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- "How many telephones do you h…
"How many telephones do you have?"
Translation:Quanti telefoni hai?
26 Comments
It is definitely SVO (subject-verb-object in that order, for those who are unfamiliar with the abbreviation). However, I would not call that sentence an exception, as it is perfectly acceptable to say «Il caffè arriva.». I would call «Arriva il caffè» an example of Italian's free word order; it is a lot freer than in English. So, yes, Italian is SVO, but not strictly SVO as English often is.
I am not quite sure if it would work, but I was thinking of «dei» as in the more literal translation "of the." If a friend is collecting old phones and showing you one from 1994, two from 1995, four from 1996, you may be able to say «Quanti dei telefoni vecchi hai?». Now, that I read that aloud, perhaps it would work just as well (or better) without the «dei». Never mind, then. Haha