56 Comments
I thought caffe just meant coffee. As an Italian told me they dont really have 'caffes" here as we think of in the states but call them bars.
That's a rather recent development, but the word caffè still exists with that meaning, although nowadays it's generally used for a rather elegant bistrot-patisserie.
In fact the oldest joke (read: lame pun) in the book is "Un uomo entra in un caffè." [dramatic pause] "Splash"...
Coffee ice cream sounds wonderful. Is it a real thing? It isnt around where i live
It absolutely is, and it's worth looking into. It's one of my three favorite flavors. Warning, though: most brands use real coffee in it. Don't eat it if you wouldn't drink coffee at that time of day... That's a great way to cost yourself a night's sleep.
I don't understand this sentence much. Is it supposed to be something similar to "ho il gelato nel mio ristorante", or "il gusto di mio gelato è caffè"? I would also like to know if these examples, if I can call them like that, are correct in Italian since I'm trying to put things I learned into use. :) I'm still having trouble with what does ''al'' mean. Is it the same as ''nel''?
It means "I have coffee ice cream." Just like "I have vanilla ice cream"
In terms of the rest of your question, it is pointless to ask for 1-to-1 mappings from Italian prepositions to English prepositions. "Nel" can mean "in the," and "al" mean "to the," but "al can also mean "at the" or "made with." You just have to use these, and after a while you get a sense for it. (We have the same ambiguities in English, you are just used to them: think about the differences between being "in New York", "in love", "in a car" and "in line for the presidency." And why are we "in a car" but "on a train": we don't ride on the roof of trains!
1949
From what I've been able to figure from the other comments, the primary meaning of "Io ho il gelato al caffè" is "I have coffee-flavored ice cream" although an uncommon secondary meaning could be "I have ice cream at the café".
As for "al" vs "nel" (and bear in mind that even between closely related languages, prepositions very rarely map perfectly one-to-one in usage because of the differences in idioms and relational metaphors), "al" is more like "to/at the" and "nel" is more like "in the".
With regard to food, idiomatically, X "al" Y more often than not means "Y-flavored X". So "gelato al caffè" is "coffee-flavored ice cream" and "bistecca al pepe" is "steak seasoned with black pepper" and "crema al cioccolato" is "chocolate-flavored custard".
- 1949
Because Italian does not share the English idiom of "to have = to eat" and thus "Io ho il gelato al caffè" can only mean that you literally have the coffee ice cream in your possession.
I understand why "I have coffee ice cream" is an appropriate answer, but in trying to be clever I found out "I have chilled coffee" is incorrect. What would the second sentence look like in Italian?
- 1949
More like "caffè freddo," where "freddo" is a proper adjective describing the temperature of the coffee.
(For everyone, not just BlakeGoodman08) "gelato al caffè" is "ice cream that tastes like coffee". "Caffè" is a noun. It's a key ingredient/feature of the ice cream. "al" is just the idiom in Italian for expressing the particular relationship between the coffee and the ice cream, or the chocolate and the cream, or the strawberry and the cake. English permits nouns to syntactically behave like adjectives (strawberry cake vs frozen cake) but Italian does not.
- 1949
No. It is simply "a" + "il" contracted together. The idiom in Italian when expressing the notion of "thing-flavored food" is to say "food a [la/il] thing".
Please, why do I get this: " I have the gelato in the cafe!" as the correct answer? I am German, and do not know, if english people use gelato too for ice cream.
- 1949
In the USA, "gelato" is a specific kind of frozen dessert that is included in the broad category of ice cream/sherbet.
How do you know when to say "Io ho il gelato al caffè" rather than "Io ho il caffè gelato"? In English you would most likely say, "I have the coffee ice cream," not "I have the coffee-flavored ice cream" or "I have the ice cream of coffee."
- 1949
Basically, in Italian, you don't say "caffè gelato". Just like in English you don't say "ice cream of coffee".
In English, we say "flavor food", such as "coffee ice cream" or "strawberry pie".
In Italian, they say "food to the flavor", such as "gelato al caffè" or "torta alla fragola".
"I have coffee ice" is considered wrong, and as a hint i get "I have coffee gelato". Very weird. And yea, i should have written "ice cream", but english is also not my natove language. In germany you just say "ice".
I find the use of 'the' and 'a' really irritating at times, carelessness on my part sometimes but it's marked as wrong. You might say 'I have the last coffee ice cream' for a specific ice cream, but in general I'm sure you would say 'I have a coffee ice cream' or 'I have coffee ice cream' for non specific ice creams.
So i typed in 'coffee ice-cream' and it was marked wrong as the correct one as per Duolingo is 'coffee ice cream'...does the hyphen make that much amount of difference in the Italian language?
- 1949
Ice-cream vs ice cream is English, and in this case it should not. Flag it next time and select "My answer should have been accepted".
- 22
It might have said "typo" but it would never have rejected the reply due to a hyphen. Duo does not reject answers because of punctuation, capitlization, lack of or incorrect accents there might have been another error.
- 22
"gelato" is ice cream. "mocca" is coffee with chocolate in it...https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures.../mocca
So, you need to say it's "coffee ice cream".
Just wondering about having an iced coffee next week in Roma? Non weather dependant!
- 1949
un gelato al caffè is coffee-flavored ice cream.
un caffè ghiacciato is iced coffee. They might call it caffè freddo: cold coffee.
- 1949
Because "my translation" is "la mia traduzione". You were asked to translate "io ho il gelato al caffè", which is "I have the coffee ice cream".
This kind of expression,is it used to,like, order an ice cream on a gelateria? Or is it just to announce I have a coffee-flavored ice cream?
Since this sentence expresses an order (at a restaurant/café), an appropriate translation could be "I'll have the coffee ice cream." It's marked wrong because obviously it's a different tense (and thus not a literal translation), but it's actually not semantically false.
No, you misunderstood the basic premise: this sentence has nothing to do with a restaurant/café. In Italian "have" can never mean "eat", so if you go to a café and say you'll have a coffee you'll raise more than a few eyebrows.
- 1949
Are you positive you wrote the pronoun io and not the definite article Lo?
- 1949
Mocha is coffee with a bit of chocolate flavoring.
There is also a specific quality of coffee made from a particular type of bean that is called mocha, but not all coffee is mocha. They are not synonymous, no matter how you define "mocha".
- 22
If you feel there is a problem with a sentence please explain what you think the correct version is.
This translation is wrong. The correct translation is "I have the ice cream in the coffee" . It is called an affogatto. Scoop of gelato with a shot of espresso.
- 1949
a is "at/to". in is "in".
In English, we say "flavor food" or "ingredient food". In Italian, they say "food at/to the flavor" or "food of ingredient".
