- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "You are truly a nice couple."
"You are truly a nice couple."
Translation:Siete proprio una bella coppia.
100 Comments
388
I thought "bella" meant "beautiful" and "bene" meant "good" or "nice" Are these interchangeable?
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.
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
1092
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.
1826
I have many Italian cousins and they tend to use "proprio" in sentences with this kind of meaning ("you are really..." whatever).
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."
2060
Good question, I don't know if this is right but I think paio is more for objects -gloves, shoes etc.
556
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?
457
Syntax! To me, "una coppia proprio bella" sounds fine too, but Duo says no. Waah! Will I ever get syntax straight?
485
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!
1826
"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".
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.
173
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."
274
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
135
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!
173
I thought gentile was nice. This sentence makes me think that they are good looking. "Pretty is as pretty does." "Beauty is skin deep."
173
maybe DL is thinking that it has not introduced us to "gentile, " and wants only our limited vocabulary.
243
Google translate "Siete proprio una bella coppia" -> "You are such a beautiful couple".