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- "Sua sorella non va in Americ…
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The suggested translation "Her sister does not go in America" is very unnatural in English. "Her sister does not go to America" would be better.
In Italy the "America" is the USA.
Of course we know that the America is the whole continent, but "Andare in America" always mean go to the USA.
If we go in Canada we say "Vado in Canada", or "Vado in Messico" for the Mexico or "Vado in Brasile" for the Brasil.
You know "Tu vuo' fa' l'Americano"? :-)))
156
It works exactly the same way in English. I don't understand why so many people on DL are saying that America refers to a whole continent: it never does unless you also specify "North...", "South..." etc. On its own 'America' means the US.
- 694
As far as I can tell, the Italian word “America” actually means “the Americas”, not the United States; unlike the English word, which is more commonly used for the United States even though it shouldn’t be.
If so, then ideally this should be translated as “Her sister does not go to the Americas.” (not currently accepted, but should be even if it does not become the main translation).
I'm Italian and I can tell you that America actually means United States as well. Thanks
- 1505
If "America" means "The western Hemisphere", you're probably not being precise enough. Then again, I have never heard of anyone referring to even North or South America as America, or Mexico as America.
- 1505
DL just usually doesn't recognize the formal "You". It's better never to translate 3rd person as "you", unless the exercise is specifically dealing with that form of a verb.
It has to be accepted. Since the "Sua"'s first letter is capitalized, it stands for the polite "you". So please report it.
- 1301
I said "Her sister is not going to America" today (October 26, 2014) and it was accepted. If it doesn't accept the contraction "Isn't", report it, because it should accept that.
so is it interchangeable to use "a" or "in" with andare? I mean I would've said sua sorella non va ad America, so is this considered right?
No.
Countries and provinces are always preceded by "in". Cities are always proceeded by "a".
Io vivo negli Stati Uniti. Io vivo a New York.
Well, yes and no. Yes, it is a Latin form of this preposition, but it is also an Italian version. If "a" is followed by another "a" word (and in rare cases, this can happen with other vowels in conversation, from what I've heard), it becomes "ad", so the speaker can easily elide between the two words.
So if I lived in Arezzo (a city in Tuscany), I'd say, "Vivo ad Arezzo."
- 1505
There's a huge difference between "goes" and "is going"
"Her sister does not go to America" connotes her sister shunning all travel to America, akin to "Her sister refuses to go to America". "is going" OTOH (On The Other Hand) simply means she has an up-coming trip to America scheduled. Also, "is going" would rarely and probably never be used to describe someone in the process of "going", because is also connotes "not having departed yet". And usually, you'd add something to "is travelling" like "as we speak" or "right now" or "at this moment".
