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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
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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
You want more complexity? That's how you say it. "Da" can mean "since": http://www.wordreference.com/enit/since
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Why Da agosto instead of daL agosto? In the sentence with April we did have a connecting consonant.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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
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.