"You are truly a nice couple."
Translation:Siete proprio una bella coppia.
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I thought "bella" meant "beautiful" and "bene" meant "good" or "nice" Are these interchangeable?
"Bene" is an adverb, meaning well (as in sto bene); good is "buono". Nice is a rather elusive word in English, and I suspect there are several ways to translate it into Italian...
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Unfortunately for my hearts my dictionary does not include 'buono' for 'nice'. Though it does have 'bene' for the adverb 'nicely' :-)
If anyone is interested ( slightly off topic), the word "nice" originally meant delicate/intricate/ refined/ well made. A hundred and something years later it has now been so over/ misused that it is extremely vague/ bland, meaning " quite pleasant/ OK/ attractive etc". It is so bland and virtually meaningless we were told to never use it in wrtten English as there is always a better more precise word.
Originally it meant "unpleasant"! "You are a nice fellow" was an insult in the 17th Century. It's a bit like "wicked" which is changing its meaning in our time.
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"we were told to never use it in wrtten English as there is always a better more precise word." Nice.
In reality bella = beautiful and carina = pretty. They taught me that at school during english lessons.
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Think of the "nice" as "nice looking". If I'm understanding correctly, the speaker is saying the two look good together. So "bella" would fit here
why is it "Siete proprio una bella coppia" and not "Siete propria una bella coppia"? coppia is a feminine form..
So far you've learned two different types of proprio. If you can identify the role of the word, then you can figure out whether or not to use a different form :)
adjective indicates possession: like most adjectives, this one does change with gender and number
- Ognuno ha la propria giacca/Each one has got his own jacket
- La ragazza usa i propri poteri/The girl uses her own powers
adverb can mean truly/really...: like all adverbs, this one does not change
- È proprio una bella giornata/It is truly a beautiful day
- È proprio un disastro/It is truly a disaster
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When does an adjective come before the noun and when can it go after it? I keep getting it marked wrong for putting it in the wrong place, but it's not consistently before or after the noun...
Most of the time they come after. The ones that commonly come before are bello, buono, grande - all with their various derivatives. Also worth bearing in mind is that the position of the adjective can change the meaning eg una borsa cara = an expensive handbag, un caro amico = a dear friend.
Dome further detail: Demonstrative adjectives (questo and quello,) posessive adjectives (mio, tuo, suo) and Indefinite adjectives (Quali and Quanto) always go in front of the noun. To just about complete the set also remember ogni, qualche and nessuno. Hope this helps.
I have many Italian cousins and they tend to use "proprio" in sentences with this kind of meaning ("you are really..." whatever).
No. A couple is indeed a single unit but it is composed of two individuals. So, 'sei' for addressing each individual but 'siete' for addressing the couple. However, if talking about the couple then 'è' would be correct.
In this sentence, probably not, because in English you wouldn't say "You are a nice couple" to one person. Also, I just think about it as if "y'all" or "you all" makes more sense, then use voi, not tu. Hope I could help!
As a native English speaker, I can't explain the Italian grammar with any certainty, but I suspect it's because the "you" is implied to be plural--as though you are saying, "You (two) are truly a nice couple."
I don't know, though, whether Italian counts the couple as a singular collective noun when we speak about them in the 3rd person--as in "That couple is truly nice."
Maybe so, yet the "you" is not referring to the people in the couple, not the couple itself.
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no. "sei" goes for "tu sei" and is meant to refer to one interlocutor only. like, imagine saying to a single person in front of you "hey, you, my friend, yourself, are a nice couple". Something is wrong, right? That's what the phrase with "sei" would mean. so no. never appropriate.
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I tried "Veramente siete una bella coppia" and it was marked wrong =(
May it was the word order?
Why not "una simpatica coppia"? Simpatica is one of the suggestions and yet it is not accepted.
DL has now presented three different words for "really" proprio, veramente, and daverro. What are the rules for each?
Shouldn't it be "sei" rather than "siete," since "couple" is a singular and not a plural in the same way that "famiglia" is singular rather than plural?
See BenZeller's great explanation, comparing "voi" and "you all", which you would not conjugate in the singular.
Not sure what all of you are referring to with "hearts". Am I missing something?
The phone app version uses hearts. The free desktop version, at least what I have, does not, so does not have a penalty for a wrong answer.
you have a system of hearts, I don't know if it is only on the free version, like a game. If you make a mistake you lose a heart. If you lose too much hearts, you cannot progress until the next day.
Good question, I don't know if this is right but I think paio is more for objects -gloves, shoes etc.
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Syntax! To me, "una coppia proprio bella" sounds fine too, but Duo says no. Waah! Will I ever get syntax straight?
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Keep in mind that in the Duo sentence here, "proprio" is an adverb, not an adjective, so you should adjust your word order accordingly.
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I wrote "Voi siete veramente una simpatica coppia" and was marked wrong. When I changed the word order to "coppia simpatica" it was marked correct. I don't know if that helps!
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Bennycat, you must show us the complete sentence that you wrote. Otherwise it is hard to say where you may have made an error.
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No. The word "parecchio" is not a noun. It does not refer to a couple of people.
The word "parecchio" is an adjective/determiner. It means "couple" only in the sense of "some", "a few" -- for example, "a couple of beers"
Finally got it after over 400 days. Voi is you all, and tu is when you are referring to one person.
I got marked wrong for using 'sei', but as the phrase is referring to a (one, singular) couple, shouldn't sei be correct?
Siete proprio una simpatica coppia. Was marked wrong. I though simpatico was the adjective to describe personality and bello to describe appearance.
Why is proprio used here? it seems like a redundancy. Is it just colloquial?
"Proprio" adds emphasis. It is like when we say "really" or (as in this translation) "truly." You are not just a nice couple; you are truly a nice couple.
We have the word "proper" in English, which means "real", so if it helps, you could think of "proprio" as meaning "really" (as in "you're a really nice couple") and "veramente" as "truly". In some English dialects, there's the expression "proper", which means "really" or "very", as in "you're a proper nice couple".
Grazie! I only thought 'propio' meant 'quite', as I'm sure that's what Michel Thomas said on my audio CDs.
P.s, do you not get a little confused with all the other languages you're learning?
Thanks for looking at my profile. It is confusing doing several languages at the same time, especially if they are from the same family (Germanic or Romance for example), but I had a bit of a head start - my German is fluent and my French conversationally fluent. Then I found it was best to concentrate on one at a time, so I'm not working on my Italian at the moment, just Dutch, having spent the last year concentrating on Danish.
oh you Europeans have such opportunities to use other than native languages. Years ago an English teacher in the Piedmont (central) region of North Carolina declared that all the Spanish she ever got to use was, "Mas pane, por favor."
To me, "simpatica" is closer in meaning. Unless the sentence means they're nice looking
I thought it should be simpatica or gentile, too (or at least that those words should be accepted).
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I also believe simpatica is a far more suitable word in this instance. It was in the hints and rejected. Not so sure about gentile - kind I think
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Is anyone else struggling with this module? I am finding it hard to figure the base rules.
I put: Voi siete proprio una bella coppia and Duo says: Wrong, it's Siete proprio una bella copia. And I say: If I would ever learn Italian, obviously must be considered as a genious.
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1: This Sounds Really Weird In English, Maybe Moving "Truly" To Be After "A" Would Work Better? 2: Doesn't "Bella" Mean "Beautiful"? Why Does It Mean "Nice" Here?
There are so many meanings of "nice" in English that you can virtually take your pick which Italian word you use. I would not worry too much if Duo does not accept yours provided it appears in the following:
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Nice originally meant 'precise' as well so it wasn't really a compliment. I wouldn't want to be described as precise in character. I think 'bella' is an awful translation for 'nice' How about 'gradevole' or 'piacevole'? Dont think Duolingo got this right!
I thought gentile was nice. This sentence makes me think that they are good looking. "Pretty is as pretty does." "Beauty is skin deep."
Siete davvero una coppia gentile. I am not sure which bit DL did not like the "davvero" or the "gentile". Listening to Italians talking in videos and how they use gentile, it sounds that the meaning of "gentile" is nice, and should be accepted here.
maybe DL is thinking that it has not introduced us to "gentile, " and wants only our limited vocabulary.
surely "a couple" is singular therefore sei rather than siege. Comments please
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The choice of "sei" or "siete" does not depend on whether the noun "coppia" is singular or plural. Rather, it depends on how many people you are addressing/talking to and/or how many people you are talking about.
Imagine both members of the couple are sitting in front of you. It would be natural to address them both and therefore use "siete" in Italian.
Now imagine that only one member of the couple is in front of you, so you are talking to only one person about what that person and his/her friend are like as a couple. Would you now say "sei" instead of "siete"? The answer, which may surpise you, is no.
In the sentence here ("You are are a nice couple"), even when talking to only one person, you are still talking about more than one person. (One person alone cannot be a "couple"). Therefore, even though talking to just one person, "siete" remains correct for this sentence.
Sei davvero una bella coppia should also be accepted. "Davvero" is in the hints.
I used "simpatici" which I thought meant nice...but it seems it wasn't correct
Google translate "Siete proprio una bella coppia" -> "You are such a beautiful couple".
I think these adverbs are introduced too much altogether, making them difficult to distinguish and remember.
I do not understand "Proprio" I look it up, and the definition is "really, truly, exact" And then the examples are Lei mangia la propria cena, i gatti mangiano il proprio cibo, all "their own, or her own. No wonder Im always confused. Cant even get a straight answer here.
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Why "Tu sei proprio una bella coppia" is wrong? Is it about the position of the adjective maybe?
Una bella coppia to me means a handsome couple (physical appearance) A nice couple is about how kind, friendly etc. Therefore, I feel una buona coppia is more appropriate.
Can you please explain why i got this one incorrect? Vi sono davvero una bella coppia
"Sono" means "they are". When you want to say "you (two) are", you need to say "siete".
simpatica means nice? veramente means truly? Mind you my word order was different.
tu siete una bella copia should be accepted as well as siete propio una bella copia
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JoAnn, your suggested translation, "Tu siete una bella copia", is missing a word for "truly", which appears in the English we are given. So why do you feel your translation should be accepted?
That would be "you are a truly nice couple", so veramente is in the wrong place.