"We have dinner."
Translation:Ceniamo.
90 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! :)
Because in italian they don't say 'we have dinner'. They say 'we dinner'. Noi ceniamo.
1042
"noi ceniamo" = "we dine". "We dinner" would be "noi la cena", which is nonsensical.
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 :)
- 1042
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.
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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.
you are the first person that has explained this clearly! Get a job writing for this app - it's taken me about 30 years to have that explained to me college professors and all!
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.
- 1042
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?
This is why i dont like learning other languages! I never remember these words and when i do they're never "grammatically correct"
Yes, it's hard. Duolingo is a fabulous tool for fluency, review and feels like a game, but is hugely beneficial. However, unless you have used a series like I recommend Living Language, you don't learn verb conjugations. Forget Rosetta Stone, btw, it's terrible and expensive. Living Language is only about $50 and comes with a book and 4 CDs. I have it for French and Italian. It's very academic, but lays the ground work to be able to really enjoy the benefits of Duolingo.
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 recommend getting a reference book. Duolingo is a fabulous tool for fluency, review and feels like a game, but is hugely beneficial. However, unless you have gone through something like Living Language, you don't learn verb conjugations. Forget Rosetta Stone, btw, it's terrible and expensive. Living Language is only about $50 and comes with a text book and 4 CDs. I have it for French and Italian. It's very academic, but lays the ground work to be able to really enjoy the benefits of Duolingo.
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"'
Tasha, This is because "cenare' is already the verb for "to have dinner". That would be like saying in English, "we eat dinner the dinner." It's hard to translate it verbatim but that would be the idea. Noi ceniamo already implies it's dinner we are eating, since the verb itself is based around dinner.
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What about "Noi pranziamo." I have a dictionary that shows pranzare can mean to have lunch or to have DINNER.
Pranziamo is already conjugated with "we" in the "...iamo". So you don't need "noi". Pranziamo means "Let's have lunch" or "We are eating lunch".
If you translate from English word for word into Italian... Noi is "we". "Ho" is the verb conjugation for first person "have". So to say "we have" you would say "noi abbiamo" or just "abbiamo" which also means "we have". But "Have" in Italian means you have it in your possession. In English we use "have" to mean eat. So if you say "noi abbiamo la cena". You're saying "we have the dinner" like you just picked it up and you're carrying it in your car or in your hands. But you're not saying that you're eating dinner together. "Ceniamo" is a combination of a noun conjugated as a verb. And that one word alone can be used to say, "we are eating dinner" or "let's eat dinner".
Don't understand. Ceniamo OK, lets have. Coffee? Sex? What defines this as "lets have dinner"?
That means "let's have dinner dinner". In Latin languages, which includes French, some verb conjugations can be used to include the noun. In this case, ceniamo means let's have dinner. Mangiamo can be used to say "we eat" or "let's eat". Andiamo = we go or let's go. Facciamo = we do/make or let's do/make. Duolingo is a fabulous immersion tool for fluency, review and is hugely beneficial, but without a foundation like Living Language, you don't learn grammar and verb conjugations. I don't like Rosetta Stone, as it's expensive and does nothing more for the user in my view. Living Language is only about $50 and comes with a book and 4 CDs. I have it for French and Italian. You can find it on Amazon. It's lays the ground work to be able to really enjoy the benefits of Duolingo.
I think it's because 'ceniamo' means 'we have dinner', and 'cena' can mean either 'dinner' or 'to have dinner'. So, if you string them together, it can at most literally mean, 'we have dinner (ceniamo) to have dinner (cena)'. It's redundant. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please.
I believe you are correct. Ceniamo can also mean "Let's have dinner", just as Italians often say "andiamo" for "Let's go", when it also means "we go", or "mangiamo" to say "let's eat" when it also means "we eat". So you wouldn't add the noun again to say, "We have dinner dinner" or "Let's have dinner dinner". The one word, "ceniamo" says it all. Easy once you learn verb conjugations, or in this case noun conjugation I guess, all of which I'm still working on! ;)
I'm not the expert, but I think in Italian, you would be saying you possess dinner, as in "We have dinner in our hands", not eating it. In English we use the word "have" or "having" and we mean "eat" or "eating". In other languages, that's not how you say you are eating dinner. I know that's just not said. So I think that's why. Same thing in French. Anyone else out there agree/disagree?
"Noi abbiamo la cena" but we don't use this expression, how said Terigault the meaning is "we have got the dinner"
