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- "I have been waiting since Au…
"I have been waiting since August."
Translation:Aspetto da agosto.
67 Comments
From "A Reference Grammar of Modern Italian": "In Italian (as in many other European languages) the form of the verb used expresses the fact that the action 'overlaps' a point of time in the present, that it is still going on. In other words, in such constructions Italian uses a present tense form: Vive a Parigi da anni ( he has lived in Paris for years); Luigi canta ormai da tre ore (Luigi has been singing now for three hours) . . ”. Hope this helps.
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There are several perfect tenses in Italian that don’t always line up exactly with the English use of the perfect tenses. The first example that you will meet that will likely cause confusion is the Italian Passato Prossimo which corresponds to the English present perfect in form but not always in function. Its most common usage is to translate the simple past tense (an oversimplification). It is formed like the English present perfect using a form of “have” and the past participle and while “ho comprato una macchina” CAN mean “I have bought a car” it more commonly means “I bought a car”. The other perfect tenses are introduced way late in this course so don’t worry about them yet
"he has lived in Paris for years" Spanish "European language" and spoken in the American continent as well, this sentence would be something like this " El ha vivido en Paris por años" Not present tense form :)
El HA vivido es presente Perfecto en español... No es "a", es "ha" del verbo auxiliar haber
Gracias por corregirme. Si presente perfecto, por eso escribi "Not present tense" :)
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This is all fine to understand and adopt as a grammatical rule. But doesn't it also make sense to translate somewhat literally, as there are clearly Italian words and tenses that would support it, e.g., "Sono stato aspettando da agosto?"
Don't listen to what Duolingo translates when you hover over a word. I don't know why but as we learn more, Duo just fails to translate it properly and you have to think about the sentence yourself. This isn't really helpful when you're learning something new, and you're forced to lose a heart so you can learn from your ''mistakes''.
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I took a chance and put "ho aspettato" ... Ho, I have.... Aspettato, been waiting. Ho stato would be, I was waiting. I got it right.
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Wrong tense. That would mean had been waiting. Io sono stato aspettando da agosto would be correct.
I'm not sure but if it's like latin you don't need to use "ho" because the have is not active "i have a thing" it's changing the tense of "to be" from perfect "i was" to passive perfect "i have been".
I don't know if this is a difference in Italian and latin or a duolingo simplification, but I would expect the Italian to be a passive perfect "to have been" and a present participle "waiting" to make the past perfect continuous statement.
either way we haven't learned anything other than present active, except for piace which is passive, so it's weird that they would throw us a non present active tense
Sorry Cathandrius, In English "have + past participle (been)" isn't a passive it's the (active) present perfect. The addtion of a present participle (in this case: waiting) makes it the (still active) present perfect progressive/continuous.
Exactly. In other words, you're still waiting. In Italian it would be past if the waiting would still be in the past.
I do not consider "piace" a passive form. Just as "it pleases" is not a passive form. It just reverses the roles of subject and object when translated as "like". To swap the roles back, then you can apply passive to the English: "it is liked".
I wrote "sono stato aspettando..." to emphasize that the action is still ongoing. Marked wrong. Is it just a (correct) alternative that DL did not consider, or is it just wrong?
You want more complexity? That's how you say it. "Da" can mean "since": http://www.wordreference.com/enit/since
Da agosto, versus d'agosto? What's the difference? Why is the second one wrong?
"I have been waiting..." is a past imperfect construct that should be translated as "aspettavo..."
Am I safe to assume there is another way to say "I have been waiting since August," perhaps with a more complex verb conjugation of "to wait"? This literally translated means "I wait from August," right?
Spelled it wrong maybe. Aspettato da Agosto(waited since August). The correct answer is Ho aspettato de Agosto( I have been waiting since August) I wonder if you can say Io aspettato..hmm
I think... aspetto = i wait, aspettato = i have been waiting Annoying since I only know that after googling, not having been taught by DL :(
This is present perfect progressive, but no lesson so far has gone over perfect tenses... come on duolingo how do you spect us to translate perfect tenses just because???
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Why Da agosto instead of daL agosto? In the sentence with April we did have a connecting consonant.
why does the drop down box say Aspettado & the correct answer is Aspettato This seems to happens with many words!!
Two others have already asked this, but neither have gotten an answer, so I will give it a try... Why isn't "da agosto" contracted to "d'agosto"? If it can be, Duolingo doesn't accept it (I tried!)...
i dont know if it's still relevant but a native speaker had mentioned before that they don't tend to connect da to the following word even if that's an option
I have to remind my competitive self that going through a lesson more than once is more productive and useful to commit things to memory than if I make it through on the first try ;-)
This just came up in a practice session. I haven't even started other tenses yet oO
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I believe the translation offered by this app is not correct as it should be in past participle too, ho aspetatto, or something like...
I thought the past tense was 'ho aspetto ' but it has been marked as wrong.
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What is wrong with Ho? In other sentences like he eates with us, lui was OK, althuogh there too it was not necessary.
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I get that at this point we still haven't mentioned past tenses, but DL woul have to considet "backwards compatibility" cases. Both "aspettavo da agosto" and "stavo aspettando da agosto" are correct, and even more precise than the answer DL gives. It should have been counted on the people returning to the old lessons and not making complete fools of them.
Can 'da' and 'agosto' be correctly abbreviated to d'agosto? If not, why not?
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da does not contract; di does. If you have a question, it helps to read the prior comments as your question has probably been asked and answered previously. Good Luck!
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PLEASE change the colour back to black on white. It is so much more legible. The new format is really distracting.
it should be ho aspettando da agosto because aspettato is the past tense form of wait aspettando is youre still waiting. If it said had been waiting or had waited since august aspettato da agosto would be correct
I'm sorry MattTaylor14007, but you are incorrect. Aspetto da agosto is the correct way to translate it. For ongoing action that began in the past, in Italian you use the present tense + da + span of time/ beginning of time frame.
This link provides elaboration : http://italian.about.com/library/fare/blfare137a.htm
sorry but aspetto means i wait not i have been waiting so why it says i have been waiting is beyond me but aspettando means i have been waiting
It means "I wait" and also "I am waiting", but "Sto aspettando" also means I am waiting. In the instance where one wishes to express ongoing action that begins in the past, the rules of the Italian language indicate that one should use the present tense form (aspetto, in this case) + da + the time frame. I didn't make the rules. But that is the rule.
