"The ingredient is the jam."
Translation:L'ingrediente è la marmellata.
21 Comments
1880
When Duo first introduced you to the word, there should have been some kind of indication. Do you mouse over words to see what pops up?
Those times when Duo does not give the gender of a noun, I pop over to Google Translate and put in "the [plural]" and see how it comes out. That usually clears things up.
The English doesn't make sense. Jam is made from multiple ingredients, typically fruit and sugar.
- 1880
That doesn't stop it from being an ingredient in other things, like peanut butter sandwiches or tarts.
The English is "The ingredient is the jam," not "The jam is an ingredient." The second makes sense, not the first, unless it's an idiom meaning something like poor ingredients make a poor product.
Just because something is a common way of phrasing something in one language, it doesn't make the uncommon alternative technically incorrect.
Also, as soon as you fill in an adjective the sentence sounds more reasonable. "The next ingredient is jam." "The secret ingredient is jam." "The strangest ingredient is jam."
- 1880
"What did you make this with that makes it taste so incredibly sweet?"
"The ingredient is the jam!"
I think it should, but marmellata and confettura are not the same thing. Confettura contains more fruit. According to wordreference confettura = marmellata di frutta.
http://saporiericette.blogosfere.it/2011/11/marmellata-o-confettura-ecco-la-differenza.html
I'm not understanding the difference between "Il ingrediente" and "L'ingrediente" i thought they were both masculine?
- 1880
There is more than one masculine definite article, depending on how the next word starts. Since "ingrediente" begins with a vowel, it must be contracted.
http://www.oneworlditaliano.com/english/italian-grammar/italian-definite-articles.htm
Does anyone know any good resources to use to understand when something is masculine/feminine etc? Duolingo doesnt explain anything so its difficult to learn. Any help would be appreciated. Grazie
- 1880
There are exceptions, but for the most part you can identify masculine and feminine nouns by how they end.
If they end in -o in the singular, they're masculine. The plural ends in -i.
If they end in -a in the singular, they're feminine. The plural ends in -e.
If they end in -e in the singular, you just need to learn it by rote.
In the word "ingredient," does the 'I' sound like the English 'e' and does the 'e' sound like the English 'a'?
