77 Comments
These would be much easier if they gave us some context. Something like a picture. Also I have never said nor heard anyone say I have the bee to me before. In what situation would you say to someone I have the bee?
I agree that it's an odd little sentence. But they aren't teaching us phrases to memorize to use as is. They're teaching us vocabulary and grammar so that we can create our own sentences. Actually, I wonder if they use somewhat nonsensical sentences for a reason - it forces us to pay attention to the vocabulary and grammar, because memorizing these phrases is NOT going to help us.
Exactly. Spot on. I find these sometimes rather nonsensical sentences and phrases helpful to get the gist out of the grammer rules. Just as translating things from the target language into not-so-idiomatical English helps me grasp sentence structure and word order. To me, it's not, "Why on earth are they doing it like that? Makes no sense", but rather, "ah, that's how it works in Italian! Cool! Now I understand!"
One of the first rules when you learn a new language is that you do not try to translate it to your native language. Many times it will not make sense. Just learn the words and the way they speak it and soon you will see results.
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I think he means not to translate literally, or not to translate word for word, as grammer can be different.
Sometimes they do introduce the words with pictures, but I think they haven't uploaded any bee images yet. And I suppose in a situation where you have just been stung by a bee, your friend might pick it up and say that he has the bee that stung you. But it's just a basic way of introducing a word. We haven't learned many verbs yet.
"In what situation would you say to someone I have the bee?"
While translating a sentence on DuoLingo. :-)
When I was a kid I learned a song called "I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee."
My brother caught a bee. It was stuck in his ice cream, the stinger was covered. He said "i have a bee"
In a case where you were stung by a wasp and everyone was frantic (because wasps can sting again). Then you might be excited to hear this sentence.
"ape" is sort of bike with three wheels, if you are interested google "ape piaggio". piaggio is the brand
A line taken from a low budget italian horror film about a human/bee hybrid monster called L'ape. Speaks the hero upon securing the beast (or beest, if you prefer): IO HO L'APE!!!!
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Not sure if this is an internal joke by Duolingo. "L'ape" in this context, is more likely to refer to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaggio_Ape :-)
A strange car whose name is Bee ?!? Incredible ... I think that is just to fix the word ... I remember, when I was Young (long time ago, eheheh ...), I always watch the cartoon from Topo Gigio ... Just after previous lesson, I learnt that topo means mouse ... I like this way to fix, repeating the same thing several times until it will be burned in your brain ... very good ...
We Americans refer to "buggies" all the time, so I don't find it surprising that someone would call a car a "Bee."
I think it’s a direct link from “Vespa” which means “wasp”, the bee is a working version of the wasp hence “Ape”.
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if you ever want to see it again, come to thedocks at midnight with five dollars in unmarked bills..
A kid could have caught a bee, you know like in a jar, and go up to his dad and say 'io ho l'ape'.
Then morales come into effect.
I'm Italian and the pronunciation is not right at all. That sounds like "io o l'appe" which means nothing. "Ho" should be pronounced more open; "l'ape" has a single P, which means that it has to be pronounced gently.
This makes sense because duolingo has taken inspiration from Zelda games (hearts/gems) and Link can put bees in jars. Yeah I'm a geek whatever
According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small tyo get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway becasuse bees don't care what humans think is impossible.
I agree that it is confusing to hear such a random/uncommon sentence out of context. I mistakenly heard "Io ho latte" which sounds very similar and is a much more common statement in everyday conversation.
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That would be scimmia though I am not sure about the difference between 'monkey' and 'ape'
Depends if you are friends with the bee in question, or if you have hogged the first bee that flew by.
it's exactly the opposite, when referring to the car we mostly say:"ho l'ape" (i have the bee)
The "Ape" is a three-wheeled light commercial vehicle produced by Piaggio. Out of this context the sentence doesn't make any sense
The way it sounds on my iPad is “io ho latte”. I would say that “I have milk” makes a lot more sense than “I have the bee”. I’ve listened to it over and over again and it’s definaitely a “T” not “P” ! They need a new Italian speaker. This woman is rubbish.
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You're right: the way it's pronounced it's (slightly) incorrect but not the way you mention.
What I hear (native speaker here) is: io ho l'ap(p)e. The 'p' seems to be oddly long. It's longer than a single 'p', yet shorter than a double one.
I'm not sure why you (and others) are reporting hearing io ho latte. Maybe the different way Italian pronounces it's 'p's (that is without a puff)?
https://www.thoughtco.com/italian-consonants-2011630
I heard it too like "io ho latte" (my native language is a non Indo-European language)
HI DOES ANYONE UNDERSTAND HOW THESE SENTANCES WORK??!!! SOOOOO CONFUSING!!!
A previous phrase for transl of 'the zoo' and duo corrected me with 'Io zoo'. Why was io used rather than il or la? Can someone explain?
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The noun zoo is m. (article il - changes in front of some consonants (see explanations below) in: lo zoo) and bee is fem. (article la - eludes in front of vowels: l'ape)
It's strange,right?Who carries a bee with them unless they want to get stung by them...
This sentence keeps coming up for me to say, and every time it does not recognise my pronunciation of l'ape. Most frustrating. Because it's always wrong, it keeps coming back!
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It makes sense that it comes back until you've mastered it.
Ape is pronounced as 'ah-peh' ('ah' like the a in 'master' and 'eh' like the e in 'bed').
