"The children write on the shark."
Translation:I ragazzi scrivono sullo squalo.
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Oh my oh my. You folks at Duolingo are doing a good job at keeping our motivation up, chosing crazy sentences that don't allow the mind to go to sleep ;-)
LOL this sentence makes no sense especially since in English it would be taken literally as kids writing physically on the shark. Wouldn't it make more sense to write it as, the children write about the shark?
Just have to use your imagination! Think of a big paper mache shark at an aquarium kids are allowed to sign their names on... ;)
I think the sentence is meant quite literally. I haven't seen people writing on a shark before, but it can happen.
Like a bunch of kids applying some water-tolerant color on a sea animal. It could be a live shark and special pens or maybe it could be a wooden shark used as an advertising sign for a restaurant ("that we see after a kilometer").
Everyone blames kids. I heard it was Marketing stunt for a new sun tan lotion.
I ragazzi scrivono sullo squalo. Lo squalo mangia i ragazzi. It's the circccleee of life.
Is this too a normal converstion starter in Italy? Example: "So, have you written anything good on a shark lately" "No, I don't write on sharks. My brother tried it once. It didn't go so well."
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For "The children write on the shark" it says Correct translations: I ragazzi scrivono sullo squalo. I ragazzi scrivono dello squalo.
I don't understand how the second one is a correct translation. Does dello have another meaning besides possession and 'some', or is this a mistake?
The preposition di and di + article can have countless functions. One of these is to introduce a topic, as in this case.
By "scrivono dello," the English equivalent might be "write on," or "write -of-" the shark. For example, you could say, "I'm writing a book on sharks," in which case you would use "dello" rather than "sullo" since you don't mean to say that you're physically writing a book atop of a live shark. Of course, if you -were- to be doing that, you would use "sullo" instead. Not that I recommend trying that at home.
su (on) + lo = sullo Helps me to write it out 'long' and then make the contraction: su lo squalo = sullo squalo
The exact sense is probably not what this is about rather learning to put sentences together using everything we have learned before.
Love the funny replies, specially re. the circle of life! Wish I'd thought of it.
"Write on" can also take on the idiomatic meaning of "write about." Hope this helps! :D
If a masculine word starts with a s or a z the word for the is lo. Sullo is on the using this form of the word the. Examples: Lo squalo. Lo zucchero.
I believe that to be insufficient information. Lo is used before words beginning with a vowel, a "z", or an "s"+consonant. And they have to be masculine ofc. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Somewhere we also had "scrivere su di" as "write about". So does this (without the di) physically mean on the shark's skin?
