"We do not have anything on the plate."
Translation:Non abbiamo nulla nel piatto.
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Qualcosa also means anything; could someone explain why it is not an option in this sentence? Grazie.
"Qualcosa" does mean "anything", but only in positive sentences; not when you negate.
I don't like anything. I like anything.
Even though it's the same word, its meaning is much different. In Italian it'd be:
Non mi piace niente. Mi piace qualcosa.
In the sentence of this exercise, it's a negative sentence, so you need to indicate that "We have nothing on the plate", or what would be the same "We don't have anything on the plate.".
That's why you can't use "qualcosa", and you need "nulla".
We do not have = non abbiamo
anything = niente / nulla *1
on the plate = nel piatto
*1 as it is a negative statement qualcosa (qualche+cosa= some+thing) cannot be used.
I think (though stand to be corrected) that Italian, like French, often uses double negatives to make a negative construct. To Anglicize it, Italians would say "We do not have nothing". For example, "I have nothing" would be "Non ho niente". 'Qualcosa' is a positive, so does not complete the double negative pairing.
Correct .. even triple negatives. This site helps to see the pattern
Qualcosa translates as something not anything anything literally is qualsiasi cosa but italians use double negative
Because we're not talking about the adjective nulla/nullo, but the pronoun/adverb form. Which is only nulla. http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/italian-english/nulla
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I would like to really know the differences for all the answers. As an (American) English speaker a case can be made for all the answers.
Ognuna most often means 'each one' and Nessuna most commonly means 'no-one', so only 'nulla' really has the sense of 'no object'.
What's the distinction between these and 'non abbiamo niente'? It's marked correct, but I'm curious if there's any distinction
So, nessuna refers to people while the other one, i mean nulla, is referring to the object. Right? And they are not interchangable
It marked me wrong for having put "niente", I've never heard of "nulla".
Yes, 'niente' was marked wrong. Can someone please explain the difference between 'niente' and 'nulla'? Grazie.
Why is "ne" not used in this kind of sentence, as in "Non ne abbiamo nulla/niente sul piatto"?
noi non ha cosa su gli piatto says I am wrong but I am right ; just said it differently is all more than one way to skin a mule you know
To start, avere in 1st person plural should conjugate to abbiamo. The article for piatti is "i", not gli, and su + i must be written as sui. As for whether or not cosa is acceptable, I'd need a native speaker to weigh in, but as this is a negative construction nulla or niente sound more natural to my ear