"I have the men's books."
Translation:Ho i libri degli uomini.
52 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
1465
So if the sentence was "I have the women's books", would it be "Ho i libri delle donne". Any comments much appreciated.
1455
Thank you, Rae. When i wanted to do that there was only a possibility to “discuss” (which of course made me end up on the discussion forum). Will see what happens next time i come across same or similar sentence. Thanks for the thumbs up.
1321
Shouldn't it be mens' instead of men's since we're talking about it belonging to multiple men, and not just one man? Seems like the English isn't correct, unless I'm wrong?
G like "dissolves" (assimilates) here and not actually pronounced as a standalone sound. You should say something like "deyyi", but it is better if you listen its pronounciation in whole sentences. It may slightly change near stressed syllables and sound closer to "dei" when the neighboring words unstressed.
Yes, Indeed. 'I have the books of the men' is how Italian forms a possessive sentence: 'possessed thing' di 'owner'. La casa di Mario -> 'Mario's house'. Il libro di Giulia -> 'Giulia's book'.
Incidentally, you need to use the article with possessive adjectives. La sua casa -> 'his/her house'. Il suo libro -> 'his/her book'
We would need to know more details, such as exactly how the question was presented to you and exactly how you answered. It wasn't including "io" that got you marked wrong. You either had a typo or error or extra space somewhere, or you didn't select all of the correct multiple choice options, or you dragged from the word bank instead of tapping.
The extra space issue and the dragging issue are bugs, not valid reasons to mark you wrong, so next time that happens (after you triple-check to make sure you had no typos or errors) take a screen shot and fill out a bug report.
https://support.duolingo.com/hc/en-us/sections/200864570-Reporting-Issues
1434
Why can't you just say "libri uomini"? Like "abbigliamento uomini" is men's clothing, right?
In Italian, generally, the modifier comes after the thing modified.
The subject is i libri, the modifier is degli uomini.
In 'the men's books'' you are using a so-called genitive (that is a remnant of when English had cases) that can also be rendered as 'the books of the men'. Italian does not have cases (the genitive) so that construction (owner + apostrophe + s) doesn't exist.
Incidentally, ho degli uomini i libri would be understood, but would sound very unnatural or poetic. Check this famous poem, written by Ungaretti:
Si sta come d'autunno sugli alberi le foglie -> 'we are like the leaves on the trees in Autumn' (or, literally : 'we are like in Autumn on the tress the leaves').
'The men's book' can also be written as 'the books of the men'. The latter is the form used in Italian -> i libri (the book) degli (of the) uomini (men).
Other examples: Paul's dog -> the dog of Paul -> il cane di Paul. The teacher's car -> the car of the teacher -> la macchina dell'insegnante. The king's speech -> the speech of the king -> il discorso del re.