"A meal ends with coffee."

Topic: Italian

"A meal ends with coffee."

Translation:Un pasto finisce col caffè.

July 12, 2013

10 Comments

Arnauti

Both con and col are accepted - why? are they always interchangeable?

July 12, 2013

Viaggiatore

Col = con + il, the way al = a + il.

July 13, 2013

ashlward

A meal ends when I say it ends.

October 24, 2013

HfZZ

"COL"="CON IL",but the form"COL" is not used since 1960!!!!!

March 21, 2014

ksoo

What caused the change? Is it part of a larger linguistic trend?

May 31, 2014

laila.bent

In English a meal ''ends'' whereas in french un repas ''SE termine'', so it's reflexive. Would ''A pasto si termina (o si finische) con caffe'' work?

February 5, 2014

prwh

Both "termina" and "finisce" are accepted as translations of "ends." Are Italians equally likely to use either one in this situation, or is there some subtle difference?

December 8, 2013

PazKePlus

I can't answer the Italian question, but based on English subtleties, it seems like the meal should end but I should finish it. The meal doesn't finish itself. I hope someone has an answer.

March 9, 2014

Checkar

Why can one not use cibo which is meal as an alternative to pasto all the gender matches in the same way??

May 30, 2014

ksoo

I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure that cibo means food, and saying that "The food ends with coffee" really doesn't make nearly as much sense. "Meal" is more of an event while "food" is more of a noun, IMHO.

May 31, 2014