"The knife is in the boot."
Translation:Il coltello è nello stivale.
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I'm having troubles understanding where I should use "nel" and where "nello"... is there some way to tell? Thanks!
"Lo" comes before nouns beginning with s + consonant (lo stivale), z (lo zio), gn (lo gnomo), sc (lo sciocco), pn (lo pneumatico), ps (lo psicologo), x (lo xilofono), and with i semiconsonantica (semivowel i) (lo iodio)
in+lo = nello
in + il = nel
in + la = nella
in + l' = nell'
in + lo = nello
in + i = nei
in + le = nelle
in + gli = negli
I'd like a bit more info on this. What were the exceptions ShiraNegbi listed?
And what about in+la/le/gli -- is there a nella/nelle/negli?
I mean, REALLY ? The Knife is in the boot ? I hope thats not quite common in italian...
Not really, but it's quite common to see cowboys and pirates who have knives in their boots in movies, just in case ;-)
Outside the US and Caribbean, this is actually a useful phrase. Imagine you are in a car ready to eat food that you need to cut up, and your passenger says "the knife is in the boot". I've probably said it myself on several occasions.
You get out and retrieve the knife, because EN "boot" = US "trunk".
So Duo should accept the translation to "... nel portabagagli". I haven't tried, but I doubt this.
It's lo stivale(the noun starts with s+consonant) there fore its nello "lo" is every masculine noun starting with z or s+consonant and i think ch is as well "l' " is for nouns that start with a vowel and "il" is every other masculine noun(in singular of course) in order when combining them with in they would be nello, nell' and nel. Hope it helps and that it isnt too wrong... :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_grammar#Articles is the most complete list that I've found of forms that need "lo".
Note that "ch..." is not one of them, except for foreign imports like "lo chef". Indeed, some foreign imports may be missing from the list - can you find all 5 non-Italian letters of the English alphabet?
Why isn't it stivalo (singular form) since it's asking to translate "The knife is in the boot"?
The singular is stivale and it is a masculine noun. The -e singular -i plural is the second most frequent noun & adjective ending in Italian.
"botta" (f.) is translated as "hit" (syn. colpo (m.)). It has nothing to do with "stivale".
il coltello e' nello stivale . Marked me as incorrect . the e' was incorrect
If you actually typed the è (e-grave) character then something else must have been wrong. Two characters e-apostrophe, as I see in your post, aren't recognised; they are a kludge used by people who can't type è.
Alternatives: 1. Select è in Duo's character list. 2. Just type e unaccented; Duo warns but does not reject. 3. On a computer keyboard, hold down the Alt key, type 0232 and let go. 4. On a smartphone, tap and hold on the e; a menu of all accented variants should appear; drag to the one you want and let go.
Can somebody please tell me why Google translates this sentence as "Il coltello è nel bagagliaio"? I want to know who has the right answer: Duolingo or Google Translate.
Don't want to repeat so see my reply to RoDiazG above. Google is right for everyone except US English speakers. Duolingo is a US website.
There seem to be several Italian words for the same thing: bagagliaio, portabagagli, vano bagagli, e baule (French pronunciation?). C'è un italiano gentile che possa spiegarci?
Per previous exercises: the knife is to take care of the snake that is in the other boot!!
I don't understand why it didn't accept the word "sta" as a translation to the word "is". The verb to be isn't the same for the verbs "ser" and "star"?
No, "stare" in Italian is used in less contexts and should not be used for location. You have to use "essere" or "trovarsi".
because "nelle" is the plural form of "nella," which is feminine. stivale is masculine because, while it ends with "e," it's singular, and singular words ending with "e" are just as masculine as those ending with "o." so we use the masculine form of "nel," which is "nello"
You are using two articles. Nello means "in the" so your sentence is like "in the the boot"
Please read the first thread above. Also, a link to a useful resource is in the thread started by tialian.
I was thrown, because I was thinking that stivale, was plural, so I put stivala, which felt wrong and sounded wrong. Should have listened to my insticts. Woe is me.
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When I typed "Il coltello è nello stivale." It came up as used the wrong word correcting to with Il coltello è nel BAULE. Is that an error or is bale another word for boot?
So....new word....il baule: the trunk. Marked incorrect for choosing "stivale".
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the hint says 'nel' for instead of nello, which is misleading because nel isnt an option.