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- "They eat their own cake."
"They eat their own cake."
Translation:Loro mangiano la propria torta.
42 Comments
210
How come you can say "Il loro cane" (="their dog"), but not "la loro torta" (="their cake")?
You could, but there's a difference between "their" and "their own", and the latter is often translated with proprio/a.
I wouldn't say that it's wrong, but it's kind of rare, especially in the third persons. There's an article on the Crusca's Q&A that mentions the case of "sua propria". Using both the possessive and proprio adds emphasis, so it's similar to how in English you could say "their very own cake".
- 807
Thanks for the explanation f.formica. But in fact, DL does accept Mangiano la loro propria torta.
I am constantly confused as to when I should put "the" in a sentence. In this case, whether "propria" includes "the". Sometimes I put "the" in the sentence and it turns out that it is wrapped up in the word it precedes. Frustrating.
When you hover over 'own' it comes up 'proprio'. So that's what I typed and it was wrong. Bug?
- 2696
No, the hint is for the masculine form. From the word "torta" you need to work out that you need the feminine form "propria".
This gets me a lot of the time too, especially if I'm not thinking clearly late at night. Personally I think it's a good thing and I learn more.
- 2696
I think so. It can be annoying when you get an answer wrong after looking at a hint, but it's likely better to make a few mistakes you learn by than be spoon-fed everything.
And that leads me to come to the comments to see if somebody has better explained why my mistake is wrong, and usually things get cleared up for me.
I put La loro mangiano la propria torta first and it was marked wrong. Now I wrote the correction listed, Loro mangiano la propria torta and it says its wrong and the first option I had is correct. Wth
Why "la propia torta" and not "la sua propia torta" when referring to "they"?
I had it all correct, except for one letter, and was marked wrong. Normally it says you are correct, but you have a speeling mistake. Why is it different this time.
DuoLingo tends to mark "incorrect" if it believes you are conjugating a word incorrectly or using the wrong word. If your spelling error caused either of those things by mistake, it would be marked as wrong automatically even if it was just a typo on your end. For example, I've written "capello" (hair) instead of "cappello" (hat) before by mistake and lost the whole question because - even though it was a spelling mistake of one letter - I actually accidentally wrote another word that wasn't correct for the sentence (and the program can't tell what my intention was behind it). Your case may be different, of course, but I've found it's generally like this.
Why loro mangiano when mangiano means they eat. Wouldn't loro mangiano mean they they eat?
Hi Judi... in theory you are right. However.... the Italian language does drop io, tu, lei, lui, noi, voi loro as being unnecessary as the verb conjugation indicates the pronoun i.e iamo, iete, o, i etc. When you are first starting to learn Italian it is a good reminder that' iano' is linked to 'loro', 'iamo' is linked to 'noi', 'o' is linked to 'io' etc... it is not wrong but also it is not usually used (unless emphasising a person or persons). Idiosyncratic if you speak English but not if you are Italian. When you get fluent you will drop the pronoun automatically but if you use the pronoun and speak it you will be understood by an Italian. Hope that is a bit of help.
- 350
no she's not right 'in theory'. one form states the subject explicitly and the other states the subject implicitly. the first can suggest emphasis or a desire to avoid confusion.
Where as loro come from my translation i checked did not have loro and was not propria was propri
- 339
Maybe it was a bug? 'Loro mangiano la propria torta' was accepted as of the time of writing this
There two right answer but none is accepted as right. What to do to go to next level? hs://www.duolingo.com/skill/it/Possessives/5ttp
- 2068
This link takes me to a translation question about a bottle, not a multiple choice question about cake.
Why is 'loro' used and not 'sono' as 'sono' translates as 'they' (or I) and 'loro' translates as 'their'... so the above literally translates as 'Their eat their own cake'...
Sono is not they, sono is 'is'
Loro sono belli = they are beautiful.
Io sono bella = I am beautiful.
Loro itself means 'they' So this translates to 'they eat their own cake'
Is there a plural for il/la proprio/a? For example, if they were eating their own (individual) cakes, would we be able to say, "Mangiano le proprie torte"? Or does that not exist?
When i clicked on each individual word to see the translation it left out the word "la" so i got it wrong...so anoying
