"He is a waiter."
Translation:Lui è un cameriere.
21 Comments
Hey! Interesting etymology stuff I just looked up: I was wondering if there was a link between the italian word for waiter, "cameriere" and the english word "camera" and found that the latin root "camera" means "small room/chamber" and adding the suffix "iere" often means that the person sells things or has a good to offer. The cameriere is the guy that goes to that little back room and brings you the good stuff. And the english word "camera" is like a tiny room/chamber that you put light into in order to capture pictures (think old-timey cameras).
You can use both, there is no particular rule as far as I can tell. There's also the case of the definite article when the verb is "fare". All these three are correct sentences in the Italian language:
È un cameriere. (indefinite article)
È cameriere. (zero article)
Fa il cameriere. (definite article)
That should work as well, so report it as a valid translation if you see it next time.
61
Weird. I wrote "lui e il camariere" and was told it was wrong and yours was the correction.
I also thought that "a" was not required, but Duo tells me it is. Reported 9 June
- 253
had this as multiple choice and marked both 1 Lui è cameriere. and 2 Lui è un cameriere.
but Duo said only #2 is correct. Is #1 actually incorrect? I guess I will report and see what happens...
This is from Centro Studi Italiani :
« 5.1 Angela fa l’avvocato. Carlo fa l’insegnante.
5.2 Ludovico è programmatore.
5.1 The definite article is used in front of the names of professions; but
5.2. it is not used when the profession is introduced by the verb "to be". »
However, if there is a qualifying adjective :
Lui è un eccelente professore.
At my Italian class this week we were taught that no article is needed in this sentence.
It's just using the verb to do/make instead of to be. You will notice this in many other languages if you study others. Hope this helps
