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- "You empty your pockets."
"You empty your pockets."
Translation:Svuoti le tasche.
35 Comments
Why is "empty your pockets" not "svuoti le tue tasche"? Doesn't "svuoti le tasche" mean "empty the pockets"?
Parts of the body and clothes don't usually take the possesive when it is about the speaking person's own ones.
170
In Italian, if you don't use a possessive, it's implied you are referring to the speaker's pockets.
- 1229
There is a "tu" = "you" built into svuoti that enable us to know it is not the speaker who empties the pockets.
Svuoti le tasche = You empty the pockets ~> Empty your pockets
- 1229
There are a couple off different ways you can translate this sentence.
You = Tu / Lei / Voi
empty = tu svuoti / Lei svuota / voi svuotate
your = le tue / le sue / le vostre
pockets = tasche
Tu svuoti le tue tasche / Lei svuota le sue tasche / Voi svuotate le vostre tasche.
But as the subject (tu/Lei/voi, - the one doing something) is already built in to the conjugation of the verb (svuotare) these are unnecessarily complicated and clumsy translations. It is possible to dropp the tu/Lei/voi and still understand who the object is, - and this is the normal way to phrase this in Italian.
Svuoti le tasche = You empty the pockets ~> Empty your pockets
Svuota le tasche = You empty the pockets ~> Empty Your pockets
Svuotate le tasche = You (all) empty the pockets ~> Empty your pockets
Notes on the difference betweeen vuotare and svuotare: http://it.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110214033850AAHXhEZ , http://www.italki.com/question/136585 . The conclusion is that "svuotare" is used when you are getting rid of something completely.
- 170
I had no idea about this distinction. If you want a tip, just forget "vuotare" and keep "svuotare", which is waaay more common, and still not just colloquial: it's perfectly fine also in written language.
But if you empty something you are getting rid of something completely aren't you? As in empty your pockets. So I'm afraid that I'm still confused.
- 170
Well, since the English sentence has a "you" at the beginning, this is more likely an indicative than an imperative. In Italian, the imperative is quite fixated in the form without the possessive, but this does not apply to the indicative, so your translation could also be accepted.
- 1306
What exactly is the difference between "svuota le tue tasche" and "svuoti le tasche"?
Svuota with an 'a' ending is 3rd person singular. So lui, lei or Lei (formal one) svuota
also, the possessive pronoun is redundant when the object close to the body (the pockets) belongs to the subject.
As the person involved is emptying his or her own pockets should it be reflexive?
- 170
No, you use the reflexive "svuotarsi" when referring to something getting empty by itself.
- 170
Nope, "svuote" doesn't exist. Take a look: http://www.wordreference.com/conj/ItVerbs.aspx?v=svuotare
I agree. It is not the speaker's pockets, quindi, le tue tasche. But not accepted by Duo for me.
Why isnt it vosti tasche, as translation is the pickets and not your pockets
