"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.
Da is from (i remember it by a is to, so add the d to get from. And di is of, which changes to degli to be of the.
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?
dell'uomini is not Italian. The article for uomini is only gli, therefore de + gli = degli
It should be. If you don't have any other errors or typos, you can flag it and report "My answer should be accepted."
- 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.
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!
- 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?
"Men" is already the plural of "man", therefore the apostrophe goes before the s, which is strictly possessive here.
de is "of"; da is "from". "of" is used for the possessive: the books of the men.
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"
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.
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.
I do not understand why the article "i" is necessary in this sentence, unless the translation is something like: "I have the books of the men."
Even in 'I have the men's books' you need the article. It refers to the books even if it is followed by 'men'.
Is gli not being treated as an article here when combined with de?
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'
Interesting! It would be handy if Duolingo expanded its tips page to include rules like this, but I suppose that's why we have the comment section. Thank you for your answers!
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
degli uomini, not degli uomino.
one man = un uomo
two men = due uomini
the man = l'uomo
the men = gli uomini
- 1434
Why can't you just say "libri uomini"? Like "abbigliamento uomini" is men's clothing, right?
Yes, that is literally how that's said in Italian, and yes it's possible to say it that way in English, but it's very uncommon. We typically say "I have the men's books".
I keep making a similar mistake, I translated ,"I have the man's book", into " Ho degli uomini I libri". Wrong! Is there a trick to know when object comes before subject, man in this case. Thank you for any help. Mario
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').
Another confusing one for me. it says "degli" but per the dictionary the explanation of degli is - of the, about the or from the - and no where does I have the men's books say any one of those things. Please advise. Thank you
'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.
Thank you for being so helpful. Italian is so very different than English (the American brand, of course) that I am having a difficult time but keep plugging away and asking questions so I can learn.
this is the first time in my life that i have come across the plural possesive of man: men's instead of mens'. i hope this is right cause i will use this from now on
The plural of "man" is "men".
* "mens" does not exist. The possessive form "of the men" is written as "men" + apostrophe + "s" -> "men's".