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- "I miei cavalli non mangiano …
34 Comments
The larger question is, why use totally nonsensical sentences like this? Never in a lifetime in Italy would one have occasion to say "my horses don't eat rice." Why not practice with things that might actually come in handy?
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Useless phrases like these help you focus and understand the grammar better by forcing you to remember these phrases and replacing its words with sensical ones, maintaining the sentences' syntax.
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Would you prefer the sentence to be:
"My horses do not eat Beef-A-Reeno"?
I miei cavalli? Now I am confused.. Why do I specify horses' gender and number 2 times? Or I understood something wrong?
Adjectives and nouns must agree in gender and number : il mio cavallo, la mia cavalla, i miei cavalli, le mie cavalle.
I was thinking the same, Complicated italians why not use only MIEI MIO and that's it
Why should we use "i" here? why can't we just say "Miei cavalli non mangiano riso"? It doesn't sound right.. like "The my horses" in English. Thanks.
I am really bad at this possession stuff, could someone explain when to use miei, mia, mi, mio, etc.? I can never understand when to use what. Thanks!
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Italian possessives are in the form of definite article (il, la, i, le) + possessive adjective. They agree with the gender and number of the thing they describe:
- My/Mine: "il mio", "la mia", "i miei", "le mie"
- Your/Yours (singular): "il tuo", "la tua", "i tuoi", "le tue"
- His/Hers/Its/Your (formal)/Yours (formal): "il suo", "la sua", "i suoi", "le sue"
- Our/Ours: "il nostro", "la nostra", "i nostri", "le nostre"
- Your/Yours (plural): "il vostro", "la vostra", "i vostri", "le vostre"
- Their/Theirs: "il loro", "la loro", "i loro", "le loro"
il mio cane My dog ("Cane" is masculine singular, so we use "il" and "mio.")
la mia pizza My pizza ("Pizza" is feminine singular, so we use "la" and "mia.")
Even though in English the possessive in the third person (his, her, its) varies based on the owner, remember that in Italian the gender and number are determined by the thing being owned:
il cane di Giulia > il suo cane ("Cane" is masculine, so we use the masculine, even though it is her dog.)
In Italian an article is almost always mandatory before a possessive. The exceptions are:
- It's not used before close family members, in the singular and not modified, e.g. "mio padre" (my father), unless the possessive is "loro" (in which case the article is needed).
- It's optional when the possessive adjective is alone following a form of "essere," e.g. "è mio" (it's mine).
- It's not used in a small number of set phrases, e.g. "casa mia" (my home).
Possessive pronouns (possessives acting as a noun) are formed using the definite article and the possessive. They agree with the object they describe, even if it is not explicitly mentioned in the sentence:
Dov'è la tua macchina? La mia è qui. Where is your car? Mine is here. (It is understood that "la mia" refers to my car, so it is feminine.)
You should check the lightbulb, that is in most lessons,
before starting a lesson.
It contains useful tips and rules:
- A concentrated list of all of Duolingo's Tips and Notes - Italian from English
- A concentrated list of all of Duolingo's app version Tips and Notes - Italian from English
In bocca al lupo!
Some things isn't correct ,why should we use i here,and in translation we clear it,why we can not actually say miei cavalli non mangiano riso
In Italian grammar, they do put the definite article with possessive adjectives and it is optional for possessive pronouns. In English, we do not use the definite article with possessives at all.
We all know words that have more than one meaning. That expression probably uses the other meaning of "riso" which is "laughter".
https://dictionary.reverso.net/italian-english/riso
No, you need the correct masculine plural spelling. Scroll up for a complete list of all the Italian forms of I. The endings change for gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural).
Why does the program recognize typos and other times it doesn't? I typed "est" instead of "eat" and it flags the answer as wrong. Another time I typed "tge" instead of "the" and it accepted the answer as correct but advised me I had a typo in my answer. Confusing.
It only allows typos that do not make another word. Unfortunately, since Duolingo knows so many words.... “est” is French for “is”.
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This being the Italian course,
it probably did not accept est, as it is Italian for East.
East, West, North, South. = Est, Ovest, Nord, Sud. (Respectively.)
Of course, I should have thought of that one which more directly applies, but I have seen it not accept a word even if it does not exist in the target language, just because it does exist in another language that is used with the target language. Thank you! You are right; that is more likely in this case.
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Why is "dont" not accepted?
Could it be that you forgot the apostrophe?
"My horses don't eat rice." should be accepted.
If it is not, you can use the report button,
and choose "My answer should be accepted."
Link: How do I report an issue with the course?
