"Sono bassa."
Translation:I am short.
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367
What I don't get is that I already got "Sono basso" for the same translation. Are they interchangeable for referring to yourself, or does your own gender matter?
Gender matters. "Basso" is masculine singular, whereas "bassa" is feminine singular.
- 691
"bassi" is correct if the "they" refers to all males or a mixed group of males and females. But referring to a group that is all female, you would use "basse":
They (the girls) are short = Sono basse
For persons: basso/a is used for people who/things that are not tall >> short. In other situations it would be "low" Alta marea <> bass marea. High tide <> low tide.
- 691
In English, there is a difference between "short" and "small". The word "short" is the opposite of "tall". The word "small" is the opposite of "big" or "large".
People who are short tend to be small and vice versa, but that does not change the fact that two different words are used in English for the related but different qualities.
The Italian for small = not big is "piccolo".
I wrote "I am low", referring to feeling down or depressed, though as an English speaker I admit I would more likely say "I am feeling low". Just curious though, can "Sono basso/a" refer to feeling low or depressed?
- Short (height): Use basso (bassa/ bassi/ basse)
- Short (length): Use corto (match gender/ quantity)
- Short (time): Use breve
- Short (missing; not there): Use insufficiente
- 902
i don't understand why Duo marks: i am small as wrong ???
as far as i know, brits would hardly say: i am short, rather small !!
Because "bassa" doesn't mean "small"; it means "short"; small and short are not the same in English, nor are they in Italian (in the Italian versions of the English)' and sorry English would and do say short if that is what they are. Napoleon was short. Who would say he was "small"?
In English, we do sometimes say that someone is small, rather than short....
- 691
It's not incorrect if the speaker is male. But 'bassa' is correct if the speaker is female.
i got the sono basso and answered i am low, it is correct when i got this one which is the same except feminine i gave the same answer but it was wrong. makes no sense, it doesnt necessarely have to be short. sono basso could also be im bassy if im not mistaken. same strange/annoying thing with piccola where it refered to young and small was wrong. This makes no sense what so ever.
- 691
The sentence begins "I am ...". Either a man or a woman could be speaking.
If a man says this sentence, he uses "basso" because he is male. If a woman says this sentence, she uses "bassa" because she is female.
- 691
You can't tell by the pitch of the voice. For example, a woman reading a recorded novel would read all the characters, male and female.
Futhermore, the computer voice is created after the written sentence. So just look at the written sentence. It is correct Italian as written by a woman.
How do you know if sono is masculine or feminine first person? Is it just a guess?
- 691
Virginia, the word "sono" is neither masculine nor feminine. Those labels apply only to nouns, pronouns, and adjectives.
The word "sono" is a verb. It is not "sono", but rather the adjective that comes after it, that tells you whether a man or a woman is saying the sentence. The word "basso" would be used by a male referring to himself, the word "bassa" by a woman referring to herself.
In this DL exercise, we are given the Italian first. The Italian happens to use "bassa". So there is no guess involved. It is a woman who is talking/writing.
If we were starting with the English "I am short", we could translate that using either "basso" or "bassa", depending on whether we assumed "I" to be a man or a woman.
Same question here: why couldn't 'Sono bassa' translate to 'I am low'. For example, being high or low on a mountain?
So if sono basso is masc and sono bassa is feminin. They should not give a wrong to sono bassa, because we do not know who is short her or him, no?
If the person is saying "sono bassa" it is because she is identifying as female. And yes we do know it is her because she just made the statement. Is there another conclusion here that makes any logical sense? I don't think so.
I think Duolingo need to be clear that this is not a course for complete beginners and cannot be done by the average person in 5 minutes a day. After 6 months, I still couldn't do much more than order a coffee when I go to Italy.
Surely, in English 'Bassa' should be small or little. Here in England 'I am short' can mean without money or change.
- 691
In English, there is a difference between "short" and "small". The word "short" is the opposite of "tall". The word "small" is the opposite of "big" or "large".
People who are short tend to be small and vice versa, but that does not change the fact that two different words are used in English for the related but different qualities.
The Italian for small = not big is "piccolo".
Short (height): Use basso (bassa/ bassi/ basse)
Short (length): Use corto (match gender/ quantity)
Short (time): Use breve
Short (missing; not there): Use insufficiente
That new little voice does non enunciate as well as the mature ones.