"Io ho il gelato al caffè."
Translation:I have the coffee ice cream.
53 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
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.
1302
It's very popular up north especially in New England. Are you from the south, possibly?
It tastes absolutely amazing! It's one of my favourites, you should definitely check it out.
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 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!
Nick i think your comment needs to be pinned in the lessons for prepositions! But it's a very useful advice in general. I made huge a huge leap in my learning about a year ago when i finally realized this. You slow yourself down if you try to find the 1:1 "exact translation" because it just doesn't exist. Instead accept that your native language does the same and you just picked it up over time, and you will do the same for a new language eventually :)
You're amazing, that just explained so much I never understood in school. I appreciate your explanation so much
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".
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".
- 1246
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.
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."
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".
- 980
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?
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".
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.
"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!
un gelato al caffè is coffee-flavored ice cream.
un caffè ghiacciato is iced coffee. They might call it caffè freddo: cold coffee.
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?
Italian aside, 'coffee ice cream'? I had to do a double take before answering, I had no idea that such a thing existed!
Gelato is not ice cream it is gelato. There are different types of product. I understand the ice cream does not have an Italian equivalent and therefore should be accepted as a poor translation. However gelato has a translation for gelato should be accepted.
I didn't place the "Io" first, but even without it, isn't it still just ho gelato al caffe?
'Ice cream coffee' or 'coffee ice cream' why is that flagged as an error?
In Italian, they say "food to the flavor".
In English, we say "flavor food".
Therefore "il gelato al caffè" is "coffee-flavored ice cream" or just "coffee ice cream".
This is very different from "ice cream coffee", which is a cup of coffee with a spoonful of ice cream in it.
Cafè isn't processed as a typo for caffè so I got it wrong because I suck at spelling
- 338
How can one differentiate "I have the coffee ice cream." and "I have the ice cream at the coffeehouse."?
- 1226
For more fun, consider how you would say “I have the coffee ice cream at the coffeehouse”