"L'acqua è limpida."
Translation:The water is clear.
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Syntactically you are perfectly right: "L'acqua è blu" can be translated with "Water is blue" or "The water is blue".
I believe it was not accepted because it sounds somehow strange. "Limpido" means crystal clear, so it does no apply to water in general. Another examples is "I gatti sono bianchi": an italian speaker would always interpret this sentence as "The cats are white", not as "Cats are white" because it can't be an universal statement.
Not necessarily--the definite article ("the") is used differently in Italian and English. In Italian, when you refer to a thing in general (in the subject of a sentence!), you actually use the definite article (if you want to use singular form), if I remember correctly. "L'uomo pensa." Man thinks. "Lo spagnolo è bello." Spanish is beautiful. "Il gatto è un animale indipendente." Cats are independent animals. "La felicità è una pistola fumente." Happiness is a warm gun. Maybe this is only true when the thing in question isn't tangible? (Happiness, Spanish, humanity, love, etc.) I don't remember for sure.
1030
Shoudln't "the water is clean" be accepted as well? Clean as in not polluted, safe to drink.
501
Well, technically, "clean" can suggest something that was, for example, dusted or polished, while "clear" speaks more to the object's transparency. So, the water may be clear because one can see through it very well, but it might not be necessarily clean as it can still have many invisible bacteria and whatever else crawling around in it.
1030
Good point. I think part of my confusion is that limpio (esp.) = clean.
Edit: (since I can't reply anymore) I only ever knew claro, but apparently there is límpido as well.
501
Yeah, the two notions can get melded together often. :D I recommend reading the post added above by s84606. It really clears things up and adds more dimensions to the question. XD Yeah, I know what you mean. But in Portuguese, and IDK if the same can be said for Spanish, we have «limpo» = "clean" and «límpido» = "clear."
739
Apparently water has it's own unique word for it: limpida. But it means the same. I hear that you would usually not say chiara for water. Chiara is for a clear sky, a clear night, etc. Yeah I know it's a bit odd.
501
Ambidue delle parole si possono usare con gli oggetti fisici, credo io, ma soltanto «chiaro» si usa nelle conversazioni, per esempio «È chiaro?»
I believe there are some other differences: "limpido" applies to transparent objects only (normally fluids), and is the opposite to "torbido" (murky). "Chiaro" can apply to opaque objects as well, to say they have a light color.
So, for instance a light gray dress can be definied as "chiaro" but not "limpido".
Also, "limpido" is clearer than "chiaro". For instance "la notte è chiara" means that there's a lot of light (e.g. there's a full moon), while "la notte è limpida" means that you can see a lot of stars. "Una voce chiara" means that words are clear to understand, "una voce limpida" means that is also somehow melodious.
This applies to your examples as well: a standard semi-humurous response to "È chiaro?" is "Limpido!".
Chiaro also means "bright," not just "light colored." For example, a song I learned begins, "Già il sole dal Gange / Più chiaro sfavilla" which means something like "Already the sun shines most bright[ly] from the Ganges [River]."
What I don't know is whether something can be lightly colored but dull (as opposed to "brightly" or "vibrantly" colored) and still be considered "chiaro." Part of my thinks not, but I also know that the opposite of "chiaro" is generally "scuro" which means dark, not dull. (Fun fact: in painting and drawing, using sharp contrasts in bright/light and dark shading is called "chiaroscuro" shading, from chiaro and scuro.)
If it's not scuro (dark), it must be chiaro (bright)... that's what I think too. It most certainly is that way in a chiaroscuro painting or drawing. But our world is not a giant chiaroscuro painting. Let's say you're comparing neon blue to light beige. Are both of them bright colors? Yes, in English they most certainly are. Is neon blue darker than light beige? Not really. Neon blue is a vibrant color but not a dark color. Just look at someone wearing a neon shirt - nope, that's not a dark color at all! Not much darker than white if you stare at it for a while.
Unless there is an Italian word meaning vibrant(ly), chiaro has to include vibrant neon and light pastel colors.
So we really need to show an Italian a hot pink and a lighter but much less vibrant pink (like Kirby), and as which is more chiaro. The way I would describe it in English would be to say that the hot pink is brighter but darker and the Kirby pink is lighter but less bright (or more dull or mellow), so I'm curious how the distinction would be made in Italian.
501
If you are talking about whether you want to say something like "light blue," that in Italian would be said «azzurro/blu chiaro». :)