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- "Their elephant drinks milk."
"Their elephant drinks milk."
Translation:Il loro elefante beve il latte.
54 Comments
There's no way to know if the sentence means that it drinks milk in general or that is drinking like this milk, (beve latte vs beve il latte) ?
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with the article it's a special milk, without it's milk in general. Very likely they've mixed it up here..
I put bevono for the loro form, but they said it should be beve for the lui/lei form?? What??
Because it's a single elephant who drinks milk, there Lui/lei beve :) If there were two or more elephants you'd us "bevono"
But it IS a single Elephants who not drink but drinks which is why I put beve which i thought was plural??? Confused but won't give up
Thanks, it makes sense now. It was confusing for me because of 'uno elefente' (singular) 'due elefanti' (plural).
I didn't know that when i used "loro", "suo", etc I should change the article "L'" to "il"...
The last sentence I put Il loro and it marked me wrong...said it should just be Loro ....so this sentence I put just Loro and it marked me wrong again. What's up with that? I think they got it wrong on the last page. It always should be Il Loro right?
From what I have figured out:
Il loro, I loro, La loro, Le loro = Their
Loro sono = They ("Loro" used when dealing with people only)
Sono = "They" when dealing with anything other than people
I think my head is going to explode!
Chuck, sono is first person singular and third person plural conjugation for the verb essere
http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/Italian/essere.html
so:
io sono l'uomo = I am the man
loro sono gli uomini = they are the men
hope that helps
Cool, thanks :)
My examples were for when "sono" is used for "They are". You apparently drop the "Loro" in that situation. At least that is what I understood so far, from a previous question.
I should have made that clear, oops :)
No problem. Yes, the personal pronoun as a subject is usually omitted. In fact, my two examples, to be accurate, should actually be 'sono l'uomo' and 'sono gli uomini', and as you can see, it is possible to determine whether the personal pronoun is singular or plural based on the rest of the sentence, this is often the case.
See the link I posted below that shows what the rules are for omitting the article. In general, it is omitted when it refers to a singular family relationship, like my mother, or your father, or her husband, etcetera. So it is quite likely that perhaps you had a sentence like:
Your mother cuts garlic = tua madre taglia l'aglio
in the current sentence then the article is required. ;-)
Why do I need the il before latte? It's not the milk. When is it okay to drop the modifier?
In Italian, the article is most often used than not, even when in English it is dropped to make a general statement. You can see this page for the rules about dropping articles when referring to singular family members.
http://www.arnix.it/free-italian/italian-grammar/possessive-adjectives-in-italian.php
It didn't say "the" milk it jut said milk. How am i supposed to know when to use il or not?!
I'm confused. I put "il loro elefante bevono latte" but it marked it wrong...why is that? Why is it "elefante beve il latte"?
Drinks milk = beve latte? Isnt it right? I got corrected, bc didnt write "il"
Because that's the rule. Why do you not in English? (because you don't!) :)
why is it: "il loro elefante beve latte" and not "loro elefante beve latte"? is the article really necessary?
I wrote "Il suo elefante" rather than "Il loro elefante" because in English 'their' can be used in place of 'his/her' if you don't know the person's gender. Will report as I think this should be accepted.
Why il loro instead of le loro or la loro? It is because elefante starts with a vowel? Seems like the only thing that makes sense.
Ch'è più comune: 1) il loro elefante beve latte 2) il loro elefante beve il latte
I cant understand why it is not "le loro elefante" (The "e" at the end of the words go together just like everything else) Its only with loro is there an exception that you cant follow?? Please help.
It is one elephant so it is il loro elefante. il is masculine singular. Le is feminine plural, and as elefante is a masculine noun le can't be used.
the difference between loro and suo is NOT GENDER they are both masculine The difference is singular verses plural (their is plural, his is singular)
The possessive adjectives lesson REALLY frustrates me. I thought I was going pretty good right up until this lesson. I truly feel I will NEVER be able to learn the language. (done whining - had to come out)
in italiano si può dire beve il latte= sta bevendo il latte oppure beve latte=, è solito bere latte. in inglese per dire beve il latte, ora, io avrei usato is drinking
Why sometimes is the definite article (the) inclluded and sometimes not? eg. Il loro elefante beve latte ( their elephant drinks milk) and then Bevo caffe ( I drink coffee). Both sentences refer to the item drunk in general terms.No capisco!
Once again the corrections are exactly what I typed for the girls - ragazze, wine - il vino,and bee - l'ape.PLEASE FIX YOUR MISTAKES SO I CAN MOVE ON!!!!!
I would really appreciate being taught the conjugation of "to drink."
