"Lei mente sulla sua età?"

Translation: Does she lie about her age?

[NicholasDo2]

Why "sulla" here? Is that the preposition that mentere typically takes or is it specific to this phrase?

[chatee]

That is the way Italians and Spanish speakers talk. Literally says: "She lies over her age" and that translation probably makes no sense to English speakers.

[Philip_B.]

Thanks chatee. Sometimes just a tweak of vocabulary unlocks the secret. "She lies on her age" made no sense but "she lies over her age" clicked for me.

I can also think of this like "She lies on [the topic of] her age."

[GScottOliver]

She lies on her age; I lie on the sofa.

[ZuMako8_Momo]

"about" would work too :)

[Frenchy90210]

Also works the same way in French. :)

[Tallman69]

Actually, if we were directly translating, it would be, "She lies on her age." "Over" would be "sopra" or perhaps "oltre.".
But that would make no sense, would it?
I would've expected, "Lei mente della età.", but I guess I'm wrong.

[ZuMako8_Momo]

«su» in this case means "about"

[acqualinda]

It is the contraction of su + la

[acqualinda]

It is the contraction of su + la

[FlamingoDingo]

Could a translation be "she lies about his age"?

[mprdo]

And my grandmother actually inflated her age on occasion. So the conversation would go: "You don't look 80!" and her response was: "I'm not; I'm 92". (Truth be told, she was 88 and with full faculties). When asked why, she explained that it stopped 'those youngsters' (62-80 y/o) from complaining about their aches and pains!! 1Mar19... She lasted to 101 legitimate years.

[Viaggiatore]

Apparently so. http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/italian-english/mentire

[mateusdl]

Evidently

[geniuz24]

I had no idea what this sentence meant but I managed to get it right? is that cheating

[ZuMako8_Momo]

Absolutely not! That's how you learn. Even in conversation, one can fill in the gaps and learn that way too, without knowing the meaning of the whole thing. :)

[Neftas]

Why isn't "You lie about your age?" accepted?

[ZuMako8_Momo]

Because that would be «Lei mente sulla Sua età.», with a capital «S».

[TiberiuGoc]

Are you lying about your age? should be totally accepted. Lei and sua is the polite form for you and yours.

[ZuMako8_Momo]

But «sua» with a lowercase «s» can never mean "your(s);" it must be capital just like «Lei» must start with a capital letter.

[Philip_B.]

Are you sure this is a hard and fast rule? My coworker who immigrated from Italy told me the capitalization is not required.

[ZuMako8_Momo]

Oh, this is the way it was taught to me. I studied Italian in school for four years, but I guess it might not be required. I am not sure now. :)

[JackDasiman]

I was taught by DL that mente meant "mind"???

[ZuMako8_Momo]

Yes, the noun «mente» also means "mind," but the verb «mente» is a conjugation of the verb «mentir» and means "(he/she/it/you [formal]) lies." In English, the word "down" can mean a direction or a type of bird feather. This happens a lot in languages.

[tessroselli]

is anyone else hearing 'ega' instead of 'eta' on both slow and fast recordings?

[Orte15]

The problem is that can be referred to the person you are speaking to because the formal way to say things is "lei" in italian. so also "you" is correct in this sentence (I am italian lol)

[Marin_Radovcic]

I typed 'Is she lying about her age ?' and it was marked wrong, I don't know why though...

[MABBY]

By adding the gerund, you change the meaning, subtlely.

Sta mentendo sulla sua età?

[Marin_Radovcic]

Actually, I wrote 'She is lying about her age ?'; same thing, don't know why it was marked wrong.