55 Comments
It's idomatic.
Cena is being used as a verb in this case - and it means "to dine/to eat dinner/to have dinner". It's a bit confusing because the third person singular form of the verb "cenare" (the form you use with lui/lei/it/the man/etc) is identical to the noun "il cena" which means "the dinner".
That makes sense, but then, again, pranza is also being used as a verb "pranzare" so the same should apply.
He means pranzare is used to say to eat lunch so the same should apply to cenare to say to eat dinner.
because that would be l'uomo mangia, whereas here he is specifically eating dinner, not just eating.
Maybe for an English native person it's kinda difficult to understand this phrase, but some things like "dining" or "eats" is not correct because this phrase takes "cena" as a verb, and "dine" is the literal traduction for "cena" as an action
555
I miss the times when we used to lose hearts even though it pissed me off every single time it happened (whether it was a typo, unacceptable translation or simply my mistake).
Here cena would mean " Have dinner"? I thought has would be "ha". So does the translation "L'uomo ha la cena" also hold correct? (Where cena would be a noun rather than a verb)
- 1947
No, because that is not specific enough. "Cenare" means specifically "to dine", or "to eat dinner".
I think the best translation is 'he has dinner' and not 'he eats dinner'
Because it should be" is eating" ( present continues) "the man eats" (present simple)
- 69
The tool tip for cena said "(he/she/it) eats (one's) dinner", so I wrote "The man eats his dinner" and was marked wrong. How come?
Duo wants us to be more literal, how do you know that it is his dinner? It doesn't say
I had never seen this word so I clicked it and it said it means eat but then I was told I was wrong.. Ok
I put "L'uomo cena" for the opposite question earlier and got incorrect answer with correction being "L'uomo la cena".
- 1947
Hm. That might mean "The man dines on it", but that still adds more than was there. I'd report that as a glitch.
- 1947
io pranzo for lunch, io ceno for dinner.
Pranzare is the infinitive:
I eat lunch = io pranzo
you eat lunch = tu pranzi
he/she eats lunch = lui/lei pranza
we eat lunch = noi pranziamo
you eat lunch = voi pranzate
they eat lunch = loro pranzano
Cenare
I eat dinner = io ceno
you eat dinner = tu ceni
he/she eats dinner = lui/lei cena
we eat dinner = noi ceniamo
you eat dinner = voi cenate
they eat dinner = loro cenano
- 1947
Speech recognition software still has a long way to go. You can always disable the microphone option in your settings.
- 412
I have been called wrong in the past when saying, "lui pranza" meant "he eats lunch." I thought maybe it was because "mangia" wasn't bring used and it meant, "he has lunch." Usually, when "cena" is used as a verb, I use "dine" and it's perfectly acceptable. On this particular question, I get dinged. Am I wrong or the program? I tend to think I'm wrong.
- 412
I figured out what i did wrong. I said "men" instead of "man." Autocorrect strikes again! What the me off was the correction used the word "eats" and i thought that was unacceptable because I was marked wrong saying that for lunch one time.
