- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "The boy eats an apple."
"The boy eats an apple."
Translation:Il ragazzo mangia una mela.
122 Comments
I'm having trouble grasping when to use "la" versus "il" - is it only ever "la" when it's feminine?
La is feminine... il is masculine -- If the word ends in 'a', then it's feminine. If it ends in 'o' then its masculine. Mel(a)<<feminine = La before the word ending in 'a' --- Ragazz(o)<<masculine = il before the word ending in 'o'
What about "una" and "un." What circumstances can "una" be used when the subject of the sentence is a male, and why?
I guess the apple is considered a feminine fruit. Idk why but ive seen this in spanish too. Like la leche rather then le.
Un-> masculine , Una Fem . Like Una donna, Una una ragazza vs Un ragazzo , un uomo.
Yes cause il is masuline and la is feminie.Like "La donne" is la because donne is feminine a nd you wouldn't say il donne. Thank you for reading this if you do read this!
Yes. Le done (the women) La dona (the woman). La becomes Le whenever it is the plural form. So you are right
Me to i want to learn this because my grandma is Italian im in the proscess of learning spanish so maybe that will help ?
I'm just a little confused, I thought if a word ended with an "a", it was feminine? This is where I have the most trouble. So far.
I'm just a little confused, I thought if a word ended with an "a", it was feminine?
I'm also having trouble with this as well. In Spanish, Una is feminine and Un is Masculine. In Italian, It seems to be mixed up.
Could someone please explain?
Yes, but this only with nouns, adjectives and co but not with verbs. Verbs don't have the gender distinction: Io mangio is I eat both if I am a boy or a girl. Similarly he and she have the same coniugation, so both un ragazzo and una ragazza will have "mangia".
The verb to eat (regular 1st coniugation):
Io mangio 1st sing. Tu mangi 2nd sing. Lui/egli mangia 3rd sing. masc. Lei/ella mangia 3rd sing. fem. Esso/essa mangia 3rd sing inanimate masc and fem (the italian for "it", both masculine and feminine) Noi mangiamo 1st plu. Voi mangiate 2nd plu. Loro/essi/esse mangiano 3rd plu.
Yes, but this only with nouns, adjectives and co but not with verbs. Verbs don't have the gender distinction: Io mangio is I eat both if I am a boy or a girl. Similarly he and she have the same coniugation, so both un ragazzo and una ragazza will have "mangia".
The verb to eat (regular 1st coniugation):
Io mangio 1st sing. Tu mangi 2nd sing. Lui/egli mangia 3rd sing. masc. Lei/ella mangia 3rd sing. fem. Esso/essa mangia 3rd sing inanimate masc and fem (the italian for "it", both masculine and feminine) Noi mangiamo 1st plu. Voi mangiate 2nd plu. Loro/essi/esse mangiano 3rd plu.
The word right after una is being described. Mela means apple, and ends with 'a' therefore feminine.
They're both used before masculine singular nouns. "Lo" is meant to deal with a bunch of consonants at the beginning of the next word. So it is used before Z, S + another consonant, and weird combinations like PS.
I understand now why it's so hard to learn English and vica-versa. Words changed based on usage/gender. Words are implied, etc. English uses so many different/excess words. Goodness.
In English there are almost no occasions when the articles or verbs have to match gender because in English the ONLY words that have gender are ones that apply to humans: man, woman, girl, boy, gentleman, lady. All the rest of the words in English have no gender. So one can just use the word "the" with no modification - the boy, the man, the girl, the lady. There is no gender attached to nouns so the articles in front of nouns do not need to match gender. Therefore the only words that need to match with gender are pronouns, (he and she)possessives (his, hers).
Even the words "a" or "an" have nothing to do with the gender of the noun it precedes. The use of "a" or "an" depends only on the letter of the word it precedes. So it is "a machine", an infirmary, a boy, a man, a girl, a lady, an impostor, an ambulance. If a word begins with a vowel in English is it preceded by "an" and this has nothing to do with gender.
You would think the tree would be feminine, as it gives birth to the apple. Just thinking.
I guess "melo", which stands for an apple tree, is masculine. (Because of the way it sounds, besides all words that ends with 'o' just happens to be masculine. )
I wrote male, I just had mistake with 2 letters, and it loses my hearts?
Yea I know it is tough .. I speak french and I dont know why ... but it helps me for italian and spanish, but for german ....... Wooah I dont understand anything.
As a fluent German speaker, I can totally see how it would be confusing to learn. ;) But in a way, it helps me conceptionally understand Italian better. If I only knew English, it would be more difficult to grasp the idea of having genders on objects and words. But, the genders assigned to things in German don't match up with the Italian, which makes it a little more confusing. For example, in Italian: La Mala (feminine) in German: Der Apfel (masculine)
German is one of the languages I'm currently learning, and the genders are making it very difficult
I agree. why is an apple (or anything for that matter) feminine or masculine ? No wonder I never tried to learn another language before now.
102
Every Latin language is that way. In Portuguese we have this, so I used to apply this to English when I paid no attention. You have 'it', which is more practical. Anyway, I know it sounds hard for many people who aren't familiar with it.
La is for feminine and il for masculine. If word ends in a its usually feminine (use la) if it ends in o its prob masculine (use il)
Spanish and Italian are battling in my mind. I try to complete the exercise without hovering for hints when I'm confident. Apparently, Il ragazzo mangia una manzana, is incorrect.
Why is una being used to describe the apple? You think that they we would describe the boy here...
because it is saying a or an apple it is true that we would normal say a apple like he eats a apple but it also is you can't translate italian exactly in to english
this sentence is so weird! the answer is the only one with the word apple in it!
i don't think so didn't it say beve una mala also? can you please give me a lingot i need one
Why i get mistake if i wrote ragazzi? It is a difference between bimbi and ragazzi?
I thought words ending with a were feminine. I put down il ragazzo mangio un mela, but its mangia? The heck man.
Is the verb ending based on the noun...mangia ( feminine apple) vs mangio (masculine boy)??
Does anyone else have problems with answering with the correct sentence and duolingo saying it is incorrect? (And then saying the correct answer, which is exactly the same as the one you typed)
I thought una was feminine and un was muscular so when i clicked check it said it should of been una when they were talking about a boy!!
I'm not sure if i'm supposed to hear something or see something? It's just silence and all i see is the words i'm supposed to select and i have no idea what i'm supposed to spell every time, is this supposed to happen or?
Why is the sentence "the boy eats an apple" is "mangia", "he" gets the ending e, so it should be "mange" and not "mangia"
My answer was correct and it said i was wrong displaying the same answer i gave?
It is really hard for me to figure out when to use la or il. Also I can not spell in italian very well!!
I think the translation on this one is wrong. Did anyone else find that?
