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- "We have dinner."
"We have dinner."
Translation:Ceniamo.
56 Comments
Ceniamo=iamo which is 'we have' or 'lets have' then you put whatever the word is. For example, 'mangiamo is 'mangia' (eat) and 'iamo' (lets have/we have/will we). Another example is 'andiamo' is 'Lets go' or 'Come on'. Hope this helps :)
I know! They threw that in! Avere = to have Some of it we've already had. I have - io ho He has - lui ha You have (informal) - tu hai you have (plural) - Voi avete they have - Loro hanno We have - Noi abbiamo And I hope I got that right! :)
Yep! Perfect conjugation of avere. I would have just thrown in there lui/LEI ha = he/SHE has. That's pretty important to point out. Nice though! :)
i wrote "noi abbiamo cena" as the English sentence is "We have dinner." NOT "We have the dinner.";why it is a mistake?
You're thinking too much in terms of verbatim translation. Noi abbiamo cena literally means "we have dinner". As if to say you and a buddy went to pick up dinner or food for your family. Then you call your mom and say "noi abbiamo cena". It states you and your friend physically have the dinner in your possession. A lot of people don't realize cena is actually the lui/lei form of the verb cenare (to have dinner). If you follow the conjuation rules for regular "are" verbs, (noi) ceniamo actually means "we have dinner". Which is the action of "having dinner (to consume/eat the food, not to possess the food)". Hope this helps :)
1615
Three questions/observations:
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"Ceniamo" would be "we dine" rather than "we are having dinner", since that is what "abbiamo la cena" means.
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While "lui/lei cena" use the same word as "la cena", they are not the same words, because the first instance is a verb and the second is a noun.
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For sentences specifying regularly occurring events, you could say, "i lunedì abbiamo cena" "on Mondays we have dinner", since the dinner isn't a specific "a" or "the" dinner. It it's a specific instance of dining, then "la cena" would be warranted. HOWEVER, in Spanish the article is dropped after some verbs, in particular "tener" = "to have", so "abbiamo cena" = "we are having dinner [at this moment]" might still be a correct colloquial usage, even if it doesn't follow forma rules of grammar.
- 38
But that's how I read the sentence. "We have dinner" is, at best, strained English for implying consumption of the evening meal. "We are having dinner" or "We eat dinner" would have been a more appropriate prompt for the answer they were looking for.
- 106
Technically you said "We have the dinner." It is better to use the verb "to eat dinner", in this case "ceniamo" :D
I don't understand why sometimes "la" is used and sometimes not. In the English, it doesn't say "the". Is there a rule here?
It's amazing how Italian can compress without loss of meaning the three English words "we have dinner" into only 1 word: ceniamo :)
For sure! But that's also what makes it difficult, verb conjugation, which we have very little of in English. Mangiamo = Let's eat, Mangio = I eat, Andiamo = Let's go, Vado = I go, and so on. French is similar with a zillion verb conjugations, but you can't drop the subject as much as in Italian. Convenient, but a killer to learn, and I continually get them wrong! My Italian friends say I talk like a child, because I use all the words instead of the conjugated short cuts, and I'm very articulate because I'm trying, and usually place the words in the wrong order, in English order. LOL
it is too much too soon, but I am getting there hopefully. I am going to Italy in September so I want to get it right.
Hope that you had a great trip!! I too feel that it is too much, too soon. The French lessons are so much better paced in my opinion
- 1615
Two English words, actually: "We dine". If you start with "abbiamo la cena", it's actually English that's more compressed. And more precise. In Italian, you can "have" your cake, and not be eating it, too, while "dining" means both having your cake and eating it, too.
Hy guys, i have a serious problem there. My answer is correct, but I believe there's a bug in the system. How can I send a message to Duolingo's team?
the verb 'have dinner' / verbo 'cenare': io ceno, tu ceni, lui/lei cena - noi ceniamo, voi cenate, loro cenano
the verb 'have dinner' / verbo 'cenare': io ceno, tu ceni, lui/lei cena - noi ceniamo, voi cenate, loro cenano
the verb 'have dinner' / verbo 'cenare': io ceno, tu ceni, lui/lei cena - noi ceniamo, voi cenate, loro cenano
"Facciamo" comes from the verb fare, which means to do/to make. Since facciamo uses the noi or "we" tense of fare, facciamo means "we do" or "we make". It's a completely separate verb from cenare.
Well, abbiamo is the noi (we) form of the verb "avere", which means to have/to own. So the translation would be to physically having the lunch/dinner (depending on the context) in your possession. It would be no different than saying "noi abbiamo le mele" (we have the apples). Hope this helped!
I undestand ceniamo and that is the answer I gave. why did it tell me "fecciamo" was the answer it wanted? I dont even know that word.
"We are having dinner." might be a better English to translate (esp if you don't want it translated as "Noi abbiamo cena."
"abbiamo cena" wasn't accepted? the definite article shouldnt be necessary
the first time it says "facciamo" (ceniamo was incorrect) the second time I put "facciamo" and it said the correct word was "ceniamo"'
Noi ceniamo can be translate in English as "we have dinner" or "we ate dinner"
This is such a vague, question as it could imply that they are having dinner, or they possess dinner
