"The butterflies in the zoo are his."
Translation:Le farfalle nello zoo sono le sue.
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The possessive is an adjective, so they are the same gender and number as the noun they refer to, not the person having possession :)
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Help. If the adjective is "his", and butterflies are plural, why wouldn't you use i suoi? Thanks..
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It's "le sue" because "le farfalle" is plural feminine. His and her is both suo/sua/suoi/sue; the same word for his and for her.
I really appreciate you taking the time to explain the nuances of Italian grammar. Grazie F.Formica!
Simply put, you don't; there's hardly any need to distinguish when speaking of a third person, and gender isn't the most convenient attribute to identify a person anyway (around half the world has the same gender). On the other hand Lei is also a courtesy pronoun, and the distinction between his/hers and yours is much more sensible; in writing you can capitalize to distinguish, but in speech it can be really ambiguous.
This clarifies things for me and answers my previous question. Thanks, Formica.
I thought that was only if they were both on the object side or both on the subject side. I didn't know gender crossed over.
Nel = in + il. Nello = in + lo. You have to use the one that combines the correct article based on the noun.
Actually nello is used with masculine nouns starting with x, y, z, and doble consonant.
Credo che la risposta "le farfalle nello zoo sono di lui" dovesse essere accetata come correta.
if "le sue" refers to the butterflies and they say that are HIS how do I know when to use "e" or "sono"
The verb is always conjugated in accordance with the subject: "la farfalla è ..." (the butterfly is ...), "le farfalle sono..." (the butterflies are ...). Note that the subject doesn't necessarily come first, and that when using a past participle it doesn't always follow the same rule.
The possessive matches what it refers to (the owned object), and in this case it refers to the subject; it's semantically not that different from "sono le sue farfalle" (it is syntactically though). As a side note, the article is optional when the possessive is a predicate, i.e. it could have been "le farfalle sono sue" as well.
Thanks for the side note. You've just clarified for me why the article is sometimes missing and sometimes not in sentence such predicates. Do you understand why it is optional?
le farfalle = sue The verb form of "to be" or sono in this case makes the predicate nominative refer back to the subject which already has its article.
The last 4 questions put me through "sue" being for women and "sua" for men, which i thought odd. Now suddenly "sue" is for a man?
I need help with that when to use nello,nel,alla,a could anybody explain that
Can someone tell me the differences between "le sue" and "I suoi"? Thanks! :)
If I understand correctly, "le sue" = feminine plural, "I suoi" = masculine plural.
What Kassy says, just remember that it is masculine and feminine of the item (here butterflies) not the person whose butterflies it is. It is not his/her
I did the 'Check ALL correct meanings' one and got it wrong. I wrote my mistakes down on a paper so I could remember, and it still said I got it wrong. Anyone know why? It was TOTALLY correct! I did from the last time I got it wrong and WROTE IT DOWN!!
is nello used in this case because plural butterflies, as compared to -la pasta nel piatto- pasta is not plural?
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No, it has nothing to do with butterflies being plural or pasta being singular, but everything with the next word. It is "nello" instead of "nel" because "zoo" starts with a "z": "lo zoo". "in + lo"="nello"; "in + il"="nel". You can read more about this subject in the Tips and Notes of chapter Basics 2.
Hehe, I don't keep my farfalle in a zoo. By the way, you'll catch more butterflies with a garden than with a net.
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Second and third answer are exactly the same, but third is incorrect and second is correct. Makes no sense. This is a bug that has to be fixed.
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If it really is as you describe then you should report it (flag) instead of writing a comment. However, I don't know what options were given but I think the second and third answer are slightly different.
Now I am using the free version, I am writing notes, looking up stuff in Google translate, and reading these comments. This in order to keep my "health". I think this might be as good as trying to fly through the paid version.
What's the difference between nella and nello?if nello is masculine then it shouldn't be used here cause farfelle is feminine
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nella and nello both mean in the. nella is the contraction of in la and nello of in lo. The English in the zoo is nello zoo in Italian because it is lo zoo. It doesn't depend on the grammatical gender of the animals that are in the zoo ;-).
Just an observation. I study italian at the moment however I found myself competing against people learning different language at different level than me I personally think that is not correct!
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It's an open door, but don't think of learning a language as a competition. Everyone learns at their own pace. Some people have already progressed because they have been busy for some time. Others because they can and want to spend more time learning. For other people, learning takes almost no effort because they have a talent for languages.
At school I had tremendous difficulties with German and French; I was glad I didn't have to take an exam in those subjects. English was also difficult for me (especially the pronunciation and place of the adverb, place and time), but that language was a compulsory course. Now that I learn with Duolingo, it turns out that I can learn languages, that I have remembered a lot from the past, and that I enjoy learning.
Some languages suit you better than others. I am currently mainly working on Swedish and Norwegian. I see that you have also learned some Romanian. I have known someone who spoke several languages fluently. When he started learning Romanian, he found it the most difficult language he had ever come across. So be proud of yourself for learning other languages. Do it at your own pace and enjoy it. And don't worry about people who get a lot of points, although it is nice to stay in the league ;-)
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Nobody in this forum knows what your options were. When you see that two options are exactly the same - I doubt that - then you should report that using the flag.
"Le farfalle nello zoo sono LE SUE" "le sue" refers to the gender and number of the butterflies, and as "le farfalle" are feminine (in Italian) and plural you have to use "le sue".
It is not "la zoo" it is "lo zoo", so why is it nella zoo? It should be nello zoo.
No me deja elegir la correcta, anda mal esta aplicacion, cuando hay que unir las palabras en italiano e Inglés no se ven los cartelitos. Ya lo avisé varias veces, arreglenlo!!!!!
I do not understand why sometimes there is the "the" in front of the pronoun and sometimes not! Can someone please explain the rule? In my brain the literal translation of this is The butterflies in the zoo are the his. What is up with the disappearing "the" before the pronouns?! Sometimes?!
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You can't. "his" and "her" should both be accepted. Sometimes you can tell from context.
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A butterfly is an insect, not a dish or a certain kind of butter!
la farfalla - the butterfly
le farfalle - the butterflies
The sentence is about butterflies, le farfalle.
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Yes, why not? Tropical butterflies in a piece of imitated tropical rainforest (Burgers' Bush in Arnhem (NL)), or to show how they pupate, the educational aspect. Enough reasons to keep butterflies in a zoo.