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- "Non sei una donna, bensì una…
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Interesting. Can you elaborate on that? I believe "bensi" is not a common word and "ma" is much more usual, but if there is a pattern to when bensi is used that would help me a lot.
"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
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Not altogether unknown in italy - check out the word "gerontocrazia". Folk under 40 often thought too young for any form of position/responsibility - an age at which some of that same gerontocrazia would, in their day, have been looking forward to an imminent pension.
Never hear this expression used and I have not seen it in any Italian text books
I just gave the correct answer "you are not a woman but a girl" and it marked it as wrong. Any idea why ?
I just entered the correct answer and it marked it wrong. Is it because I missed out the punctuation?
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Why is t correct to say "rather" when it is Non sei un ragazzo, bensì il uomo but it is wrong here and it is "but"
Bensì after a negative, seems to translate better as. Rather. You are not a womam, rather your are a girl.
When I used" but" for the sentence ' I am not a boy but a man ' duo gave rather as an optionand when I used rather here it marked me wrong ! Help
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This is a type what you hear exercise. I typed the wrong verb. I typed "non sai una donna bensé una ragazza". This verb should be "sei" you are.
Is the 'en' in 'bensi' pronounced normally or is it nasal? I can't tell and don't know if Italian has nasal sounds.
No. French and Portuguese have a lot of nasal sounds, but Italian and Spanish don't.
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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.
