"I have a dinner with him in January."
Translation:Ho una cena con lui a gennaio.
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191
So when there is a phrase about time, such as "in January," should I generally use "a" instead of "in"? Or is there another reason why the correction translation is "a gennaio" and not "in gennaio"?
721
Yes, but why play with it? Just take what DL asked I have (ho) a dinner (una cena) then your answer would have been right. In time, the DL algorithms will catch up with all the alternatives rather than just a lot of them.
721
The problem you have is that the question DL posed was "to have a dinner" not "to have dinner"
In English there is no difference between to have a dinner and to have dinner. In Italian there may be since articles seem to express a lot in Italian but I do not know. DL did actually accept my Cenare option as good Italian. I do think io ceno and io ho una cena are basically the same thing from exploring it back in past lessons. Although Io ho la cena expresses something different.
721
An interesting debate we're having! However, having been a writer/journalist/broadcaster for many years, I cannot agree that have a dinner & have dinner are the same. In Italian, articles seem to have a somewhat flexible nature. But similarly, and for reasons I won't bore you with, io ceno does not strictly equal io ho una cena. Also, io ho la cena does equal io ceno. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Stammi bene e a presto professoressa!
@Michelle
I have a dinner with him in January.
Ho una cena con lui a gennaio.
Ask yourself - is "a dinner" a verb? So why insist on using "cenare"? And here I am assuming that you know that "cenare" is a verb.
Keep it simple.
The lesson plan here is for users to practice the usage of the preposition "a".
Follow the program to learn Italian and how it is expressed in Italian.
Happy e-learning.
:) KK
975
Is word order not very flexible in Italian? I put "a gennaio" in front & that was counted wrong
*A gennaio ho una cena con lui