"The men drink the water."
Translation:Gli uomini bevono l'acqua.
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In Italian as we know for masculine singular we use the article ‘il’ and for masculine plural we use the article ‘i’....but there are some conditions also if a masculine word starts with vowel,/s+consonant,/z,/h,/y then for masculine singular the article changes to ‘lo’ from ‘il’ and as well as for masculine plural the article becomes to ‘gli’ instead of ‘i’. i.e.- we use l’uomo for saying ‘the man’ in Italian(lo uomo....not il uomo)/ also we use ‘gli occhi’ for saying ‘the eyes’(we don’t use i occhi)
here ‘uomini’ is a masculine gender and plural number which is beginning with a vowel (‘u’) so here the article ‘i’ changes to ‘gli’ and so we say like ‘gli uomini’ for saying ‘the men’
Hope I became able to clear everybody’s doubt....
l'Uomo in the singular Gli Uomini in the plural form
I'm not too sure how to explain it, but it's just something I've learnt and know... :)
In Italian as we know for masculine singular we use the article ‘il’ and for masculine plural we use the article ‘i’....but there are some conditions also if a masculine word starts with vowel,/s+consonant,/z,/h,/y then for masculine singular the article changes to ‘lo’ from ‘il’ and as well as for masculine plural the article becomes to ‘gli’ instead of ‘i’. i.e.- we use l’uomo for saying ‘the man’ in Italian(lo uomo....not il uomo)/ also we use ‘gli occhi’ for saying ‘the eyes’(we don’t use i occhi)
here ‘uomini’ is a masculine gender and plural number which is beginning with a vowel (‘u’) so here the article ‘i’ changes to ‘gli’ and so we say like ‘gli uomini’ for saying ‘the men’
Hope I became able to clear everybody’s doubt....
My italian was: gli uomini bevono acqua yet the correct answer was l'acqua. I thought including or not including the article was correct. Help on this?
The "l" in front acqua means "the" and they wanted to know how to say "the water" in italian.
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L' is a contraction of lo that is used with words that start with vowels. Because it is technically a contraction of lo, its plural is gli:
Lo spaghetto > gli spaghetti
Lo zucchero > gli zuccheri
L'uomo > gli uomini
Just one of the quirks of Italian.
In Italian as we know for masculine singular we use the article ‘il’ and for masculine plural we use the article ‘i’....but there are some conditions also if a masculine word starts with vowel,/s+consonant,/z,/h,/y then for masculine singular the article changes to ‘lo’ from ‘il’ and as well as for masculine plural the article becomes to ‘gli’ instead of ‘i’. i.e.- we use l’uomo for saying ‘the man’ in Italian(lo uomo....not il uomo)/ also we use ‘gli occhi’ for saying ‘the eyes’(we don’t use i occhi)
here ‘uomini’ is a masculine gender and plural number which is beginning with a vowel (‘u’) so here the article ‘i’ changes to ‘gli’ and so we say like ‘gli uomini’ for saying ‘the men’
Hope I became able to clear everybody’s doubt....
Gli is pronounced the way English speakers say the ill part of the word millionare.
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Specifically the lli sound. Millionaire, gli uomini. Just replace the short "ih" sound for a long "eeh" sound.
The compounds "gn" and "gl" are usually pronounced in a way that has no direct equivalent in English; "gli" doesn't sound the same as "li" at all.
This site has some examples you can listen to: http://languagespeedway.com/page/official/italian/pronunciation6gnandgli
Aw too bad :(
The sound in "li" is an alveolar lateral approximant (/l/), while the one in "gli" is an alveolo-palatal lateral approximant (/ʎ̟/): the first is pronounced by touching the palate with the tip of your tongue, while the latter by touching it with the middle of it. You can listen to their pronunciation by clicking on the play button in their DOP entries: li, gli.
As a side note, in the area in and around Rome there's a phenomenon similar to the Spanish yeísmo, and in the local dialect "gli" is often pronounced "yi" (/ji/).
How comes the correct sentence here is "Gli uomini bevono l'acqua", and not "Gli uomini bevete l'acqua"?
I thought bevono was for when I spoke of myself.
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Io bevo --------- noi beviamo
tu bevi ---------- voi bevete
lui/lei beve ----- loro bevono
The men, they........ Not the men, you (plural)......
Because l' is singular (the man-l'uomo) and gli is plural (the men-gli uomini).
Because you wouldn't be translating "the"; there are several cases when Italian uses an article and English doesn't, but for the most part when you have an article in English you have to use one in Italian as well.
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Victor, I'm not sure if I understand what you are asking. Second person singular is "you/tu", second person plural is "you/voi", third person singular is "he or she/lui or lei" and third person plural is "they/loro". One uses "you/tu" when talking to one person. One uses "they/loro" when talking about more than one person. One uses "you/voi" when talking to more than one person. In English, context will let you know if "you" means one or more than one person. We can see if we are talking to one or more people, or if we are reading, the sentences that came before the one we are reading will let us know if one or more than one person is meant.
In Duolingo, if "you" is used with no other information, both the singular or plural will be accepted as correct. There should be no confusion between 2nd or 3rd person plural because they are different words in both English and Italian; "you and they" and "voi and loro".
I hope I answered what you were asking.
Why is l there when you guys know it's not supposed to be there I'm just getting tired of just silly question to something about it
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Most English words are made plural by adding an "s" to the end of the word, but not all. The plural of "man" is "men not "mans".
