"I have the men's books."
Translation:Ho i libri degli uomini.
24 Comments
151
So if the sentence was "I have the women's books", would it be "Ho i libri delle donne". Any comments much appreciated.
I don't think so because the article in this case is "Gli". Remember that "Gli" is used for plurals that start with a vowel. De + Gli = Degli. "I" is used for plurals starting with consonants.
E.g.: I libri, Gli uomini
Or at least that is what Duolingo has taught me.
Just wanted to add on slightly to Alejandro's comment above - 'gli' should only be used for masculine plural nouns that begin with a vowel or beginning with s + consonant or the letter 'z.' Hope this helps!
I put in dell'uomini and they gave me the point but told me to pay attention to the gender. So dell' is only for female nouns that start with a vowel?
- 418
dell'uomini is not Italian. The article for uomini is only gli, therefore de + gli = degli
In the word "Degli" much like other "gli" variations, do you even pronounce the 'G'? I clicked on Degli and it just sounds like "duh"
- 520
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.
All words that have a gli are pronounced as the 'll' in million. Or thats what ive heard.
- 1948
gl is a digraph here, meaning that instead of the g and the l each getting pronounced separately, they indicate a single sound that is neither G nor L.
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?
- 1948
"Men" is already the plural of "man", therefore the apostrophe goes before the s, which is strictly possessive here.
Why isn't there a contraction between the i and the u as they are both vowels?
- 1948
Because that's not a general rule. It only happens in a small handful of cases.
- 1948
de is "of"; da is "from". "of" is used for the possessive: the books of the men.
