"Lui ha le sue dita sul tavolo."
Translation:He has his fingers on the table.
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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.
What if you're saying something like "la scatola รจ 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??
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.
Yeah, same thing as "il labbro" (the lip) and "le labbre" (the lips).
427
What about toes? Why can't he have his toes on the table? (Linguistically, I mean; not politely. ;-)
- 1793
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 an idiom. Does anybody know the real meaning? I am always looking for new idioms for my collection.
This is a just a random Duolingo sentence, there are no other meanings.
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?
The possessive should indeed be left out in Italian. Duo's sentence isn't natural Italian, it's just a word-for-word translation from the English wording.
Thank you for answering my question about "sue" being odd. Could you please answer my other question? What is the real, non literal, idiomatic meaning of this sentence?
Is there any relation of this sentence to the expression "le dita sono nella ciotola"?
Is it the same as "picchiare le dita sul tavolo" (tapping fingers on the table = snapping fingers calling for the waiter)?
any relation of this sentence to the expression "le dita sono nella ciotola"?
No, they are both just random sentences with no figurative meaning whatsoever.
Thank you. Then for the last one "picchiare le dita sul tavolo", English snapping fingers for a waiter might have been normal at some point but I think it would be considered arrogant or rude at present. Is the Italian still a normal custom?
Neither tapping fingers on the table nor snapping fingers (which is "schioccare le dita" in Italian, by the way) are seen as polite ways to call a waiter over here either.
I also need more clarification on this topic! When can we drop the possessive pronoun, and why isn't proprio/a getting used in situations like this!
