- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "Ho iniziato bene."
25 Comments
I thought it is intransitive verb, because bene is not an object, shouldnt it be sono iniziata/e?
"TO BE" is both transitive and intransitive
- Io sono felice
- Io sono una ragazza
In English, "una ragazza" is not a direct object. It is what is called a "subject complement." Is it different in Italian?
1186
"Iniziare" here is a transitive verb. It doesn't matter if there is a direct object in the sentence or not, what matters is that it can take a direct object. I started something, even though we don't know what that something is.
If "avere" is used with transitive verbs, which take a direct object, then in the instance above, what is the direct object? What am I missing? Or is this some kind of exception? I notice that essere is used in "La festa è iniziata ieri." I can see that this latter case is intransitive and why, therefore, "essere" is used. Does it have to do with the passive voice?
- 1186
When a party has started, it means that the party itself has begun. The party has not started some kind of action like a sentient being; it's intransitive. That's easy enough, but when we see "ho iniziato bene", it's not clear what is being started. However, since "I" is the subject, we know that I have started some kind of action or activity. We don't know what that action/activity is, but we know that it exists, and that's what tells us that the verb is being use transitively.
- 1186
Yes, I think so. If it's a person starting the action, then the verb is being used transitively (they are starting something, so there is a direct object even if it's not mentioned.)
ho cominciato = I started (something) (transitive)
è cominciato = (something) has started (intransitive)
- 755
Because it is not good English. You can say "I started well" or "I had a good start".
"Good" is an adjective. "Well" is an adverb. In this sentence, it does not make grammatical sense to use an adjective after "started," so the adverb is used instead.
This really has to be accepted... There isn't a single adverb in the Italian language...
Do Italians distinguish between "I started well" and "I have started well"? If so, how?
I don't know how about you all but I hear her say 'idiziato' when only listening to the word not the whole sentance
It is the same thing, they are sinonim. The problem is that you can not write it here, because the translation is literal.
Hold up duolingo. You always use essere when using iniziato. Why avere here?
- 21
Duo is pouring too many words and sentences into these lessons before we have a firm grasp of them.
It means that at the beginning everything was going well. You say it while talking about something that later on changed and probably went bad.
