"La ragazza è una cintura nera."
Translation:The girl is a black belt.
107 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
il significato è the girl is a black belt. therefore, she's in martial arts and has a black belt. hope this helps
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Does this really have the same meaning in Italian? I would have thought ha, not è, for someone who owned a martial arts Black Belt.
Thank you for the explanation. You've been very helpful. I didn't think of the obvious.
At first I was like "What, the girl is a black belt?!" but then I realised the girl is a BLACK BELT. >.<
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I was confused until I got to the end of the sentence. Do they really say it this way in italian?
In Italy we say "la ragazza è una cintura nera" meaning that she is an expert in martial arts.
We have a lot of this kind of expression: we use a tipical piece of livery to indicate the person's role.
Other examples:
- "Quell'uomo è un ghisa" = That man is a cast iron (=traffic policeman)" for the typical hat;
- "Lei è un camice bianco" = She is a *White coat" (=doctor) it should be the same in English, I think;
- "Lui è un colletto bianco" = He is a white collar";
etc.
Well, actually this is also the way to say it in English. "Black belt" is a way to express the proficiency in martial arts. It is used in English as well.
https://www.google.se/#q=%22he+is+a+black+belt%22
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I know they say it in english. I was asking if they really also say it that way in italian.
found this old sweet children's song, and thought it would be appropriate to share here, since it talks about colours, that we are learning here now https://youtu.be/XgXVr0ZkbIY ENJOY!
So what if I want to say the boy/guy is a black belt? "Il ragazzo è UNO cintura nera??" This doesn't sound quite right to me.
The article would match cintura, which is a feminine noun, that is una.
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In SixSigma Quality Management there are green belts, black belts and champions. I think this might fit also here in this context.
She IS a black belt! Like as in karate she's a black belt in karate come on people
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when i first read this i was like "the girl is a belt... a black belt? what???" and then i remembered martial arts are a thing
I've never seen it spelled with a c, but yes Karate uses the colored belt system, although it was developed for Judo. I think it's common among the martial arts.
Thanks for the comments. In Polish it does not seem that simple "is a black belt" equals "has ranked a black belt"! Very helpful.
All girls can wear and have black-belts, only a few (the martial sportswomen) are black-belts. "The girl is a black belt." is a strange sentence for most people, I think. Please, give us a hint in these cases Duo.
It took me too long to relise they wete talkig about martial arts and i did tae kwon do. I thought it was saying that she is a belt.
I miei due centesimi (my two cents)
Anche in portoghese si può dire allo stesso modo: "A garota é uma faixa preta" (La ragazza è una cintura nera)
Ma il più comune sarebbe senza l'articolo indefinito (uno) "A garota é faixa preto" in aikido. Quello che credo è il modo più comune di esprimermi in portoghese brasiliano.
Anche la traduzione in inglese mi ha confuso molto, per questo motivo avrei tradotto "The girl has a black belt" IMVHO Direi "has a black belt" invece di "is a black belt"
Ad ogni modo se lei "ha" una cintura nera in qualche arte marziale (meglio se fosse stato aikido) sia in italiano che in portoghese, IMHO, lei "diventa" una cintura nera.
found this sweet old children's song about colours, and thought it appropriate to share here. https://youtu.be/XgXVr0ZkbIY ENJOY!
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I suppose since I am also a black belt, this held no problem for me. :) I came to the discussion thinking I would see who else commented that they are also in martial arts. I figured it would be a discussion on styles and ranks. Imagine my surprise that people were confused by the meaning of the sentence!!! I had no idea!
Jay - Well that may well have become the ambition of that girl in the third Karate Kid movie. About the only thing that I remember about that movie is that it was filmed in and around my old high school. I am never sure with comments like this whether you are unaware of martial arts terminology, and therefore don't understand how a person can "be" a black belt, or whether you don't think a girl might have that goal.
I didn't think being a black belt was something that was ever really casual. Do you perhaps mean incidentally, or as they say in Spanish por casualidad?
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We say the same thing in Italian. It has to do with "am" and with "me", not with the object. It's like saying "for example". Quite colloquial ☺️
The issue here is learning to look beyond the logic of the individual words when it makes sense to do so. Probably most people have come across the idea of being a black belt in a martial art before. But the issue here is that most people decide that what should be done is to change the sentence instead of trying to figure out what it does mean. That's not a productive instinct in language learning. I didn't "hear" this sentence correctly the first time around. But I knew enough Italian to be 100% sure what this sentence was saying. So that's when I figured out the meaning. The point is never to assume the sentence is just wrong.
dear ms Lynette! i admire your patience in trying to explain time and again to "new" students how to interpretate this sentence! Please dont give up!
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Ms Lynette, thank you for your answer, but I talk about other nuance. This is only start learning languige, beginning of first level, when a stundents think about languige, not about traditional phraseological language expressions and meanings (it can be use further, advanced level), but now, simple examples ,for beginning, please. Learn language and develop thinking are different targets. And we see 242 debatable comments here, it is unambiguous indicator of problematic material. P.S. excuse my mistakes, English is not my native language
So do you think Italian talk lite robots: subject, verb and object, no phrasal verbs, no expressions?
I am afraid you're in for a major disappointment.
Yes, 242 (and counting) comments from people who have not read any of the other comments, which says a lot about the nature of those people, more than the content of the sentence.
I don't see any difference between this sentence and, say, Ho fame. Why is è una cintura nera any different from how Italians express the feeling of being hungry? Have you been correcting the sentence ho fame to sono affamato (possible in Italian) because "it makes more sense to you"?
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My respect for your great expirience, Muttley (17 languages - it's really phenomenal!). But please again: put yourself in the place of a beginner learning a language. That's all, I have no other words to explain so simple things. If you are sure that this is the right path, answer the questions here further; it's not my problem anymore. The topic is: "Colors", not "Idioms". Why this topic contained idiomatic expression? It is really offtop. With regards...
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why doesn't anyone complain about pink elephants in clothes or other animals talking? why does THIS phrase bother you, which for others is absolutely normal?!?!?!?!?
Does anyone have an explanation as far as the spelling difference of colors as in nera/nere/nero and when to use them?
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Most (but not all) color words are declined depending on the gender and the number of the noun the color word modifies. In that respect, most color words are like other Italian adjectives.
So, for example:
nera -> feminine singular
nere -> feminine plural
nero -> masculine singular
etc.
Colors are always adjectives, and they mostly must agree in gender and number with the noun they modify, although there are a few color adjective that don't change, like rosa (as opposed to rosso). When you have the most common situation where a singular masculine noun ends in o and a singular feminine noun ends in a, then the final vowel of the adjective will be the same as the noun. So you have il cappello nero, la camicia nera, i capelli neri and le camicie nere. The endings of all articles except il also match. When you have a feminine noun that ends in e, you will have a difference in the plural, however, because nouns ending in e change to i in the plural regardless of their gender. But if you know the gender, it's not an issue.
got really confused untill i realised it was about martial arts lmao