Thanks! This makes perfect sense! I avoid direct translations of other languages to my mother tongue (greek) in order to learn them, I think it's detrimental for the learning process, but sentences need to make sense in italian, otherwise they won't stick in my mind! That helps a lot :)

I dont know understand why the non is there then

That is VERY helpful, thank you!

No. How can 'don't find the dog' and' find the dog' be the same? One is a negative?

praise!

Thank you so much!

yeah exactly

Thank you , this sort of makes sense, I just have to follow common usage, as in many languages.

Agreed.

thanks!

No. You're not right. That's a nosensical explanation.

I was confused, now it's making sense with your explanation! thx!

I think it's fine for free language learning. Things like this I'd rather look up on my own or ask others about. It would be too much information if they over-explained things.

actually this is the way a child learns. No explanations just sounds. I THINK this might actually make us more able to use Italian than the more typical lengthy explanations that require you to translate each word and phrase.

It's "scour", not "scower", by the way....

I agree an explanation in the discussion area by someone actually involved in making the Italian tree would mean those who go looking for more information are getting the right explanation. It is dishearting sometimes when people trying to help contridict each other.

wondering the same thing...

@Tim1988 When you hover you get : finché.. non =until, as long as,while. So, the non is part of the expression. It's not translated as not.

it is explained at the very first comment

How good to hear someone look on the bright side. Too many people are stuck in the rut of the familiar that anything new engenders complaints. Your post was a breath of fresh air.

In English, we would never say this. We would say either 'we will wait until you find the dog' or 'we will wait for as long as you wait for the dog.' The Italian does not translate well.

I agree it suddenly gets harder but all the effort of figuring it out help me to remember.

Not with the same meaning.

Well, we say things like "I'm not going until you find the car keys", which to a non-native English speaker no doubt sounds like "I'm not going" etc. Every language has its idiosyncracies, and "finchè non" is one of the Italian ones. We tend to think our own language is quite simple, and since we are used to it, we don't think of the inherent difficulties....until someone says "Why in English is say like this?" (We have had several Italian cousins to visit recently, and that is the sort of thing they ask.) So try to just learn something as a general rule...i.e. in Italian, "until" is expressed as "finchè non"...and so on.

That would be non trovato.
Trovi is second person singular (you).

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/shall-or-will :-)

It is correct and, let me add, it is very correct. The use of the pronomi atoni is not very easy to grab and you seem to have mastered it :-)

My italian teacher cries with laughter at my attempt to pronounce some words with double consonants. I simply cannot HEAR the difference when she says the words! ...and of course the meaning changes!

As a Brit I would pronounce "cane" and "carne" the same, but living in America has modified that, but we are of course talking about speaking English. My impression is that native Italians do not accentuate the "r" in a word like "carne" as much as an American would in "carnival" but I would be interested in a native Italian speaker's comments.

It has been explained several times in previous comments. Please read the comments before submitting one that has already been answered. This helps you get answers to your questions, keeps the number of comments to a manageable number and shows some respect to the people who spend their time trying to help users learn Italian :-)

There is no subjunctive in this sentence.
io aspetto = present indicative.
(tu) trovi = present indicative.

Finché is followed by the indicative so trovi is not one of the singular subjects of trovare in the subjunctive but the 2nd person singular indicative.

Please read the very first comment.

I am not sure I understand the meaning of this sentence. Could be "[...] until the dog won't be found"? I am puzzled because yourself needed to explain the meaning of your sentence, so I guess in Italian you would say: "Aspetto finchè non troverai più il cane" or "aspetto finché non riuscirai più a trovare il cane" but it will require further explanation.
Più here marks that the action stops or is no more.

Please hover over the words above and you'll find that the "non" in "finché......non" does NOT mean only "not", it can mean "until". With "until" you get a very logical sentence. And before you ask a question or propose a solution do read the comments above where you'll find lots of interesting information

In this particular sentence non is being combined with Finche to mean 'until'. Have a look at Muttley71's explanation and examples in response to sambarown's query 4 years ago and the other helpful comments from Muttley71 and Jaye16 and others regarding this same query - they helped me to understand, accept and move forward :-)

Goodbye

As you'll see from the many comments above the Italian is correct and the English is correct. The two languages have different means of expressing things. If you had read the other comments you would have noted that the Italian is not negative.
It's really a good idea to always read the comments they contain a lot of information.

Also see these sites for assistance: http://duolingo.wikia.com/wiki/Frequently_asked_questions http://duolingo.wikia.com/wiki/Duolingo_Wiki#Getting_Help