52 Comments
Yes, "I'm not paying for my friends" is at least as correct a translation as the one they recommend.
"I do not pay for my friends" in English means I, in general, i.e. never, do not pay for my friends. This a case where present tense (am) plus gerund (paying) is used in English to signify "right now" or "this time" and does not exactly equate to an Italian gerund something like "sono pagando". But of course Duolingo is only a poor little algorithm and may not have sufficient artificial intelligence available to factor in this sort of subtlety.
But I agree, the translation "I am not paying for my friends" should definitely be accepted.
I used this too, abbreviated to "I'm...," and think that it should be accepted. Both translations are plausible but this one would be heard much more commonly.
Still wrong 22/Feb/2018. I am fairly new to Italian and have only had the present tense. But in both German and French, which I have been doing for longer, this translation would be accepted.
GraemeJeal: You're absolutely correct and I agree -- as do lots of other users. The problem is that Duo's just not very progressive at present.
"I'm not paying for my friends." still not accepted, and of course, should be. Reporting, again, 2018 Sept 27.
It's not always required, but would be necessary in this case to avoid confusion. Just typing "non pago I miei amici" could be understood as "I do not pay my friends". The 'per' helps avoid that confusion. If you were just saying "I do not pay for them", instead of "for my friends", you could use an indirect object pronoun and drop the per. "Non gli pago." [Pronouns were never my strong point, but I believe that is correct]
Very good, you get the point! I just specify: "non gli pago" is not wrong, but unusual: the indirect object pronoun is better used for longer phrases, like "non gli pago la cena", because you want to focus on what you don't pay for them, so the pronoun is good. We usually say "Non pago per loro" when we want to focus on who we don't want to pay for. "Non gli pago" doesn't focus on anything... Italian people would think is useless phrase and would wait you finish it with something more.
Is this like not paying for my friends at a restaurant (not covering the tab) or is it more I do not pay people to be my friends? Or can it mean both?
Is it possible to drop the "per" here? In other words, are there certain situations where per needs to follow pagare?
This seems like a response to a waiter asking if you're covering the whole check or just your portion. I would love it if duolingo would do conversation questions and have a few fill in the blanks; I'd learn faster that way.
"I'm not paying for my friends" still not accepted and yet it's probably what's closest to what most natives would say.
People have been reporting for a number of years their dismay that "I am not paying for my friends" is deemed incorrect, I am surprised that whoever monitors the discussion page has not either corrected the provided translation to include "I am not paying for my friends" or stated why this is unacceptable.
Still being marked wrong for "I am not paying ..." What is wrong with that??
I believe that it's a perfectly correct translation depending on the actual context.
this would mean: they are paying for my. ('...for my.... what?' would wonder the reader. 'Pagono per (il) mio pranzo' would be nice and kind of them. ;) )
This is still being marked as wrong in March 2017. Isn't it about time someone corrected the answer to include "I am not paying for my friends"?
Is there some etiquette alluded to here? In 'some' places everyone pays separately. In other milieux it is rude to not let someone pay for you.
Wakey, wakey Duolingo admins! "I am not paying for my friends" is still not being accepted!
