"The water is in the sugar."
Translation:L'acqua è nello zucchero.
79 Comments
nello is used in front of special words, the same ones you use "lo" instead of "il". Such words begin with z, or s(consonant); there's a few more exceptions.
like you can't have ONE sugar in the water, but SOME suger. So, it always plural :) The same with a scale (stair), you must have a lot of steps, not only ONE... You cant count as ONE bite of suger, I am sorry
697
Mi dispiace, piccono, ma non hai ragione. Sorry, piccono, but it doesn't work like that. Both in English and Italian, sugar is considered an "uncountable noun," along with coffee, salt, flour, and things like that. They are always singular.
Are sugar cubes considered "uncountable" as well? (serious question).
I think so, because unless you say "I have five sugar cubes" you would never think at it as a uncountable matter. The same in italian. When you say "Ho tre zollette di zucchero" you're actually counting them. But here the subject is the sugar cube, no more just the sugar. I hope I could explain it
Errata corrige I misread the question, so I reformulate my answer Just sugar is an uncountable noun, since you can count the number of cubes you have (I think the subject becomes "cube(s)" whem you talk about sugar cubes, not "sugar") I'm sorry for I misread
Actually it is because nello is (in + lo) you use "Lo" before any word beginning with either Z or S+any other consonat, Nel is (in + il) which is used before any other consonat not meeting rule above.
Nel libro Nello zuccharo / sport
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Yes. Btw, it's "zucchero," not "zuccharo." If the second vowel were an 'a' it would be spelled "zuccaro."
Nello is a contraction for "in" + "lo", so it would be "in LO zucchero", while nel is a contraction for "in" + "il", and it wouldn't be "in IL zucchero."
To those saying the sentence is weird:
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Having slightly "off" sentences keeps us from guessing the right answer from context.
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Anyone who makes candy knows you need to mix sugar and water. :)
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The irony is, and everybody knows this, that as soon as you add water to sugar, the sugar ceases to exist. I guess you could say this if you were talking about that one drop of water that you added to a kilo of sugar, but that's a stretch! :)
e with that accent means 'he is'/'she is'/'it is' (depending on the context), e with no accent means 'and.'
` upon the last letter puts the accent here, otherwise it goes most frequently on the second vowel from behind.
I have TouchPal keyboard, I long press (or long touch) the e letter to select the appropriate accent.
I have a question. One of my options started with l'donna & l'ragazza. But don't you use l' only when the word starts with a vowel?
When and when not is it permissable to omit l' in front of acqua. I got scolded sometimes and sometimes not. I mean of course l' just means the
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There are some situations when we would not use the article (the) in English, but in Italian it would be used. Usually it's when you are making a generalized statement about something, for example, "Water is good for your health." In Italian we'd say, "L'acqua è buona per la salute" even though we are not talking about any certain source of water.
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Esta frase é extremanente estranha. Como é possível isso? A água está no acúcar? Não seria o contrário?
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Sim, eles apenas fazem frases estranhas, então vamos praticar nossas habilidades na tradução.
I guess I am a bit confused. It doesn't make sense to me to say in English "the water is in the sugar". Rather wouldn't it translate more accurately to "the water is sweet"? or something like that?
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Yes, it's a completely nonsensical sentence. They just write things like that to allow us to hone our skills at translating. "The sugar is in the water" is more plausible and useful. But it's all just for fun. :)
Trust me when i say that even though you might not say these exact sentences, the vocabulary is what is being engraved in your mind as you learn so lets say someone asks you to pass the sugar in italian.. you would know what to do. I am also in the learning process of French, and my teacher uses the corniest stories about cats wanting iphones and swag but i realized that now when we watch movies in french i understand more vocabulary than i would have at the beginning of the year. Im only in french 1 and i know the basics because of those words i thought i would never need to learn but are used in everyday life. Like water. Thought i would put my input on this one lol
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In Greek we use the exact same phrase to mean "the water is full of sugar". I am wondering if the Italian phrase can have the same meaning...
Oh, that's cool! Unfortunately, in Italian we only mean that water is in the sugar (quite unlikely to happen, maybe sugar would be in water but whatever). The only instance that reminds me of your observation is that it could be a joke if you show me a glass full of sugar with really little water and say "Lo zucchero è nell'acqua", because I can respond "No, l'acqua è nello zucchero!"... but it works better in other circumstances where amounts are completely disproportionated. (:
Is there a difference between "L'acqua" and "La acqua" and how do you know the difference?
L'acqua is the only proper way to say it because acqua begins with a vowel. All words beginning with vowels use l' instead of la or lo.
One of my opyions started with l'donna & another one with l'ragazza. But don't you use l' only when the word starts with a vowel?
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Strange, didn't you already ask that? Or was it somebody else? Read the comments above -- it's been answered.
- 2049
No. The word "essere" is the root name of the verb. This has to be conjugated to fit the subject. i.e:
io sono
tu sei
lui/lei è ……….( L'acqua è )
noi siamo
voi siete
loro sono
https://www.italian-verbs.com/italian-verbs/conjugation.php?parola=essere
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Root name? Essere is the infinitive form of the verb. In English this translates to "to be." You wouldn't say, "the water to be in the sugar." Btw, wow, epac, you must have been doing Duolingo since, what, 2012? Nice formatting of your comment too.
How do u know which way the accent mark goes? Also, i wouldve liked a better lesson on how to conjugate verbs. I'm doing okay because I take Spanish lessons, and they gave me a rough idea of italian conjugations, but i would like to know how to conjugate verbs better.
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Good question. Usually they are "grave" accents, the ones slanting to the left, for example the word "is" = è. Accents on the vowels a, i, o, and u are always grave. Sometimes the accent on the letter e can be "acute," that is, slanting to the right. An example would be "perché."
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I'll recapitulate. They both mean "in the" when a singular masculine noun follows. Nello is used if the word starts with a z or an s+consonant (sc, sl, sm, sp str, etc.), nel is used for singular masculine words starting with any other consonant. For words starting with a vowel, you'd use nell'. Examples: Il libro è nello zaino. Lo zucchero è nell'armadietto. La pasta è nel piatto. Just google "Italian articulated prepositions."
How do I know when "è" is used before "nello"? I put L'acqua nello è zucchero and got it wrong. Does "è" come before "nello/nel" always? Thanks
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Just use the same syntax (word order) as you would in English. You wouldn't say "The water in the is sugar," would you?
- 2049
Yes, I would. If I were to spill a glass of water into a barrel of sugar, then the water would be in the sugar.
While trying to make sense of this sentence I wonder - is this an Italian proverb or simply an easter egg laid by the authors?
Wouldn't
"Lo zucchero è nell'acqua." / "The sugar is in the water."
make somewhat more sense?
absolutely not. That makes sense grammaticaly, and that's all. Exactly as is the English language.
Nel = in + il
Nello = in + lo
For an explanation on the difference between "il" and "lo", see this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/language_notes/il.html
To see how more prepositions are formed, consult the table in this link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/language_notes/al.html
I feel like most people who speak English (or at least Americans) would say this the other way around.
