"Io mangio lo zucchero."
Translation:I eat the sugar.
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I had written io zucchero then came to find out it was supposed to be lo zucchero
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From what I've learned during the Spanish module on Duo, Spanish likes to use the article when speaking generally or about something as a whole...i.e. me gusta comer el pescado (I like to eat fish)... I'm guessing Italian is similar
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What do you mean by "the article" and please respond in elementary lol because i dont know anything about Spanish or any language derived from the latin origin. Just found out that Italian was based off of it also
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Articles are a feature of some, but not all languages. In simplest terms they are a and an and the. They serve to specify or highlight a noun. They come in two flavors: Definte articles and indefinite articles. The indefinite ones point out an object but not any particular object such as a car, or an orange. The Definite article is more specific: The car, or The orange. In Italian the indefinite articles are: Un, Uno, Una and Un’. The Definite articles are: il, lo, l’ la, le, i and gli. The selection depends on the gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter in some languages(not Italian)). The selection is also based on the letter or first sound of the noun. It is not as complicated as it seems..and eventually becomes second nature. You can google for more info. Italian and English use the indefinite ones pretty much identically.. there are some exceptions for professions and other characteristics. The definite ones are nuanced, as Italian, like Spanish throws (the) in, where we wouldn’t in English sometimes.
Off topic..languages derived from Latin are called Romance languages…there are quite a few of them, but the major ones are Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Romanian.
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Thank you Wataya, but I don't understand well the use of the "Lo" here, I mean, I have noticed Italian uses it when in general meaning, something like the French partitive, but until I know, Italian has a partitive as well, so, for instance if I want to say: " I eat sugar = Je mange du sucré = Io mangio lo zucchero" or "Io mangio dello zucchero"? If so, when to use each one? it's exactly the same?
Lo is used before the nouns that starts with S+consonant, with Z..(what comes after Z doesn't matter) and nouns with GN.. etc.. When it's Lo the plural form is always Gli. Hope this helps. Il is used before all masuculine nouns except those who starts with S+consonant , Z... GN il is not useds before the nouns that starts with vowel like. Uomo. In this case we have to say l'uomo and he plural is gli uomini.
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Hi ughlizXD, The conjugation of verb Mangiare is as follows: io mangio; tu mangi; lui, lei, mangia; noi mangiamo; voi mangiate; loro mangiano.
I tried asking my cousin who is taking an Italian course this, so i wanted to confirm his explanation. Ragazzo and zucchero are both masculine right? Why is it that the article for ragazzo is "il" and for zucchero "lo"? Why aren't they both "il"? Whats the difference and what determines which word gets which article?
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Russian doesn't have definite or indefinite articles, but they need to use (ours) when translating to English or, "There was a big explosion and the building burned" would come out, "There was big explosion and building burned". Do you want your Italian to sound as ungrammatical as that?
There are probably some grammatic rules behind "Lo zucchero" like definite or indefinite articles, depending on the car ntext of the conversation. For Romance languages native speakers it's second nd nature to use them or not. I'd say "Yo como azúcar" because "Yo como el azúcar" sounds odd. On the other hand I'd say "Me gusta el azúcar" because "Me gusta azúcar" would be incorrect. Language rules and nuances, go figure