeah, it's confusing. And I'm not sure I didn't mistake some.
Fascinating! You see, I'm really pretty comfortable with Latin, so I was interested to see the way the language had changed over time. It's funny how some aspects remain relatively unchanged while others have become unrecognizable. Thanks again for the quick and detailed reply! I found it to be very helpful.
I studied Latin and Ancient Greek back in high school, so I think I know what you mean; most European languages are related in some way so I have a lot of fun mining similarities between them. Personally I found that Italian kept most of Latin's vocabulary, but changed the grammar to one closer to Greek's, relying on articles and prepositions instead of cases (although Greek had 5 cases too). Latin was a much more logical and concise language in my opinion - or at least literary Latin, the people's language was probably different.
That's a very interessant point you're making. I think it's pivotal in the learning of italian, because it happens A LOT (as far as I've been able to see on duolingo).
Just to be sure, because I'm not familiar with "clitic". Does it mean that it's a pronoun placed before the verb, or does it have more significance than that.
And just to be picky, clitic fusion seems a bit hard, at least to understand. It would be quite a mind effort to grab a hold of the sentence. (I mean that as a foreigner). WHat do you think ?
Clitics (in Italian "pronomi atoni") are words that have no stress of their own and are pronounced as if they were part of a nearby word; they're proclitic if they join the next word and enclitic if they join the preceding word. Italian clitics "join" verbs and tend to be both, depending on the conjugation: when they're proclitic they're written as separate (e.g. lo indico, l'indico), when they're enclitic they become literally part of the word (indicalo, indicarlo). When two clitics are fused into one word, they acquire a stress, so in "glielo" a new letter is inserted between gli and lo to carry that stress.
I know, it's complicated, so I'd rather post some links than try to explain and further confuse you.
Short version:
Long version:
Thanks a lot. I'll definitely have a look at those links, and maybe eventually come back to you if something strikes me as really unclear !
This is very helpful. Can you recommend a book rather than a website? I am finding that a good, reputable textbook on grammar is more reliable in Duolingo work than a website managed by an unknown.
Originally? Have a look, for instance, to a conjugation of any verb in "coniugazione.it " (the only Italian page for theItalian conjugation): What do you find? EGLI or lui? ESSI or loro? Survives in literature! Highly formal speeches! Yes, if you understand "highly speech" a good Italian, that DL don't use.
Fascinating stuff in this comment thread. Im commenting mainly so i can come back to it on my pc instead of my phone, lol. (Nerd? What nerd? Moi? Never! ...ahem) Fascinating!
So if you want ask me something about italian languages you can do it!
