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- "Il direttore del museo era t…
"Il direttore del museo era tenuto in quella prigione."
Translation:The museum director was held in that prison.
68 Comments
He or she must have been selling off the priceless artefacts to spend on cars, holidays and good times :-)
No, no. He HAD BEEN in prison and now he is a director of the museum. It is an inspiring story of a hardened criminal who saw the light, reformed himself and is now a respected upstanding citizen.
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you don't go to prison in italy for illegally selling museum property. you go because you didn't share.
This should really frighten me, but inventing context aroung Duolingo sentences is maybe the most creative thing I've done in the last twenty years. At least it's one of the most fun things. Albeit the task with the current phrase here is a bit shallow.
Greetings to everyone sharing our common pleasure.
I hate so much that they lump those two together. They have similar superficial forms but totally different meanings, and I can only imagine how confusing it is to those unfamiliar with grammatical terminology.
I guess "era tenuto" translates better with "was held", and "era stato tenuto" with "had been held". Not sure though.
Thank you for the comment on the verbs. Actually I also wanted to know if you could say " the museum's director" as well as " the museum director".
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DL accepts "had been kept" as well, but it might be the case that DL is wrong and you are right :-)
“aveva stato tenuto” is not correct? Is essere always the auxiliary for past passive voice? (fr: “avait été retenu”)
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I wonder what passive constructions should be in this lesson. They may look like past perfect (era + ...uto) but are not. The example simply states that 'someone kept him in prison'.
"was held" is not past perfect and in addition it's passive, neither of which it seems we're doing in this exercise. No problem, it's just surprising.
Should't "The director of the museum was being held in the prison." be accepted?
RCDC: I agree with the proviso that 'was held' and 'was being held" aren't always interchangeable. "was being held' implies he was there at a certain time in the past, without indicating whether he was / is still there. "was held" also applies to the past, but in this case it could imply that he in no longer there; he was released at some point. So he was held there but isn't there any longer. "was being held" to me implies that at the time under discussion that's where he was -- it says nothing about what happened afterwards. Otherwise, given a clearer context, then I'd agree the two phrases would describe the same situation.
It's also correct and it should be accepted. Please report it.
Nevertheless, notice that some English noun expressions, such as the roles in an organization (e.g. team leader, museum director, school nurse, company secretary) are usually expressed with noun inversion (Y X) instead of (X of the Y).
Is "was being held" out of the question? I see here that that's one of the options if you mouse over "era."
Quello has its own set of rules similar to bello
Quella donna - that woman; quelle donne - those women; quel libro - that book; quei libri - those books;
For the masculine nouns that use lo and gli, it would be: Quello studente - that student; quello zio - that uncle; Quei studenti - those students; quei zii - those uncles
"quella prigione" translates as "that prison"
"questa prigione" translates as "this prison" [questo (a); questi (e)]
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This sentence could also be translated as "The director of the museum was held in that prison".
In the English translation, should held/kept be a necessary addition? I got docked off, though I didn't think they would be needed...
I'm assuming you wrote only that the director 'was in prison'. I'd have to say that if so, then there is definitely a difference and that 'held/kept' adds a bit of information over simply 'was' - if that's what you wrote.
I tried using curator but it didn't take it. Is that different than a director?
Yes. The museum director is equivalent to a CEO in a corporation. He/she is responsible for the daily operations of the museum, for long-term planning, policies, for any research conducted within the museum and for the museum’s fiscal health. Directors must also represent the museum at meetings with other museums, business and civic communities, and the museum’s governing body.
A museum curator cares for objects in a museum’s collection. His/her primary activities are maintenance, preservation, archiving, cataloging, study, and display of collection components.
Reference: http://career.iresearchnet.com/career-information/museum-director-and-curator-career/
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In Italian, is the "in" in the sentence must be spoken as "inna"? It is very misleading for me with the way the speaker says that.
Is the same construction for past perfect generally used for past passive in Italian as well?
Because this sentence is in the passive voice and the passive voice always uses "essere". I don't know what a lesson about passive voice is doing here.
I wrote 'the director had been kept in this prison' why was it marked wrong?
E le mummie si sentono ancora nervose quando passa il suo successore.
sounds like "tenuta" not tenuto!! Why should we have to resort to 'slow speaker'? We are trying to learn here and not have to guess what the speakers are supposed to be saying. DL, please!
