- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "Quanti anni ha lui?"
22 Comments
I translated it rather literally, as "How many years does he have?" but apparently that's incorrect... Is it really incorrect, or should it be accepted?
Your translation seems really useful in that it demonstrates how Italian is used and teaches us how to think about the way to form correct Italian sentences. In my opinion, literal translation should always be accepted, then a better more idiomatic phrase may be suggested within the current format of duolingo. Suggest you report it for the experts to have a think about.
You're right, usually both literal and idiomatic phrases do work, but knowing how to express age is pretty important and 'how many years does he have' sounds more like a question for a crystal ball ;)
Not necessarily. Consider: "He has to finish his course work before his stipend runs out." "How many years does he have?"
"When he pays off his mortgage, he can afford to travel." "How many years does he have?"
. . . but how would you say that differently in Italian?
quanti anni ha lui fino whatever you want to ask about (maybe, i'm only learning)
I don't agree. One of the keys to learning a language is to think in the target language.
136
Lol me too! I thought the scenario was someone asking a doctor how many years does he have left!
I did that several times, on one it was correct, the other said I was wrong.
I was weary when I read that sentence. Reminded me a little a bit of Spanish. Did the same mistake with tengo and never again. Seems like my hunch was write.
Though it was 6 years since Chris123456 posted about literal translation, for me it holds true today. To understand the language that is foreign to oneself it is important to understand the literal and the suggestive to more fully grasp the language
For those who are still confused: "Quanti anni ha lui?" is the same as "'how old is he?" but could also mean "how many years does he have?" as in a disease-death sentence or something. In my opinion, however, "how old is he?" is a better translation because this is one of the most basic units, so you're supposed to be learning how to ask someone their age.
- 200
"How many years does he have?" is not how you'd say it in English. You'd say "How old is he?"
I translated: "How many years is he old" - wrong! Correct would have been: "How many years old's he" Is there a native english speaker to explain me the difference please?
First, "How many years old's he" is also not a good answer in English. Please report it.
Second, in English you would usually just say "How old is he?" especially if you're measuring in years. Perhaps if you were measuring in days, you might say "How many days old is he?" Note the word order: "how many . . . old" has to go together.
I'm not native English speaker, but it's always "How old is he", "How is he doing" and etc. Him is a pronoun, but you are asking about he directly in these cases... arghhh I don't know how to explain it but I just know it's the way it is.
"he" is the subject pronoun (e.g. what is he doing, who does he think he is, how many children has he got?). "Him" is the object pronoun (e.g. I like him, I told him).
