46 Comments
I think it's more probable that this sentence comes from a tale, like "cappuccetto rosso" ("little red riding hood") for example, and in this case it isn't a habit or repeated action. In my opinion the past continuous is the best solution. Of course I can't exclude other solutions, but you have to show a valid context.
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It is a very likely explanation, but where the sentence fails is.,that in using the imperfect tense, one of its uses is, that something was happening in the past when something else happened. So using this condition it would be clear in its use as:- the wolf was coming from the street when the gamekeeper saw it and shot it. 'Used to come from the street etc etc',using the same condition would also be legitimate here, too.
Most Likely the wolf was coming down the street, unless of course the wolf had spent some time in the street, which is highly unlikely, but not impossible. perhaps he was going door to door selling cookies or something. If it had been a child coming from the street it would mean the child was homeless and had been living outside , thus if offered shelter the child would have been coming from the street ( an idiomatic expression)
I thought the best English translation would be "was coming down the street", but I answered "was coming from the street" because I thought that answer would be more likely to be accepted.
There's an underlying problem to DL in that people try to avoid having their answer marked wrong, so they may not use the most natural English expression. Sadly when people learning English see these suboptimal translations, they think that this is how English speakers would express themselves.
Maybe they do it so as to ensure we rely on grammar knowledge rather than common sense. With respect to nonsense regarding wolves appearing from roads, you can blame Parrault.
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It is not that nonsensical, according to reports on the Israeli media, this can be a pretty real situation if You are visiting Ein Gedi.
For crying out loud, in every previous example so far, "used to" has been accepted. Now, for no apparent reason, it's marked wrong. Irritating.
Similarly to "used to" I tried "the wolf would come from the street". Wouldn't that be correct as well?
Is this similar to English idiom "The wolf is at the door" meaning bad things are coming?
The wolf was coming from the street to a yard where chickens could be found. The wolf was coming from the street when it saw a cat. The cat did not see the wolf that was coming from the street. A German Shepherd was guarding the yard and saw the wolf coming from the street. I think it really was crossing the street because it wanted to get to the other side!!
It seems like an action that happened in one moment, not like a state or a description of a situation.
Not necessarily - it describes the progress of the wolf over a period of time in the past. Ie: the wolf was taking his time, milking the adulation/fear, poping it up in a medieval kind of way.
"The wolf was coming / came / used to come / would come from the street" are all possible translations for the Italian sentence. It depends from the meaning of the phrase and you need the context for understand. If I add, e.g. "Ogni sera il lupo arrivava dalla strada", of course "would come" is right and "was coming" wrong.
I think the answer yes. That construction in English is a conditional tense, while in Italian we are learning simple past, I have not yet arrived to that part of the tree, but in French and Spanish, both very related to Italian.
There is a difference between:
The wolf would come (Fr: le loup viendrait / Sp El lobo vendría) vs:
The wolf was coming/came (Fr: Le loup est venu/venait / Sp. El lobo venía/vino)
I hope this helps
Thanks, MardukSky. I do see what you mean about the conditional. But there is also an English usage of "would" that implies a habitual behavior, such as the "The child's parents would always read him a bedtime story." If the wolf came every evening from the street, them maybe this would work here? But yeah, if we're to keep our "would's" in Duolingo to the conditional, then I'll do that :-)
I understand that "veniva" is a time passed not something that is happening, why is coming?
Ok, American English speaker here... how do you conclude came from of coming from the street? I am confused here. I got The wolf was by the street, which was marked as wrong, but did not anticipate came from or coming from to be included. Could someone explain please? Thanks!
The verb venire - from which veniva (the imperfect tense) derives - means "to come". So you need to translate this sentence with an English form of "come" - hence, the wolf was coming from the street. "The wolf was by the street" has an entirely different (though not very clear) meaning, and would be something like "il lupo era sulla strada" or "il lupo era accanto alla strada".
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Instead of "was coming" can I use came and it would still be translated correctly?
If I have one real beef with Duolingo, it's that their English translations play fast and loose with tense. Past imperfect and simple preterite are not the same! (He ran vs He was running)
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Please a different HILITE color . Yellow can NOT Be seen properly. Green or blue. Maybe PLEASE
