"Non sei una donna, bensì una ragazza."
Translation:You are not a woman, but a girl.
58 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
"Bensi: cong. ma piuttosto, ma invece, ma anzi (con valore avversativo DOPO UNA FRASE NEGATIVA; anche preceduto da ma rafforzativo): non mi pare sciocco, bensì svogliato; non hai ragione tu, bensì lui; non fui io, ma bensì lui che lo offese | ( non com.) tuttavia, però, peraltro (con valore limitativo): gli dissi di no, bensì a malincuore "
Sorry, I am not a native speaker. I have found these 4-5 examples. As you can see the first sentence is always a negative one (una frase negativa) and the word "bensi" is used only after a negative sentence with the meaning "but". Non hai raggione tu= you are not right, bensi lui= (but) he (is right). Bensi=ma , but it cannot be used generally. Take it easy, we do not have to know all of the rules to be able to speak a language.
Bensì is something that we don't really have a consistent translation for in English, but I always use "but rather". But it essentially follows a "Not a but rather b" pattern. A parallel but does exist in other languages. It is sino in Spanish, bensì in Italien and sondern in German. I would assume it also exists in languages that I don't speak as well
599
For those who know a little Spanish, it's simillar to "sino" - No eres una mujer, sino una niña.
322
From my understanding:
Bensi is like 'but rather' And ma is like 'but'
Rather' is like 'instead of'; and using the word, 'but' is like 'except' and allows it to become a negative, in one conjoined sentence rather than a separate one.
322
But itself, introduces a negative statement.
Bensì = bene + sì and means, 'but, rather' Rather - which in turn, means its not comparable; that there is a preference to the choice - an introduction to a contraindication. Introduces the negative statement.
I don't like tea but, rather milk.
Ma means 'but-' (buten, butan, buute) = be- +out (outside of, without, except). Introduces the negative.
I would like to give you milk but, we have none.
'Oh thats okay, i am thirst but, i will wait - i would have tea but, rather would have milk.'
Brevity (shortening of sentence) helps keep the reader/listener engaged - less long winded.
'Oh that's okay, i will wait - i am thirsty but, rather prefer milk."
They will, wait until the end of time if they want the moo juice.
1591
why isn't .... rather I am a girl ... accepted, it's perfectly good English if somewhat 'florid'...?
Well you included the wrong subject pronoun for the meaning of the sentence, (it's talking about what "you" are not what "I" am), but I think just adding any subject pronoun where none exists in Italian was sufficient to make that a poor translation. To the extent parallel modes of expression are available, they are the best translations.
322
Whenever i see bensì, i just type 'but, rather' and it accepts ~ helps not confuse it with ma which is just 'but'