18 Comments
A finger is un dito but fingers are le dita. Hopefully save someone a heart attack!
There's diti too, but according to some translation note I read in Wiktionary, dita is used for the fingers considered colectively and diti for the fingers considered individually. Would like to see an example of that, though...
Using "diti" as plural means considering each individual finger in the group, whereas "dita" means all the fingers as a sole entity (http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/diti-o-dita_(La_grammatica_italiana)/). "Diti" is no longer used and if you use it in a conversation chances are that it will be pointed out as a mistake.
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What if you're saying something like "la scatola è piena di diti" (as in, fingers that have been severed)?
Collectively: "le dita della mano" = "the fingers of the hand"
Individually: "i diti indici" = 'the index fingers"; "i diti medi" = "the middle fingers"; "i diti anulari" = "the ring fingers". My web source "Centro Studi Italiani" www.locuta.com/2plurali did not have a word for "the little fingers"; I could not find it in Reverso, either.
Who knows??
Yeah, same thing as "il labbro" (the lip) and "le labbre" (the lips).
It would be great if DL were to make such high value comments/tips more easily findable in the UI, e.g. in a popup that does not require to load the comments in a new browser tab.
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What about toes? Why can't he have his toes on the table? (Linguistically, I mean; not politely. ;-)
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Is this literal, or is it an expression to describe someone who is forthright and honest, not cheating (doing something under the table)?
Since the sentence is a bit odd, I also think it must be and idiom. Does anybody know the real meaning? I am always looking for new idioms for my collection.
I thought that in cases like this "sue" was left out. "Lui ha le dita sul tavolo." because the fact that they are his fingers is obvious. Is there any explanation of when it should be included or not?
