"Lui è l'ingegnere, lei l'architetto."
Translation:He is the engineer, she is the architect.
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actually, the definite article is not used when talking about professions in general in English. It should be at least allowed to write He is an engineer....
Since the program allows flexible translations of so many things where the literal translation does not conform to normal usage, I would think this would be easily accepted. Because otherwise you end up focusing more on learning how to answer questions rather than learning the answers for questions.
"He is an engineer" would have a different translation in Italian ("Lui è [un] ingegnere."). This also has a different meaning (being an engineer is his job, rather than him being the specific engineer). This is perfectly normal usage. Think of it as the answer to the question, "Who is working on the project?" "He is the engineer..." "An engineer" and "the engineer" aren't interchangeable in either the English or the Italian.
An older form of response to this was my answer: "He is an engineer, she an architect. The 'is' is understood, and 'the' is not needed, UNLESS you are talking about her being the ONLY architect. Grammar sometimes has to give way to idiomatic constructs.
To be fair, one could use the definite article in a certain situation. For example..
"So, we'll have to talk to Jack about the square footage on the third floor."
"How many times do I have to tell you, he's the engineer, she's the architect."
I agree with Mavry below, and just want to add that 'He is an engineer...' would be 'Lui è un ingegnere....' which was not said in here.
I think if you use the indefinite instead of the definite article, you'd have to use verb to be "è" in the second sentence because "engineer"/"artichet" then would be unknown.
In the previous question, the definite article was translated with "a" - it would help if duolingo was consistent.
I just learned that "faccio il architetto" is different from "sono il architetto". Fare needs the definite article, essere does not. So the first means "i am an architect" while the second emphasises "I am the architect "
Isn't the verb required in the second phrase? - lei è l'architetto. I thought that in Italian you can't drop verbs even obvious ones, like we can in English.
I have the same question too. This question seems not to be answered definitively below either. (No, it's not correct in English either: new subject, new verb. Can one say it, colloquially or with poetic license for effect? Sure, but it's not "proper" English. It's why there has to be a comma too.) Regardless, this is the first time I've seen it in these lessons where the verb was optional. Strange.
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In Reverso there are no real world examples of "lei l'architetto" . However "lui è l'ingegnere e lei l'architetto" in translation there and google does translate to "he is the engineer and she IS the architect." In Italian it seems within a sentence, if we know the theme (la mano is his hand because he is the subject of the sentence) the things become omitted. Without knowing for sure, maybe we will encounter verbs left out again in future constructions, or maybe this is a glitch. Let's see.
A great reply. Thank you for a reasoned response. I don't believe it's a glitch. I suspect more that it's a gap in the attempts for a 1:1 translation Italian:English. "la mano" is a very good example. Thank you. It helps me embrace this difference between the languages.
"She the architect" sounds completely wrong to me. "She IS the architect" Native English speaker.
this gets marked as incorrect when you write "è" before the second profession--shouldn't this also be correct?
I guess, this should be translated as " lui è l'ingegnere lei è l'architetto"
Do I change the adjective to masculine? Example: Lei e un architetto creativo. Sorry, I don't have the accent sign on my phone.
The adjective (= qualifier) is in the same gender and number as the noun. So lei è un architetto creativo even if we are referring to a lady. The other way around is also true, when you have a noun whose gender is only feminine (like la guardia): la guardia è attenta even if it refers to a man.
I'm a native Spanish speaker & in Spanish we do say "arquitecta" for a female but for instance "pilot" has no feminine in Spanish, it's always "piloto". Is "architetta" correct?
There is actually quite a debate in Italy about feminine forms for some professions that were typically male. While pairs such as maestro/maestra, dottore/dottoressa, infermiere/infermiera are normal, othes are not so widespread. For example: ministro/ministra, sindaco/sindaca/sindachessa are fighting to earn their place in everyday language. architetta is not wrong, yet not so common, especially because of how it ends.
It makes sense if, say, an investor is inquiring about the team in charge of a project. "Yes, sir...he is the engineer, she the architect," but that's like the only scenerio i can think of where it's not completely awkward.
He is the engineer, she "is" the architect. Now where the "is" came from i did not see "è" in Italian.
The "correct" english translation now (2021) reads, "He is the engineer, she is the architect". But there is only one "è" in the sentence. Surely this should read more accurately as, "He is the engineer, she the architect". If the second part of the sentence wants to read as, "she is the architect" then it must be written as, "lei è l'architetto". Am I correct?
I think that, given how awkward the literal translation is and how much better the slight variations are, this sentence is not a good way to introduce the new vocabulary.
We should focus on the italian words not the english ones. They should fix that
So l'architetta is wrong? Come on, this is totally against the tips. In italian the proffesions take the gender, like we do in Spanish. The explanation the end means tit is stupid and childish
Why is 'lui e l'ingegnere, lei e l'architetto (the accents are there on my original answer) not correct?
That's the sentence (minus the second è) that you need to translate to English.
Don't understand why è is not in the last part of the sentence? Lei è l'architetto was wrong
It's a construction called 'Ellipsis'.
Check Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis_(linguistics). Under Gapping, you will find a mirror example to Duolingo's sentence: "John can play the guitar, and Mary (can play) the violin".
