"Is your father seventy years old?"
Translation:Vostro padre ha settant'anni?
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It depends if you're doing DL on your PC or smartphone. I get away with many things when I'm doing DL on my PC while on my smartphone I have to be very careful .
this is so annoying "tuo padre" should also be accepted since you can't know from the english sentence if it is single you or plural you.
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The possessive adjective isn't preceded by the article when it is before the name of a relative in the singular: padre, madre,, figlio....
What about " tuo padre ha settant'anni? " or is it always vostro even when speaking to one person that always gets me lol
No, it's tuo when you're speaking to one person. You're right, and Duolingo is wrong not to accept it, in my opinion.
More than likely if "vostro" is used, they are speaking to more than one person; Probably, his children.
How are we supposed to know that, though? Not everybody has more than one child. For instance, I only have one child. It's not unheard of.
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It sounds unnatural in english too. They wrote it so, I tried to translate it that way...
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It sounds unnatural in English because we don't say someone "Has x Years", We say they "Are x Years Old", Or perhaps just "Are x" for short.
grrr ... I have seen the family member "madre" with "tuo" and a "la" in front of that in some other sentence on Duolingo. So why no "Il" in front of "tuo padre"? Grrrr.
Can one turn off the hearts mechanism?
You can't use an article before a possessive and a close family member if it's singular and unmodified: "mia madre", "la mia madrina", "la mia madre adottiva", "le mie madri". If it were "mamma" (mom/mum) it would be a little different because it can be interpreted as a modification of madre, so "mia mamma", "la mia mamma", or even "la mamma".
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Yes, that's what tripped me up. I knew when speaking of your own father, it should be mio padre without the il but wasn't aware that the rule applied to others' close relatives, as in tuo padre, etc.
Ho scritto settanta anni e sono sbagliata. Dobbiamo scribire sempre l'apostrofo??
certo! abbiamo bisogna di l'apostrofo tra settant ed anni: settant' anni sempre.
I'm guessing from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/italian-english/di-settanta-anni and http://context.reverso.net/traduzione/italiano-inglese/settanta+anni (which has plenty of examples) that the contraction is not mandatory in Italian. Maybe Duolingo's Italian team just didn't think to include the uncontracted form?
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This makes no sence. The only way to learn italian by duolingo is with french or english. My original language is dutch. These confusing answers take away the joy of learning a language.
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"suo padre" o "vostro padre " is correct because it is a formal way to ask the question ( suo/vostro = your ); "tuo padre.." is informal ( tuo = your)
statements and questions are written in the same way. In written sentences only question marks can indicate the difference.
As to spoken Italian you should use a tone in your voice to indicate that you are infact asking a question and not making a statement.
"Tuo padre ha settant'anni." = Your father is 70 years old. "Tuo padre ha settant'anni ?" = Is your father 70 years old?
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So 'tuo padre' is as correct as 'vostro padre'? Surely if this is so, tuo should be accepted as there is no indication that more than one person is being addressd.
I agree with that. We're not mind readers. How are we supposed to know it's plural? I hope they read these posts at 'Duolingo' because this happens all the time on this app. They won't accept other correct responses because they somehow expect you to know what they want you to say, and that's the only answer they'll accept. It's very annoying!
The teams who can change the answers generally don't have time to follow all the forums, no. Did you use the button to report your answer as correct?
Yes, Elisss, I know that is the rule. When I follow it, my sentences are often marked wrong. I don't get enough exposure to examples here to get a feeling for what "sounds" right or "feels" right in Italian.
No indication of plural or singular. It's been over 2 years and they still haven't fixed this problem!!!
There is no prior warning that "your" refers to the second person plural (vostro), yet the answer does
Why is my "Tuo padre ha settant' anni?" seen as incorrect? How am I supposed to know we're talking plural here? Should I just automatically assume this for future reference? Please tell me because this cost me part of my bonus points and I'm pretty sure my answer is also a correct translation, but do tell me if I'm wrong...after all I'm here to learn.
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Couldn't you say "Ha tuo padre settant'anni?" to emphasise it's asking about "Your Father"?
'Tuo padre ha settant'anni' is also correct. You shouldn't mark this down.
Ok this is REALLY annoying. The do called hints distinctly say il tuo and yet it is not accepted
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There is no way to know from this sentence without context if "your" is singular or plural.
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I gave the exact answer that was indicated as the correct answer and yet was marked wrong
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I thought vostro was the plural. How many people are we asking about their fathers age?
There is no way to place a question mark in this question, but you counted this incorrect! Why?
When two vowels follow each others, when to put apostrophe. Settant'anni but another two words ending with vowels and gave me wrong for an apostrophe. What is the rule.
I wrote tuo and it wasn't accepted Why I don't know?! They just tell me that I'm not to teach Italians how to speak!!!!