"Lei poteva fare di tutto."
Translation:She could do anything.
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I am Italian , I don't know exactly but I THINK is that 'Di tutto' means exactly everything , instead 'tutto ' can be translated as " All ". Tutto il giorno = all day Io mangio di tutto = i eat everything . P.s : it isn't a big error if you say tutto instead of " Di tutto " ! :)
Tutto is everything and di tutto is anything (in Duo's sense of everything possible). Be careful translating 'anything' to Italian because it has other senses too.
I don't like Duo's "could" because it is ambiguous and translates just as well to the conditional potrebbe. "She was [or used to be] able to do anything" is unambiguous, and accepted.
Wow ... in English there is a huge difference between anything and everything in this context.
Does this mean "She had many talents", "Her actions could not be predicted", or either?
Good question sbt, I'd also be interested in the answer.Can any Italians/fluent speakers help us?
"she could do everything" was my translation, too, and today it was accepted by duolingo (02,12,2014)
"she could have done it all" wasn't accepted. Is there something grammatically incorrect in this?
I think you're both right. "She could have done it all" should have been accepted; but a more correct way of saying "She could have done it all" would be "Lei avrebbe potuto fare di tutto." IMHO
For my excercise, i am to type the words from the audio. Since "lei" and "le" cannot be distinguished verbally, couldn't this sound like, "Le poteva fare di tutto" and still make sense?
I suppose that 'fare tutto' means 'to make everything' while 'fare di tutto' - 'to make anything' in English
Ok, any particular reason? Just to help me remember for next time? And ta for replying, anyway.
nope it's just that it seems the normal to keep the handle verb together with its mate
Ah yes. I tend to rely on French too much, as they are both romance languages, and sadly it can be a trap, as with Spanish, for ex. I'm sure... Oh well.
Under the new form of the verb being introduced there is a pull down tab saying "conjugate" am I missing something or does this conjugate section then go on to show the present tense not the imperfect? I am assuming I am missing something here.
Can anybody tell me how to say 'she could have done anything?', per favore?x
That sentence would follow the rules of Conditional Perfect tense. She could have done anything = Lei avrebbe potuto fare niente. :)
Lilian I think this one highlights the problem of a computer answering. Poteva is clearly and simply imperfetto, a past and habitual tense. Could in English might be a past tense of can, ora present conditional. Have done opens even more possibilities including a pluperfect. There are so many permutations it is probably best to focus on the Italian and put it down to "the computer says no"
I put 'She couId do everything.' but DLG put WRONG!! In past coments at least one said DLG marked correct. I am quite confuse with this.
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Excuse me, but doesn't"tutto" mean "everything"?! Isn't "She was able to do everything" mean the same thing as "She could do anything"?!
