- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "Aspettiamo da decenni."
63 Comments
they should put all grammical stuff under a new tab. thats the easiest way for my realistic brain to catch a language..
the way it seems now- when it will be time to learn past sentence in italian they'll just give me a sentence and add- "new rule"
Agreed very much. Gamifiation is nice, but I really like to learn how a system works. And grammar is too complex to learn, without knowing the system behind it.
Of course children learn grammar through "gamification" or by just speaking, listening, trying and being corrected.
But, from what I know, children only learn how to properly apply their mother language around the age of five to six (...minus 2 years leaning to speak at all). I did not plan to be learning italian at such a slow pace...
But of course google is your (and my ;-) ) friend and the internet is full of resources on italian grammar.
All of that has been available on the desktop version since always. Now they're testing to make it available on the app too, but please don't ignore the desktop version :)
Does this count as gamification? It is only show you what a word means and quiz
Oh yes. The lingots. The sounds. The three hearts. The direct feedback. The stages (lessons) that you can only start after you're earned them. This is gamification all right. How else could I be hooked on it? ;-)
It does! And if anyone here hasn't checked out the desktop version yet, they should as soon as they get the chance! There are a ton of great features on desktop that aren't available on mobile!
Can you open a browser on your tablet or phone? You can go to the website that way to see the other features not available on the app.
Or you could keep your own running tally. Writing it out yourself would reinforce what you're learning.
I think that's what this comment area is for. Some lovely people are always posting resources here for us to discover for ourselves. It's a great motivation to find resources of our own.
Often, too, there's a section of text beneath a skill if you click on it (on the desktop version, at least) that explains the grammar you learn in that skill.
In the PC version you have much more options, and frequently they explain the grammar meanings in new words and phrases.
'Aspettiamo' is 'we are waiting', present tense. This is also said when hovering over the word, but the translation asks for 'we have been waiting'.
Translating from one language to another sometimes means having to adjust verb tenses as well. When you see present tense + da + time, keep in mind that it indicates an action that has been going on until now.
- Ci scriviamo da anni/We have been writing to each other for years
- Le ragazze guardano la tv da tre ore/The girls have been watching tv for three hours
- L'acqua bolle da qualche minuto/The water has been boiling for a few minutes
This is very helpful. Is this the present perfect progressive tense in English?
This explanation is useful but it goes without saying that there should be a grammar point on the question...
That's funny, if it goes without saying, why are you saying it? I know it's a figure of speech, but it's wierd.
Yes, it would be helpful. But perhaps it's dealt with in a later section . . . one can hope.
And when it is "verb + PER + time" it means that an action has already finished to the moment of speaking?
1336
I copied what I learned from another question for your reference:
"Aspetto da un decennio." https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/219854
A comment from: mark6w
Not sure if this has been answered or not, but my instructor explained to me that one uses 'da' for time periods up to and including the present and you use 'per' for time periods from the present and continuing into the future.
- 88
I sort of understand, but then could someone tell me how to say in Italian "we are waiting for decades"?
This is a present tense verb not a present imperfect or whatever you would use to say "have been" instead of "be." HUGE difference.
That's because the sentence has both meanings and you could use any one of those
I think of the tense problem here as no problem. Our perfect tense, using 'have', has a present meaning: we have been waiting for decades and we still are waiting. So I can understand why aspettiamo can be translated as 'we have been waiting'.
I get what you're trying to say, but it should be noted that "aspettiamo" by itself doesn't mean "we have been waiting", but rather "we are waiting" (or "we wait"). It's when aspettiamo appears with this specific construction: verb + da + time that it becomes "have been waiting". You probably know this, but wanted to be clear for new learners who might be reading. And yes, thinking of it that way--as something that started at another time and is still happening in the present--is a good way to clarify why it uses present tense.
- 300
Duolingo has some little quirks, but for a free program, we can deal with it. But to suddenly start throwing in past tense in the middle of an unrelated lesson?? That's really unfair !!
"Have been waiting" and simply "wait" works here, but not waited. Is there a good reason for this?
Yes, waited is entirely in the past (eg. we waited for decades and then we waited another two years before anything happened). As explained above "present tense aspettare + da + time" means the waiting was up until this moment in present time. Ie. We have been waiting for 2 years now.
The present is accepted, though I wondered whether that meant past or future.
aspettiamo is the simple present tense, it does not mean we have been waiting
- 578
Is it literally "decades", or would it be the equivalent of "we have been waiting for ages"...?
Would it still be a correct translation if I said "we are waiting for decades" or does this sentence only mean "we have been waiting..."??
Have been waiting is not present tense. Translation should be we wait for decades or we are waiting for decades.
I came here because I thought english translations would be better than spanish.
"Oh dear lord".
'decades' isn't a specific point in time as that sentence would indicate, unless there is an event called 'decades' which I doubt. :)
- 995
I think you have to buy a grammar book and read it if you want to get the grammar system(s) behind these little nitpicky things. It is too frustrating if you don't have another resource to explain all this. That is not how duolingo works. It just tests you over it and doesn't explain much of anything. But the practice is a good thing and other people's comments who have already learned how it works from some other source.
- 666
I find these comments are "the best" at explaining the grammar and find "Grammar Books" a failure as they often don't explain the problem as it occurs like these comments do.
Not a literal translation. This is "we wait for decades." I recall that conjugating verbs with -ing ending is a seperate tense and therefore different conjugation rules.
We've flagged instead of we have, when it is not the sentence's main component?? Really?
