"Lui è l'ingegnere, lei l'architetto."
Translation:He is the engineer, she is the architect.
29 Comments
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.
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.
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."
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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.
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You would drop the verb in English too. He is the engineer, she the architect. I am curious: what are other cases when you would drop the verb in English but not in Italian?
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.
Do I change the adjective to masculine? Example: Lei e un architetto creativo. Sorry, I don't have the accent sign on my phone.
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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 guess, this should be translated as " lui è l'ingegnere lei è l'architetto"
Interesting that tetto means roof and tetta means tits. Very big mistake to make if your pronunciation is bad.
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.
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?
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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.
"She the architect" sounds completely wrong to me. "She IS the architect" Native English speaker.
Is this gendery correct question Duo? Just kidding, hate that mumbo jumbo, everyone should do whatever they like .)
He is the engineer, she "is" the architect. Now where the "is" came from i did not see "è" in Italian.
Yay Duo! * when your profession actually comes up first in the lesson *. (Followed by the clown o.0 Oh well).
My two cents for the debate of whether the use of "the" is appropriate here: I'd say yes, it is. Examples such as those that mmseiple and PeterSoda have already given do actually come up quite often IRL.
In the lesson was explained that the verb essere is followed by inderterminated article....
this gets marked as incorrect when you write "è" before the second profession--shouldn't this also be correct?
