"Il ragazzo mangia dei panini."
Translation:The boy eats some sandwiches.
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"dei panini" is another partitive in Italian. It can be translated equally correctly into English as "some sandwiches" or simply "sandwiches." Both translations should be accepted in your exercises as correct.
Just as a partitive article in French → des → is the plural of the indefinite articles un / une, dei is a partitive article in Italian and is like the plural of un/una (and, in both languages, des / dei vaguely translates to "some"). Even though the partitive is always required in the Italian and French sentences:
"Lui mangia dei panini" and "Il mange des sandwichs"
it is not required in the English translations: "He eats sandwiches."
Especially as the program accepts the phrases as correct with an without "some". It should be consistent.
I spoke to my Italian friend and she said that the word 'some' is 'alcuni' in Italian and that it should really have been 'Il ragazzo mangia alcuni panini'. And we have been taught that 'dei' equals 'of', so is quite confusing.
Why is this considered incorrect? The boy eats some of the sandwiches?
because dei is not "some of the" but just "some". Your translation puts a different emphasis on the sentence.
How would you write "The boy eats some OF THE sandwiches", rather than only "some"?
1026
It can be. If you are in a bakery, for sure rolls. If you are in a bar for sure sandwiches. In a place that sells both like an alimentare, you must specify.
So if I say "Mangio i panini" then I eat all the sandwiches that were served.
And if I say "Mangio dei panini" then I eat more than one but not all of them.
Am I right?
This could be a silly question, but why are some of the words underlined, in the correct answer, after pressing check?
then why did you not include that in your rules in using preposition.. so you just simply made me wrong..