"Lui lavora fino alla mezzanotte."
Translation:He works until midnight.
54 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
636
My understanding is that it is just the combination of words: "fino alla"
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He works up to the middle of the night.
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"alla" = a + la
1468
Until, or up to, is "fino a" in Italian.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fino_a
Mezzanotte is a noun (feminine singular). Nouns are usually preceded by either a definite article (the), or an indefinite article (a/an). In this context, as there is only one midnight in a day it has to be: the midnight (you could think of it as the midnight hour). For an Italian feminine singular noun starting with a consonant, the definite article is "la".
When you combine
fino + a + la + mezzanotte
you get:
fino alla mezzanotte.
https://ciaoitaliablog.wordpress.com/classes/italian-preposition-with-definite-article
2851
Then what about ' evening '? In a previous example there was ' the dress of the evening ' when I wrote it without ' the ', it was counted wrong.
Because as he said noon and midnight are referred to as specific time. Noon equals 12pm and Midnight equals 12am. Evening isn't a specific time, it's a duration something like 5pm to 12pm (I don't think there is any exact definition of how long an evening is).
And you got it wrong not because you didn't put 'the' but because the answer was 'evening dress'.
940
in a previous translation fino a mezzanotte was correct. why in this one does it require the article la?
370
(I'm italian)
My personal ranking to translate "He works until midnight"
1st - lui lavora fino a mezzanotte
2nd - lui lavora fino mezzanotte
3rd - lui lavora fino alla mezzanotte
But if you use the numbers, you can only say: "lui lavora fino all'una (not a̶l̶l̶'̶u̶n̶o̶)/ alle due/ alle tre/ alle quattro/ ... /alle otto (not a̶l̶l̶'̶o̶t̶t̶o̶)/ ..."
1142
Why is 'up to midnight' wrong? I think it is an acceptable English translation and 'up to' is a suggested alternative in the drop down.
Lui lavora fino alla mezzanotte.
He works until midnight.
For those who insist that DL accepts "fino a" to mean "up to", please see the following definitions.
fino a
Preposition
•1• up to (no more than)
•2• till, until, to (time)
•3• to, as far as, up to (location)
Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fino_a
What is the compelling reason to insist "up to" be the translation for "fino a" in this context?
Enjoy learning Italian!
:) KK
539
I don't know if duolingo would accept " 'til " instead, but technically "till" is a word with its own meaning and isn't really supposed to (because it is an abbreviation of unTIL) have two LL's (and yes I know this post is years old)
because it is an abbreviation of unTIL
That is a common, but understandable, misconception:
It is often believed that Till is the shortened form of Until. However,
till actually predated until
. It was used before and for much longer in the English language, well until the word Until came about. DifferenceBetween.info
370
They are not 100% interchangeable, however, with a slight difference in meaning, you can use both.
- Lui lavora fino alla mezzanotte = Lui lavora finché non arriva la mezzanotte
- Lui cammina fino al parco = Lui cammina finché non arriva al parco
- Lui legge fino a pagina 50 = Lui legge finché non arriva a pagina 50
Alexus, notice the different syntactic structures of the sentences you list.
In examples 1 and 2 "until" introduces a verb clause ("I die", "you finish..."): it is acting as a conjunction.
In phrases such as "until midnight" it is acting as a preposition.
Similarly, in the Italian sentences: "finché non" = conjunction; "fino a" = preposition.
1142
I am a native speaker (British). 'Up to' and 'until' are interchangeable in this context. Although 'until midnight ' is a slightly more accurate translation of 'fino alla', 'up to' is, I think, perfectly acceptable. I think you should report it.
372
Hello alfanut, your answer helped me and clarity in the use of 'until midnight' / 'up to midnight' brought. I will tell Duolingo on the next occasion that they should accept the answer 'He works until midnight'. Thanks for your quick reply to my question.
798
Just spent 2 months to learn that "finche non" means "until." Now duolingo changes it to "fino" ?? Why and what is the difference?