"Mia sorella più grande ha un pianoforte."

Translation:My oldest sister has a piano.

June 11, 2013

22 Comments
This discussion is locked.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/crazy4hazy

"Mia sorella piu' grande"... can that be "my older sister" as well as "my oldest sister"? Thank you.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Vee.Pee

It can, actually. The Italian sentence implies that my sister is older than me, but she doesn't have to be the only one. I might have other sisters who are older than me. I reported the sentence so it can be corrected.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/ilsignoredavid

It is still being accepted with both the comparative and the superlative. 16 Feb 19. Isn't there a difference in Italian?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Anne289821

Well, good luck with that - here eight years later.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/AJ_2097

Eldest sister


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/poche112

I was really hoping it was 'my sister is bigger than a piano' :-)


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Margaret_S

too funny... I feel your pain.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/SteveKillick

In English we might well say 'My big sister' referring to her age rather than size as the Italian is here. So I cannot see why it is marked as wrong.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/BrianGilli12

I agree - "my older sister..." is accepted, but not "my big sister...", where the later is much more common (UK)


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/kayamel

Why is "eldest sister" rejected ?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/AJ_2097

Accepted - Feb 2021


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/cuzzant

I, too, wonder why "my bigger (or older) sister" is not correct. Anyone?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Llaaama

I suppose it's because the specific term for "older sister" is "sorella maggiore", as opposed to "sorella minore" (younger sister). But in the case where the speaker has more than one sister, these terms do not give sufficient information about her being the "oldest"


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/sapolion

The previous two comments are helpful for me. Now, the obvious question is how to say "oldest sister" as opposed to "older sister" since both are now taken as correct. I would guess "il più grande° but since we say °mia sorella° and not °la mia sorella° I am unsure.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/TheGandalf

This is what I was thinking. I'm pretty sure this means it's ambiguous, and "mia sorella più grande" can be either comparative or superlative, because of the omitted article.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Llaaama

About "più grande": you probably have the answer by now. But for anyone else asking it, i think a good answer might be here (from a native speaker); i had asked a similar question on another thread: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/24472947$comment_id=24474835

So in this case, if it was meant to be comparative i.e. "older sister", it would've been something like "mia sorella più grande di me" (but it should be redundant to say this since we can simply use "sorella maggiore" as i mentioned above) - the omission of the article "di" changes the meaning of "più". Anyone, please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, thank you!


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/John955060

My understanding from previous lessons is that the superlative uses the definite article before "piu", so "older" would be "piu grande", but "oldest" would be "il piu grande". Comments anyone?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/StuartWill1

I think this is mostly the case. The problem here though is that the article is omitted for family members, so you wouldn't say "la mia sorella" in The first place?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Lidija712861

I understood the same as John955060. I think that the correct translation is: MY OLDER SISTER.


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Sarah501993

the word pianoforte is used in english too but is aparently not accepted WHY?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/Jude393299

Isn't "PIU" + adj. the comparative form (older) but IL PIU + adj. is the superlative (the oldest)?


https://www.duolingo.com/profile/BrianDonal16

My big sister is a much more common way of expressing this

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