"Compriamo le caramelle allo zoo."
Translation:We buy candies at the zoo.
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I can't tell the difference between "nello zoo" and "allo zoo". I'm almost sure you guys are gonna tell me that one means "in the " and the other means "at the" but, sadly, I'm not a native English speaker so I don't really know the difference between those two too!
I have the impression that the difference between those is nothing but something gramatical, because it seems just the same.
Please, help me :(((
Firstly, really well done. I can't imagine the difficult of learning one language in another, not my mother tongue.
"Nello zoo" translates in English to "In the zoo", meaning broadly something that is inside the zoo, like the animals, the cages, the ice cream sellers.
"Allo zoo" translates as "To the zoo" meaning going towards the zoo, like walking from your home to get to the zoo.
These Italian terms can and do change their meanings in different circumstances so these comments relate directly only to "Nello zoo" and "Allo zoo" so watch out!
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As a native English speaker, "at" a place is more about the place in general while "in" a place is specific to inside a location. It's easier to understand if you're talking about something that being "in" is nearly impossible, like "I'll meet you at the big willow tree" instead of "I'll meet you in the big willow tree". It gets a slightly more complicated when you're talking about places that actually have an "indoors". In these cases, "in" literally means inside like "I'll meet you in the bank next to the teller" whereas "at" can mean inside or outside or even next to like "I'll meet you at the bank next to the entrance" which would typically be outside. So "allo zoo" being "at the zoo" could be inside the zoo, outside the zoo or even next to the zoo. Similar to the way that "sono" could refer to I or They, it will depend on the context.
Me imagino que eres hispanohablante, por eso me tomo la iniciativa de escribirte en castellano. En castellano las dos serían "en el zoo", pero la diferencia se basa en que cuando se dice "in the zoo" o "nello zoo" hablamos de algo que permanece allí, sin embargo, cuando hablamos de "at the zoo" o "allo zoo" hablaríamos de una acción que se desarrollara allí puntualmente. Espero haberte ayudado.
I'm not a native English speaker either and in my native tongue there's no difference similar to 'at the zoo' and 'in the zoo' (if anything, 'at' would mean 'close by', which wouldn't make sense here). I supposed 'nello' meant being in the actual cages (animals) while 'allo' was more like 'visiting' it. I can't say for sure, but up to this point it worked. :)
This is something that I have noted for my learning of "a"
--------• wiktionary •--------
{ preposition }
1. [ in ]
2. [ at ]
3. [ to ]
4. [ Indicates the direct object, mainly to avoid confusion when it, the subject, or both are displaced, or for emphasis ]
• A me non importa.
• { lit: To me it doesn’t matter. }
• [ It doesn’t matter to me. ]
• A lei non piace, ma a lui piace molto.
• [ She doesn't like it, but he likes it very much. ]
</pre>
•----------••----------•
Esempi
•----------••----------•
2. [ at ]
•----------••----------•
• Sono a pranzo.
• Loro sono a pranzo.
• Siamo a cena.
• Io sono allo zoo.
• [ I am at the zoo. ]
• Compriamo le caramella allo zoo.
• [ ... at the zoo. ]
•----------••----------•
3. [ to ]
•----------••----------•
• Scriviamo ad Anna.
• [ We write to Anna. ]
• Noi andiamo ad Amsterdam.
• [ We are going to Amsterdam. ]
--------{ masculine }--------
• Loro dano l'acqua all'animale.
• [ They give the water to the animal. ]
• La donna scrive all'uomo.
• [ The woman writes to the man. ]
• Lei dà carne al leone.
• [ She gives meat to the lion. ]
---{ al tuo, nostro, vostro }---
• Il ragazzo va al liceo vicino al nostro.
• [ The boy goes to the high school next to ours. ]
• The man meets his girlfriend for breakfast at the diner near your flower shop.
• [ L'uomo incontra la sua ragazza per colazione alla tavola calda vicino al tuo negozio di fiori ]
• ... vicino al suo ufficio
• [ ... vicino al suo ufficio ]
---{ agli uomini }---
• Noi scriviamo agli uomini.
• [ We write to the men. ]
• I ragazzi leggono agli uomini.
• [ The boys read to the men. ]
• Leggiamo agli uomini.
• [ We read to the men. ]
---{ ai ragazzi }---
• Io porto i biscotti ai ragazzi.
--------{ feminine }--------
• Lui scrive alla ragazza.
• [ He writes to the girl. ]
• Loro scrivono alle donne.
• [ They write to the women. ]
• Noi scriviamo alle ragazze.
• [ We write to the girls. ]
• Diamo il pane all'anatra • [ We give the bread to the duck. ]
Hope that helps.
:) KK
In English we often use "candy" as both singular and plural. For instance, kids go to the store and buy "candy", whether it's one thing, or enough to make them sick. Although we do sometimes use the plural ("Johnny, how many of those candies did you eat?), it is more common to use sentence structure that uses the singular ("Johnny, how much candy did you eat?"). Is this true in Italian too? I always want to put "candy" for both singular and plural answers.
I'm italian
IMO the word "zoo" is pronounced correctly.
Since it also happens to me to have doubts about the pronunciation of some English words, I suggest you listen here how the word is pronounced by native speakers
It seems that no native Italian nor a native English person wants to properly answer why the English translation of "le caramelle" misses a "the", moreover there is someone who gives 'dislikes' to such comments, but this question should be at least as important as the one with "at the zoo". If candy in general is correct in the translation of this sentence, then how would you say in Italian "We buy THE candies at the zoo", meaning e.g. certain candies? Pls. do really answer and do not simply 'dislike' this question. If, however, the Italian sentence could be translated both with one and two "the"s, then pls. report the above mentioned missing second "the" as an error. Thanks in advance
Allo, alle and alla are used like lo, le ,la, you also have agli, and al. My understanding is that is a joining of 2 words, in this example 'al' meaning 'at' and the definite article for the noun. So we get 'Al' + 'la' = 'Alla' for a feminine singular, 'Al' + 'le' = 'alle' for fem. plural, 'Al' + 'lo' = 'Allo' for words you would normally use 'lo' for (e.g. zoo) The same is so for Nello, nella, nell.
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Why not "We buy THE candies at the zoo"? If the wanted to leave out the first "the" why not "Compriamo caramelle...." or would that be incorrect?
Maybe it’s my iPad or Airbuds, but more and more I don’t understand the male voice. Here, for example, even with the slow pronunciation, I don’t hear “zoo”. I hear something like “doe”. I asked my spouse, a native Portuguese speaker who knows some Italian, and he couldn’t understand that word either. This happened with another word yesterday, which frustrated me so much I quit the lesson for the day. Are these legit pronunciation variations, or just a poor quality voice?
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Unfortunately after listening 6 times still couldn't hear zoo, sounded like jo gio ? Sound quality not good
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This is not the only web site where you have to remember to use American English idiom rather than British English.
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I said "we buy the candies at zoo" which in english is correct however it was marked as incorrect? Can't