"Andiamo a vedere la collezione di macchine."
Translation:We are going to see the car collection.
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Can this be also translated as 'Let's go see...' (not for this particular sentence, but generally speaking, like 'andiamo a vedere un film') ?
Let's go to see the car collection was just accepted for me, 13 December 2020.
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Just FYI non-anglophones, the first English translation in the answer box is wrong. It has to be ".......collection of CARS", not "....collection of CAR". It is called a 'car collection' but, when phrased 'collection of' something, the something has to be plural. You can't have a car collection with only one car in it. :) I have reported it, but not sure if it went through as it is being very slow today.
Yes. A "collection of cars" is a "car collection." The pre-positioned noun "car" acts as a modifier to specify the kind of collection. When we speak of more than one collection of cars, it is still "CAR collections."
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let's go and see the car collection- this is a perfectly reasonable translation but was marked wrong. reported, 22/07/2020
I agree, and people have been reporting it for years without getting anywhere. Every single day now I come across examples of this. It really is starting to take away the pleasure of learning.
I am glad that I am not the only one tempted to give up. They have so much to offer and then one comes across something so crass that I want to shout at someone or throw something at the screen. I wonder if they realise how negative the impact of some of their inflexibility is- or do they care?
why is "a" necessary between 'andiamo a vedere' when it is not necessary in 'vuole vedere la mia collezione di farfalle' ?
I'm open to correction here as this topic is one which often catches me also, but this is because Volere is transitive while Andare is intransitive. In effect Andare means "to go" whereas Volere means "to want to".
See https://blogs.transparent.com/italian/transitive-and-intransitive-verbs/
"Verbs which don’t express an action but rather a state or a condition, such as essere (to be), stare (to stay), divenire (to become), etc. are intransitive, as are verbs which express movement: andare (to go), venire (to come), arrivare (to arrive), etc."
DL likes laying land-mines. I'm getting a little shell-shocked and hesitant about hitting the 'return' key. Isn't 'macchina' the singular and 'macchine' the plural?
Yes, but as described by others above, it is a "collection of cars" but a "car collection". "Car" in this latter form is acting as an adjective on "collection" describing the type of collection.
I thought 'andare a' was used only in the sense of going 'to a place', not going 'to do something' which is idiomatic English for 'will do' something' .. in the future. It seems to me that
andiamo vedere = going to see
This is consistent with what we were taught in the infinitive section; none of those verbs was followed by the preposition 'a'.
Both French and English have a similar construction sometimes called the "immediate present": "Je vais aller" or "I am going to go." It indicates something that is going to happen soon. Italian uses "anadare a" + verb a bit differently, to indicate a process, something that has come to be/is happening/or will happen, somewhat like the antique English "came/come to pass that" (which can still be used, by the way, in certain circumstances). Or "andare a" in this case seems to say "We are going (there) to see...," with the sense that we are doing it right now.
My thanks to roberto and xyphax for sharpening up my understanding of the differences in how this verb is used. (I hope I've got it right!)
In Italian you cannot juxtapose the second verb like that, if it's taking the place of a indirect object (I believe in English there is a similar rule)! You always need the right preposition (in this case a).
But I agree that the English translation "We are going to see" loses the andiamo part (as in moving to) . Maybe a better translation would be We are going to go see the the car collection?
Ah, thank you for the Italian perspective. I think the best translation in English depends on whether it means we're going to do something in the future, or we are actually physically going somewhere to do something. Then the two sentences can be differentiated by:
we are going to the meeting to read the proclamation.
we will read the proclamation at the meeting.
It seems the real issue here is that in English, a lot of people use 'going to' to mean future tense (will do something ..)
Minor quibble but I think it should also accept "motor car" for "car". It's less used but still used nonetheless and particularly in relation to a museum or collection as it suggests older vehicles.
Why is "auto collection" not marked as correct. It's the same thing as a car collection
I have lost my trust to Duo many mistakes in translation like Square which is round about while it is the base. I am so sorry but the people who made these courses need to review seriously otherwise you mislead the people in learning.
When would you use this? Would you say this if you were going to see a car museum?
"Go AND see" may not be literal but it is far more natural in English. Reported 14.5.16
As an UK English speaker I felt I had to say automobile collection as no one would say car collection without say another adjective like vintage or racing in front of car.
You may feel that "no one" would say car collection without a modifying adjective but you would be wrong. I would agree that it would be more likely, but even without an adjective, I would suggest it sounds better than the Americanism "automobile", but then I have been an English speaker for over 84 years so I may be a product of my generation with all its prejudices and quirks.