"We buy towels."

Translation: Compriamo asciugamani.

[ceceg]

I love it when Italian words can be easily tied to the English translation without memorization. Case in point: asciugamani = dry + hands = towel

[drillvoice]

wow! I was wondering why the heck towel was such a bizarre word...this was before I learnt what "dry" and "hands" were.

[lpr504]

What is the rule for when to eliminate the article?

[DanJSDK]

I'd like to know this too. There probably isn't an all-encompassing rule, but at least I hope someone could briefly explain certain words or constructions to look out for...

[xyphax]

https://www.duolingo.com/comment/1012366

[NeerjaPancholi]

Why is compriamo i asciugamani wrong?

[sharkbbb]

Because we do not buy specific towels

• We buy (some) towels = (Noi) compriamo (dell')asciugamani

[AlphaCentauri]

But it doesn't say we buy some towels. We could generally have a habit of buying towels, or it might be our responsibility in the purchasing department.

[rayner91]

I like this word, it does make me chuckle that it sounds a little like " A Sugar Mummy"

[Hedwi9]

I thought that in italian the articles for plural and undetermend (probably wrong spelling of the word, but I mean 'some and few' and not 'two, ten, thousand etc') will become: dei (male) delle (female) and degli (vowel or s-impura). Very much like the use of de, du, de la, des in french. In this sentence I put degli before asciugamani (because of 'some towels') and it was correct. Question: is the use of degli an option, or is it right to leave it out for now because we haven't got the grammar yet?

[Dave.Agudelo]

asciugamani is not the only word to refer to the towel, one can also say Straccio...

[safibta]

Why is temponare not accepted despite being one of the meanings?

[black.jewel]

Asciugamani - What a horrible word!

[Sjurstvold]

Why would "compriamo dei asciugamani" be wrong?

[jannmill]

I don't see how any of the "don't rules' apply to asciugamani. I guess its just the unwritten exception to the unwritten rule.