"The animal eats its own food."

[lex25288]

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"

[tmac876]

La risposta fantastica! Grazie!

[ofred19]

So it should not have accepted "l'animale mangia il suo proprio cibo" then?

[JLMoriart]

I think that that's correct, given the above post, since the animal is the subject of the sentence?

[Kotza]

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."

[MABBY]

So then, "il suo proprio cibo" is not right. Even though the woman's own handbag was "la tua propria borsa"

[Nonna602151]

I did that, too, and I suspect it's a redundancy.

[JudithStei2]

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"?

[GinaWilliamson]

Do we always use an article before "proprio?"

[tavonnador]

Why would it be L'animale instead of gli animale?

[Tixor]

Because "animale" is singular.

[Joseph839483]

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

[Alexsalgado68]

When do I write "il" instead of "su"

[Geminizoe]

What is the difference between "L'animale" and il animale?

[linbrethil]

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' "

[dessecmd]

how does one know when to use the masculine or the feminine form?

[Trekcicity]

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"?

[RockyLaV]

I put "cibo propio" instead of "propio cibo" and said i was wrong. Is that corret?

[Dr.Mystetious]

Correct answer listed twice. Checking both yields incorrect. One must be a misprint. Duo should fix.

[NachoDragon]

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?

[tt_sodabobby]

this makes absolutely no sense at all to me

[The_Lionheart]

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.

[pam79949]

I will never get this right

[pam79949]

I will never get this right

[Hus_Herah]

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.

[cabev53]

I thought "il suo" was "her" or "his", not "its own".

[dnovinc]

Here we have "il proprio" not "il suo" .

[cabev53]

"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".

[JLMoriart]

I think it can be "his own" when "he" is the subject of the sentence?

[rosamarianoname]

When do you use "i" and when use "il" ?

[linbrethil]

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

[Tonycooks]

When do you use "i" and "il" ?

[Tracie279235]

Both are masculine. "il" is singular, "i" is plural.

[AlexGrudin]

il pasto = the food; il cibo = the meal, therefore I believe the correct answer should be "L'animale mangia il suo pasto" and not L'animale mangia il suo cibo.

[JudithStei2]

I belive that il pasto = the meal and il cibo = the food, so the answer is l'animale mangia il proprio cibo