"He wants to keep the people safe."

Translation: Lui vuole tenere la gente al sicuro.

[GregHullender]

I think I figured this one out. By itself, sicuro is either an adjective or a noun. As an adjective it means "safe" and as a noun it means "a safe place."

http://www.wordreference.com/iten/sicuro

Used as an adjective, we could get "He wants to keep the safe people" (those without guns, maybe) but to get "He wants to keep the people safe" we need an adverb phrase, which we can get via a preposition. So Lui vuole tenere la gente al sicuro literally means "he wants to keep the people in a safe place."

As always, some feedback from a native speaker would be very welcome.

[jrose99]

That is great. Thanks.

[1Chivers]

There’s no predicate adjective in Italian?

[SusieOpperia]

Perfetto! Grazie!

[hanan1948]

what is wrong with my translation: Lui vuole tenere la gente sicura

[Viaggiatore]

He wants to keep the safe people.

[rljones]

Right. Another question: Since "tenere" itself can also mean "keep safe," the translation could be read as "He wants to keep the people safe in safety." Isn't that overkill? Why not use "restare" instead?

[AnnaAtBayreuth]

I think "tenere" means "keep safe" in the sense of "holding onto", not in the sense of "keeping in safety".

[stevers]

I don't quite understand why al is needed before sicuro. Anyone?

[Ariaflame]

I think it's to make sure it translates to a meaning of 'in a state of safety' rather than as Viggiatore said, to have him wanting to keep safe people (as pets?)

[SteveKillick]

Why can't I use mantenere, as in : Vuole mantenere le persone al sicuro?

[Prinezio]

vuole mantenere le persone al sicuro

[AlgEfe]

What is wrong with - Vuole tenere le persone al sicuro

[JamesD157602]

I think sicuro means safe as in not dangerous: "it's a safe neighbourhood". Al sicuro means safe as in not in danger: "you're safe in this neighbourhood".

[tjudge]

I think that my translation means the same thing " Lui vuole mantenere la sicurezza della gente"

[Duomail]

“Lui vuole tenere sicura la gente“ ?

[elmermes]

I think it should be lui vuole tenere sicura alla gente

[alexandra121555]

why is it "securo"? I wrote "secura" because of "la gente" and was marked incorrect.

[Marninger]

It has nothing to do with "la gente" but rather with the ". . al sicuro" part.
Check the reply from GregHullender above for details.

[darkpeak]

Thanks everyone. Lots of good tips there

[john631799]

Whats wrong with "Vuole mantenere le persone al sicuro"? I reported

[SallyDargavel]

it is written in english at the top and at the bottom and i cannot progress as there is a fault

[Emma573749]

Wouldn’t ‘mantenere’ be a better choice than ‘Tenere ‘ ?