60 Comments
is anybody able to tell me please, why it's not "lenzuele" if it's feminine plural? Thanks!
Lenzuolo is masculine singular, the plural form is lenzuola (feminine, more common) or lenzuoli (masculine, less common).
Thanks! Funny that a plural word doesn't end with an 'i' or an 'e', but I guess this must be an exception!
yes it is an exception a native speakers discussed this in a previous exercise. some Italian words change gender from singular to plural like coriolano77 stated.
Thanks guys. Each language has its "pitfalls". Weird for us, but not for Italians...
to clarify: it is "il lenzuolo" in the singular and "le lenzuola" in the plural?
much agreed. italian is one of the easiest languages to learn. english is absurd, but its ubiquity helps.
Languages have rules but there are always exceptions. You just have to get used to them.
I could understand la lenzuola meaning the bedlinen, a collective noun. In colloquial English we do hear those treated as if plural - the crowd are shouting, for example - though to a purist that would be incorrect. Is this something similar?
No, "lenzuolo" is not an uncountable noun. Although it is a masculine word, it has two plurals, one masculine, one feminine. That means you have to match the right articles and adjectives to them: "i lenzuoli" and "le lenzuola"
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There are a few exceptions to the usual pluralization rules...e.g. the plural of lip (labbro) is labbra.
There are actually a bunch of nouns like this in Italian. It may trace back to Latin genders.
I don't think it can. I don't remember anything of the sort in Latin - though that was a long time ago when I was at university.
It's the neuter gender ;) In Italian it was absorbed by the masculine, but in some cases the plural remained and was perceived as a feminine, so "linteolum" became "il lenzuolo", and its plural "linteola" became "le lenzuola". Same with "l'uovo"/"le uova", "il braccio"/"le braccia", "il paio"/"le paia" and so on; they're very few compared to the number of Latin neuters though.
Thank you for that. It all makes sense of a real puzzle. I had forgotten all about the Latin neuter. Have a Lingot.
Do you think perhaps you Italians would have been better sticking with Latin? :-)
Thanks :D
I'm not sure about that, it's more or less what the Greeks tried at the beginning with their Katharevousa, a formal Greek variant that was "purified" of its non-Greek evolution and loans; keeping a literary language that is too far from what is spoken in everyday life creates an artificial distance between the people and their institutions, and that isn't desirable in a modern nation.
Latin was likely already a literary Language in the late Roman Empire, if in 813 AD the bishops were issued the recommendation to deliver their sermons "in rusticam romanam linguam aut thiotiscam" (in the rural Roman or German language) rather than in Latin, as that implies that the Romans (or rather the citizens of the former Western Empire) outside the centers of culture and power already couldn't understand Latin well. One of the first transcriptions of spoken Romance is a testimony in a trial that in 960 AD assigned the lands around Aquino to the Benedictine Abbey of Montecassino (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Placito-capua.jpg), and it already looks more Italian than Latin (note the clitic "le").
I wasn't actually serious, as you no doubt realise. (Equally, England could have stuck with Latin, which was its official language for 400 years, rather than the mish-mash which we got!)
It might have made life easier for Duolingo students, though. :-)
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Thank you. I just gave you a lingot, otherwise I could have done it here too! Most interesting!
In Italian there is no neuter gender. This should be useful http://www.culturasocial.it/esiste-neutro-italiano/
Also this may help https://www.italianochefatica.it/it/sostantivi-con-i-plurali-doppi-nella-lingua-italiana/
"Linens" are not necessarily "sheets". In fact, Italian has other words for that.
http://dictionnaire.reverso.net/italien-anglais/lenzuola http://dictionnaire.reverso.net/anglais-italien/linens
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Personally, I believe 'linens' should be accepted. Here in Britain, when we say we are going to 'change the linens' we ALWAYS mean we're going to change the sheets/bedding.
Error - Translating from Italian to English DL wants me to write "bedsheets" instead of "bed sheets".... But in English "bed sheets" is correct
"Where are the sheets?" is accepted. We don't usually bother to say "bed sheets" where I am from, in California, USA. Where are you from?
Just when I think I've mastered the fact that objects can be male or female they suddenly do sex change. WTF?
I think that is probably because the computer recognised 'lenusuola' simply as a spelling error. If you enter the wrong word or get the number or gender wrong you'll lose a heart.
Is the way the "Voice" speaks and pronounces everything true to actually Italian? Speed too?
I'm stuck in a loop now because I insist on using 'linens'. It just keeps giving me the question over and over again. That's never happened before.
"Linens" are not necessarily "sheets". In fact, Italian has other words for that. http://dictionnaire.reverso.net/italien-anglais/lenzuola
Why does Duolingo say "Where are the bed sheets?" and "Where are the bedsheets?" We probably know that "bedsheets" and "bed sheets" are basically the same thing.
The explanations below are great about why il lenzuolo goes to le lenzuola, very interesting. But, someone alluded to, and I read that, the plural can also be i lenzuoli.
How can it be two genders in the plural? Do certain contexts require a specific gender? Or are they interchangeable?
I know it's the 21st century and gender is more than just male/female these days, but I didn't realise words were getting in on it too!!!
Italian which has has two genders (masculine and feminine) comes from Latin which had three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter).
Many Germanic languages still have three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), unlike English which now has none outside of pronouns. Old English, being Germanic had three genders.
"lenzuolo" was a neuter word in Latin where it was absorbed by the masculine but retained its original plural which sounds like feminine, as well as getting a new masculine plural.
Interesting explanation! Seems thet "lenzuolo" stems from Latin "linteolum", pl. "linteola" meaning "(small) linen cloth". In Latin both singular and plural are neuter, but the plural sounds like the feminine singular -a.
However, most Latin neuters ending in -um have been adopted as masculine -o in Italian (forum - foro, templum - tempio) but have the regular masculine -i plural. So lenzuolo indeed is an exception.
I wrote "where is the bedding?" and it told me the correct answer is "where are the beddings?" Wtf, that's not right.
You are of course right FlameMonarch. There isn't a plural of "bedding" in English. Report it. I find it takes a couple of months but you will eventually get confirmation of your recommended change.
Linens = bedclothes where I come from. (Mid-Atlantic US states). Add that to the acceptibles would you?
whoo. This is very confusing, when i type in "bed lines" it says it's wrong and should be bed sheets. When i type in bed sheets its says it's wrong and should bs bed line... what is the trick??
My answer said, "Where are the bed linens". I put "beddings", as it was one of the options that came up underneath the word as I hovered over it, and said that I was wrong! Ummmm...
WTH Dulingo!? I wrote bedsheets and got it wrong eventhough the dropdown menu suggested bedsheets instead of beddings
How can you tell the difference between sono when it means "they are" vs "I am"? Does the verb not conjugate like in Spanish?
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Based on clues in the rest of the sentence and in the context. Adjective endings can be clues: sono intelligente vs sono intelligenti. Same with whether a noun is singular vs plural: sono un ammiratore, sono ammiratori.
https://quizlet.com/238273416/italian-chapter-10-nouns-whose-gender-changes-in-the-plural-flash-cards/ NOUNS WHOSE GENDER CHANGES IN THE PLURAL
The roomate stole it along with the matress back in blouder
