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- "La donna mangia lo zucchero."
155 Comments
232
Yeah to be fair I learnt little bits of lots on Duolingo - Dutch helps with German and viceversa, Spanish (my native tongue) helps with Italian, Portugese and French, and Esperanto was helpful to get me used to grammar and structures found in different languages. The only downsides are that you never fully learn one language but you can kind of get the point across when aboard, and that you constantly end up mixing languages - going to Germany for the first time and speaking with a Dutch accent kept everyone guessing what was wrong with me
Literal translation from Italian la donna mangia lo zucchero is the woman eats the sugar which is not a really developed tense (which specific sugar is she eating is missing). Better would be without the/lo. If both versions are still not accepted, simply report it using the flag. DL contributors will certainly update this exercise someday.
106
There are three different endings for verbs: "are"(e.g. mangiare); "ere"(bere); "ire"(finire). You will soon see that conjugating Italian verbs (except for a few irregular ones) is a walk in the park compared to nearly every other language....the endings are pretty much identical, AND they tell you which person it is (e.g. "noi mangiamo=we eat"...."IAMO" always is 1st person plural, so Italian frequently drops the pronoun)
106
They are all just the Italian article "the", but in Italian (as in most languages except English),the article must agree with the noun. Here goes: masuline, singular = il. (This becomes "lo" if the masc. sing. noun begins with a "z" or "s-impure". For example "lo ZOO", "lo SBAGLIO" etc.) Feminine singular = la. Masculine plural = i (il cane: the dog; i cani: the dogs). Feminine plural = le (la gonna: the skirt; le gonne: the skirts). "Gli" is the plural of "lo". Whenever a noun begins with a vowel (uomo), the article is contracted, so it becomes "l'uomo". Therefore "l'uomo" will be "gli uomini" (the man --->the men). Hope this helps.
326
Gli is also used for masculine plurals that start with a vowel. So l'uomo becomes gli uomini.
I did the same, based on a comment on a previous exercise, however, I believe that, strictly "La donna mangia lo zucchero" translates as "The woman eats sugar" and "La donna mangia zucchero" translates as "The woman eats the sugar". In other words English and Italian make opposite use of the definite article.
996
That is incorrect.
Italian and English use the definite article in the same way.
The only difference is that in Italian you can use the definite article even with the partitive (a part of the whole).
Depending on the context, 'the woman eats sugar' can be translated as both la donna mangia zucchero and la donna mangia lo zucchero.
But 'the woman eats the sugar' can only be translated as la donna mangia lo zucchero.
555
Lady is signora. Like every person you meet won't be a gentleman or lady, depending on how you see them.
"lo" can be a definite article: "the", in front of words starting with "z" or "s + consonant". Examples: "lo zaino" = the backpack or "lo squalo" = the shark.
"lo" is also a pronoun, meaning "it" or "him". Examples: "Guardalo" = "Guarda + lo" meaning "Look at him" or "Look at it". "Non lo so" = literally, "I do not know (it)." but typically translated "I don't know".
"lo" never means "is". I don't think it ever means "to the".
Location in the sentence is a big clue as well as context. Definite articles usually go in front of the noun they are describing. Pronouns usually go in front of the verb. Sometimes they can follow the verb (for example, "Guardalo" but then they attach to the verb. It will get clearer as you progress through the lessons. Good luck.
793
The translation forgot to translate the word "...lo..." . it has to be "...the"sugar.
Friendly Kleanthes
567
"The woman eats the sugar." Literal translation should be accepted. This is not about good form. Same is accepted in Japanese and other languages.
555
? Woman is one person. Women is more than one.
If you meant in Italian, donna is woman and donne is women.
793
It is also not fair for the student to question the foreign language teacher because then there is NO school. You may have questions or doubts, but these can not be expressed as a Minister's statement!
Friendly Kleanthes
996
There is no io in this sentence.
There is a lo which is Italian for 'the' in front of nouns starting with "z".
996
Ha ha ha.
For the records, most Italians say this word in an incorrect way: /ˈdzukkero/ instead of the correct /ˈtsukkero/.
996
When in front of a verb, lo is a direct object and means 'him or it'.
Same for la, li, and le.
Ex.:
io lo vedo -> 'I see him'
io la vedo -> 'I see her'
io li vedo -> 'I see them (male objects)'
io le vedo -> 'I see them (female objects)'