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- Topic: Italian >
- "Ho chiamato le mie zie."
51 Comments
Most of my family comes from Italy, and to say auntie we say something like "zizzi." I don't really know how to spell it, because it's always verbal and never written. It's pronounced like "dzits-tsi."
I understand but in Ireland I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "aunts" or even "aunt" singular, it just sounds very formal and not like you're talking about a close family member. One aunty two aunties.
Oliviakins: In the US aunt is probably the most common term for the sister of a parent. In most parts of the US it's pronounced to rhyme with 'want', and as a form of address it's quite often lengthened to "auntie", while in the south it's pronounced 'ant' like the pesky little critter we're all familiar with.
Oh I know it's a word, the problem is it's not the only correct way of speaking.
Oliviakins: I agree completely. I was just trying to clarify how the word's used in the US. I'm sure there are a number of other English terms for this particular relative.
That's interesting, because in the US aunt is very casual when talking about your aunt and auntie is really only used by small kids or when addressing your aunt. And I'm pretty sure all English courses on Duo are American-English based, and we would never say "my auntie(s)" to someone, so that's probably why. But it should be accepted.
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I agree, put I I called my aunties on Halloween 2014 and it was marked as wrong. I've reported it as should be accepted.
I just added "aunties" as a possibility. : ) Keep reporting those different regional variations - I try to add them as I see them.
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It's not slang.. it's slightly informal. It's pretty global when it comes to usage, not sure why you think it's Aussie.
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Aunties is a correct translation of zie. Aunt and aunts are used more formally at least in Australia. Some of the words and spelling used in Duolingo are particularly American, eg candies.... Sweets or lollies.
JonMorris: Where I grew up in the US (Rhode Island), we said "auntie(s)" so I don't think it's restricted to the UK.
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Why is the definite article used here? I thought that it was dropped before possessive adjectives when referring to family members.
The definite article is only dropped if it's singular (eg. 'mia zia'). With plurals it's kept ('le mie zie').
SoBroithe: "to call ON" in English can mean "to stop by to visit" ; it can mean 'to request something of someone"; it can mean "to ask someone to answer a question" as a teacher might. These uses are different than simply 'to call' which means 'to (tele)phone'.
Thanks, Germanlehrerlsu. Your answer makes sense. But I don't understand why "called on" was given as a clue if it's incorrect.
SoBroithe: I don't know either. "Chiamare" of course has other meanings as in "to call someone by a certain name," or "to summon someone" and so forth, but I'm not familiar with any use of it in the sense of "to call on".
Italian adjectives:
Amico = male friend Amica = female friend Amici = males only or male and female friends even if you have 6 girls and a boy it is AMICI Amiche = female only friends
Just been hit by the "Aunties" trick on the last question on my last heart. Sound.
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Why is it "le mie zie"? I thought the rule was that with family it was not correct to use the article "le".
See RWln1969.... The article is only omitted in the singular with family members! It's needed in the plural.
- 1952
- chiamare (chi amare) = to call (whom to love)
- chi
edere = to ask, to demand - chi
udere = to close, to shut
In the south, the pronunciation of 'aunt' is 'ant'. It's not spelled that way though, just pronounced as such.
As I said above, 'ant' is only pronounced that way in the south, I've never seen it actually spelled that way, rather it's spelled 'aunt'. Perhaps elsewhere in the US it's in fact spelled and pronounced the same way, namely 'ant'. (If wrong I'll be sure to cry 'uncle'!) :-)
MAMMA MIA!! I never said it was spelled "ANT", but we do SAY ANT...AUNT...AUNTIE. Hai capito?
The orig question was: "Are you sure about 'ant'? Would you really call your aunt an insect?" - Your answer as best as could be seen from your answer, was 'yes.' That implied to me you spelled it the way you pronounced it. If that wasn't the case and I misunderstood your answer, then you should have been a bit more specific.
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Please take a look at your original comment. How would you expect people to extrapolate this particular interpretation from it? The word 'use' doesn't exactly mean 'pronounce'. Besides this thread is not about how the word 'aunt' is pronounced in English, it's about which words are best used to translate 'zia'. So of course, people's default interpretation of your comment would be about the spelling, not pronounciation.
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If this lesson is going to teach Italian Present Perfect, it would help to be consistent in using the English Present Perfect. Many Americans ignore this tense (I HAVE called) and substitute the simple or 'completed' perfect (I CALLED). The difference is important. If you are accustomed to using English Present Perfect, translating to many European languages is easy because they use the auxiliary verb HAVE in exactly the same way.
The Italian passato prossimo is not used in the same way as the English present perfect. The English use is much more restricted. So while you would use this tense in Italian to translate the English present perfect (in most cases), you would also use it where English would only use the simple past. It's important that people learning the language realize this, which is why the default translations (the ones that show up automatically) vary between present perfect and the simple past. However, unless context would not permit it (for example, a sentence like "I have called them last week" would not work grammatically in English), you should find that the present perfect is accepted as an answer.
Thank you, I was thinking why sometimes they give the 'have' and sometimes they don't give it to form the translation... I'm still a little confused by these past tenses and probsbly doesn't help that English isn't my first language either...
JohnR...If that's exactly what you wrote it's incorrect, because aunt's is the singular possessive form, not a plural: aunts.
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there was no apostrophe in my answer to DL. The point is the use of "did call" rather than "called"
