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- "Non l'ho mai detta."
"Non l'ho mai detta."
Translation:I have never said it.
24 Comments
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i've noticed that a lot of these correct answers change from requiring "have" to not requiring it. it is very inconsistent, and that makes it hard to learn the correct usage.
Could this also be translated as "I have never told her"? If not, is this wrong because "to tell" and "to say" are different verbs in Italian as well? Duo didn't approve, but I'm curious for its ambiguity.
Because of the form "detta" it can only be Duolingo's translation. It is a rather difficult concept: non l'ho detto = I (have) not said it. "I did not tell him" is to be translated as "I did not tell him it." "Non gliel' ho detto." Where "glielo" means "(to) him it". Incidently: for "her" you should use the same form in this phrase. (sorry) You know of course that participium perfectum in specific situations shows the gender of the word it refers to. "Si è sedutA"= SHE sat down. "Si è seduto"= HE sat down. For the use of dettA see my other post.
I believe "to tell someone [something]" would use the indirect object pronoun, while "to say something" would use the direct object pronoun. So "I have never told her" would be "Non gliel'ho detto" while "Non l'ho detta" would still be "I never said it"...
The problem here is that Duolingo listed the meaning for "dettare" rather than "dire." I put "never dictated it" because DL listed it. I thought they had made a mistake by not using "dettata." And when you get the conjugation, it is for "dettare," not for "dire."
"dictated" is "dettato/a". in this case "dettA" is used because the -l'- is supposed to refer to a female word like "bugia"
Is this a case where "detta" is feminine if the speaker is female, and "detto" if the speaker is male? Or is "detta" matching the gender of the "it/words" being spoken?
It is a bit tricky, indeed .. if the present perfect is built with "essere" the participle has the gender of the subject. If it is built with "avere" and direct object, there is no change. If the object is replaced by a pronoun, then the participle carries the gender of the pronoun.
From the opposite corner of USA (Ga.) saying "not ever" carries more emphasis than "never".
I was born in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA and lived near there until I was almost 19. There's definitely a distinctive set of dialects there, and strong class implications associated with each one.
One of my cousins yelled at his kids for playing too loudly, saw me grinning at him, smiled back and said, "It's not like none of us never done nothing like that." It may be the only quadruple negative I ever found in the field, and all it meant was "I know; we did that too." But I don't expect Duolingo to accept dialect.
That said, I do think I can imagine a standard speaker saying "I have not ever said it!" with a strong emphasis on "ever." (Per your suggestion.) Still, I think that's far enough from mainstream use that I wouldn't expect Duolingo to accept it. Still, it wouldn't hurt if they did. They accept worse things.
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" I never said it." is simple past tense in English, which is a correct translation of passato prossimo in Italian
