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- Topic: Italian >
- "Ho preso la mia decisione."
21 Comments
Why is the more plausible choice of: Ho fatto (versus ho preso) not used here?
More plausible only to an English speaker. Romance languages like Italian, French and Spanish use a different figure, Italian uses prendere, French uses prendre, and Spanish uses tomar. All of those words have a primary meaning that translate as take.
Think it this way: you evaluate options, (like letters in a desk), then you decide by selecting one and "taking" it with you.
I guess it's kind of like how English speakers say 'take a side' and 'take a stand'.
I have same problem with my Italian colleague and they try convert their Italian to English while in many cases their conversations are strange to English peoples. Now I used to go ahead with this translation however likely I am going to forget my English. Dulingo also using the same way and after several challenges now my English is changed to ITALISH
"I have reached my decision" sounds to me like a valid answer. I've submitted a report.
"I have taken my decision." is perfectly acceptable standard English but was marked as incorrect.
I've never heard anyone 'take' a decision - in English you would always 'make' a decision (British English native speaker btw)
In America I've never heard anyone say "i take a decision" either. "I've made a decision" is the most common way it's said.
I think it's because, even though they have the same idea behind them, they are not stated or translated the same way. Courtesy of google translate, your sentence would be "ho deciso" which is like "I have decided". Your idea is the same, but the translations are not.
1803
EDIT: Dunno why I originally said the translation was wrong (as I originally stated), however the remaining part of my post is accurate:
This is a fundamental idiomatic difference between english and italian. There are manyexamples where in english you 'make' something, and the translation into italian is prendere. There are also the opposites as well (e.g. we 'take' showers, in italian, 'fare' is used).
Others, across the Atlantic, 'have' a shower. Each to their own. Agreed, it's nice making the adjustments (fare,faire / prendere,prendre) in other language cultures.
This one needs to be correct, I took my decision. Firstly, we don't take decisions. By definition a decision cannot be taken. 1. the act or process of deciding. 2. the act of making up one's mind: a difficult decision. 3. something that is decided; resolution. 4. a judgment, as one pronounced by a court. 5. the quality of being decided; firmness: to speak with decision. 6. the final score in any sport or contest. 7. the awarding of a victory in a boxing match when there is no knockout, based on scoring by the referee and judges. I took my decision (took meaning "understood it to be", or accept) I did not take the decision lightly
- 1803
In the translation from English to Italian, the two languages say certain things differently. This is an example. Although the literal translation may be "I took my decision", we make decisions in English.
Another example, but in the reverse order is "Faccio una doccia". In english, the direct translation is "I make a shower", however the translation of the decision is "I take a shower (unless you are physically building a shower, I suppose).
These are essentially just idiomatically different ways that each language says the same thing. It's two of the many ways we say things differently, which sometime require learning as opposed to deducing.
I hope that helps and doesn't confuse things.
