"The animal eats its own food."
Translation:L'animale mangia il proprio cibo.
37 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Proprio-/a-/-/-e is only used with the third person (both singular and plural) and is not to be used with the possessive suo/-a/-oi/-e. Though there may be no difference between his and her, Italian does differentiate between when the object in the sentence belongs to the subject (proprio/-a/-/-e) and when it's someone else's other than the subject (suo/-a/-oi/-e). E.g. "La donna adora la propria manicure" -> "The woman loves her own manicure" "La donna lava i suoi pantaloni" ->"She washes her/his trousers"
So it should not have accepted "l'animale mangia il suo proprio cibo" then?
I would like clarification on that, it's not mandatory to use "proprio", correct? I agree it adds ambiguity not to, but it's not incorrect to not use "proprio" even if the object belongs to the subject?
If that's the case, then simply reading "suo" and its variations would potentially hold ambiguity, correct?
I'm asking because French holds such ambiguity, and if we want to get rid of it, we add an optional "propre", but it's not mandatory, context usually is enough. Would just want to know if it works the same way in Italian.
I found this online:
"If the possessor is also the subject of the sentence, "proprio" may be used instead of "suo" or "loro": "Giovanni porta la propria valigia" <John carries his own suitcase>. "Proprio" MUST be used after impersonal expressions: "Bisogna portare le proprie valige" <One must carry one's own pieces of luggage."
About 'articoli' in general: singular:
- il - masculine (usually ends with '-o')
- lo - masculine when word start with 's-', 'z-', 'ps-', etc
- la - feminine (usually ends with '-a')
- l' - feminine (like abbrev. for 'la') or masculine (like abbrev. for 'lo') when word starts with a vowel
plural:
- i - masculine - when singular is 'il'
- gli - masculine - when singular is "lo" or "l' "-masculine
- le - feminine - when singular is "la" or "l' "-feminine
So answering your question - 'il' is singular and 'i' is plural
I put "cibo propio" instead of "propio cibo" and said i was wrong. Is that corret?
So the way I understand it, when the object in the sentence belongs to the subject then saying "proprio" is enough and one should not say "suo proprio." But when the object does not belong to the subject then one uses "suo/sua/suoi/sue"?
Okay, I'll admit I'm terrible with languages so it might take me longer than most to learn the basics, but why is it for this question - and others - the first translation when a word is highlighted is not the correct translation? I was unsure so I dragged the cursor over 'its own' and the first option was propria, which was wrong. This happens all the time.
909
Why does it keep telling me that proprio means really and then suddenly it means own!!
- 2159
"his own" came up as one of the correct answers for the multiple choice and it should not be a correct as proprio means only "its own".
- 213
So then, "il suo proprio cibo" is not right. Even though the woman's own handbag was "la tua propria borsa"
Usually you would use gli if you say gli animali which is the animals but l'animale is the animal and in this case l is the start of la (feminine the) it would now be a feminine case not a plural
The same as "an animal" and "a animal" in English - the second just isn't correct. With singular noun starting with vowel we use " l' "
I'm having difficulty understanding when to use indefinite or definite article before "proprio". I thought it was a case of singular vs plural, but this proved me wrong. Is the indefinite article used here where we would say in English, for the subject, "a something" instead of "the something"?
I responded "L'animale mangia proprio il cibo" and it told me it should be " L'animale mangia il cibo" so I put that next time and it told me that it should be "L'animale mangia il proprio cibo"... Any reason why it did that?
There seems to be an errror, Duolingo keeps saying I am wrong but my answer is the same as in the corrected version. I cannot pass the lesson.
Oh, I understand now. No need to use another possessive with it (suo, sua etc.) because it is one all on its own.
I do not understand when to use propriO/propriA? Can anyone tell me the difference?
I clicked on ''L'animale mangia il proprio cibo'', which Duolingo says is the correct answer, and I am marked wrong???
- 510
I have repeatedly typed out both " il propio" and "i propio" and it still says my answer is wrong?
- 1081
"Mangia" is 3rd person singular: he, she, or it. It is used for one animal, like in this sentence.
Mangiano is 3rd person plural: they. It would be used if more than one animal were being spoken about.