"A chocolate cookie"
Translation:Un biscotto al cioccolato
55 Comments
That's because Italian cannot use nouns as adjectives the way English does. cioccolato is a noun, so you cannot use it to describe a quality as it is. When talking about food ingredients, you can use "al/alla/allo X" to express "X flavored/tasting".
I'm not an expert but if it's the same as French the adjective usually follows the noun
Al is also derived from "alla" = in the style of, so a choccolate style (flavoured) biscuit. (Source: my Italian teacher)
Can someone please explain why 'al' is put in front of the word chocolate, when previously we have learnt that 'al' is 'at the'
Exactly! I've looked at Italian websites, and 'al' is indeed correct, but why??? 'Cookie of chocolate' makes sense to me, but 'cookie to the chocolate' makes no sense...
In Italian, you can use different prepositions when talking about food ingredients. If you said "biscotto di cioccolato", that would imply that the cookie is entirely made of chocolate. "biscotto al cioccolato" means that the cookie is "chocolate flavoured".
Actually, the word "style" is implied, so, it's "cookie to the chocolate style", or "a la mode"
I agree with many comments about the lack of grammatical instruction. very frustrating
Sorry but the italian words for "the" combine with: a "at/to", da "from", di "of", in "in" and su "on".
Al - (a + il) - at/to the
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/language_notes/al.html
In general, "al" means "at the", "con" means "with" and "di" means "of". When talking about food and ingredients, "al X" means "X flavoured", "con X" simply means that X has been added, and is usually visible ("biscotti con gocce di cioccolato" = chocolate chips cookies), and "di X" means that something is made of X ("uovo di cioccolato" = chocolate egg).
The tool teaches "cioccolato" to be chocolate. Then penalises you for not using some other word (cacao) or a new inclusion of "di"... wtf?
"cacao" is an Italian word, it means "cocoa". Somebody must have messed up the vowels when translating :P
I've done some linguistics and that is why I am showing off; it is an example of metathesis!
I think you're on the right track; the French 'a la mode,' that in the U.S. we use only , as far as I know, when ordering pie with ice cream, actually means "in the style of." Apparently, and based on an earlier answer from "HelloImDia," who got the information from her Italian teacher, the Italian 'al' is a contraction, or short version of 'alla' and means the same in Italian as the French 'a la' that English speakers use to ordering pie a la mode and that, for us, has simply become shorthand for "I want my pie with ice cream."
It's funny, because when ordering something 'à la mode' it really only means 'fashionable' or as you said, 'in the style of.' So, I guess it's just the fashionable way to eat cake or pie.
It is more logical than english and some other languages A chocolate cookie is a cookie so why not saying the cookie first!
are there multiple forms of al / con / di? like does it depend on the gender of the thing to which it refers?
Uno is used for masculine words that start with an s + consonant, or z. Uno zaino, uno scherzo.
It's like "une glace au chocolat" in French (literally "an ice-cream with chocolate") or "le thé au lait" - "tea with milk". Take the word "a" in Italian to mean "with" in this case.
The adjective follows the noun. Here noun is cookie and chocolate is adjective. We are talking about chocolate flavored cookie. Hence biscotto al ciaccolato
I am not sure I understand the inclusion of "al"
Doesn't "al" mean "to the"
is it a cookie to the chocolate?
What am I missing here?
