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- Topic: Italian >
- "Il cognome è quello che è."
15 Comments
35
What a bizarre sentence. I have never said that, nor had reason to, in over 50 years of being on the earth!
- 1092
First person reading from the front page of a book from Island: Månsdottir . . . cos'è? Un titolo . . o perché un nome?
Second person responding: Il cognome è quelle che è!
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" …. A name.. it is what it is.
In what instance would one ever use such a sentence in English? Maybe if your last name was ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ and you asked your father "Hey dad, why is our last name ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤?" and he replied "The last name is what it is".
After thinking of various possibilities, I translated the above, looked at it, said this is stupid, clicked the button, was SHOCKED that I was correct. I do not appreciate having to take time with nonsensical sentences that are of no value.
Would you all prefer DuoLingo to just boring sentences for us to learn from? 'A last name comes after the first'… 'The cat is on the table'… etc.
- 349
No, but if the sentences don't make any sense, like this one, then they are much harder to understand/translate. Duolingo should be able to come up with some sentences that are entertaining without adding an additional and unnecessary challenge
Well, maybe because in English the majority of surnames are neutral. In my country, for example, many people unfortunately bear surnames that this sentence could apply to. It's like living in Shire - or even worse.
Another strange sentence translation. I mistyped so got it wrong and duo's CORRECT sentence was "the surname is what it's". When I was teaching I would have berated any of my students for that sentence!
- 1715
Can a native speaker explain to me why quello is part of this sentence? I would have thought the phrase "..is what it is" would simply be "è che è". It's obvious I am missing something, well, obvious, vero?
