45 Comments
I translated "Qual è il cane?" as "Which dog is it?", which was marked as wrong. Is this not a correct translation? It means the same thing as the 'correct' answer of "Which is the dog?", and it sounds like more natural English to me.
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Here it is important to note the function of the words. "Qual" is the interrogative pronoun, functioning as the subject of the sentence. "Cane" is the predicate nominative. The "è" between them functions as the = sign.
In your translation "which" becomes the interrogative adjective, and "dog" becomes the subject of the sentence. "It", which doesn't appear anywhere in the Italian sentence, has appeared magically to become the predicate pronoun.
The question is fundamentally asking: which (out of the many options) is the dog? Your translation is fundamentally asking: which dog (out of a group of dogs) is it?
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Great explanation for this usage. The sentence I saw with "Qual" before this one was with the possessive pronoun, e.g. "Qual e il tuo cane?" and there I think that either "Which dog is yours?" or "Which is your dog?" would be acceptable translations into English (if anything, I"d probably use the first more than the second, even though the second is grammatically closer to the Italian). By removing the possessive pronoun, it reveals both a grammatical and meaning/usage difference "Which x is...?" and "Which is...?"
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Nicely explained thx.. I still think the English sentence would make more sence if they add "one" to the options: which one is the/a dog?
It's like a question you would ask a 2 y/o - which one of these is the dog. "Which dog is it" implies you know it's a dog.
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I agree with you. I can't think of a situation where one could use this sentence on it's own.
Marking this comment down is silly. People need to know that its is the correct usage here as a possesive. It's ALWAYS means it is.
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I am a student of 4 years and I also thought the same thing.
It seems like the question should fundamentally be "Quale + è + il cane?" but we contract that to "Qual'è il cane?" as you wrote.
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in the vocabulary hints there is a "what" translation for "qual", but when typed it is reported as a mistake
In previous comments it was said that quale has only two forms - quale for singular and quali for plural. So where did qual come from?
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Correct me if I got it wrong, but I believe 'quale/i' is the question word 'which', which should be followed by a noun, and 'qual' is the interrogative pronoun 'which one', which should be followed by a verb.
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As far as I understand it:
Qual is a contraction of Quale - which used in front of e' (and in front of other words starting with the letter e)
Quali is the plural of Quale
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The English sentence lacks a noun. It should be "Which one is the dog?"
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it's like find the dog out of 100 other animals, anyway that can train your attention;)
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I kept getting this wrong because "cane" and "carne" sound almost the same to me. Then I went back to double check and realized that it's "la carne" and "il cane," so "il cane" is the only possible answer here. I'm not fluent yet in any language that has grammatical gender, so one more thing to learn to keep track of. LOL
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Could it also be translated as, "where is the dog?"? The hint for "qual" gives me which, where, and that...
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I think this is the correct translation. The question then becomes, if you wanted to ask "Which dog is it?", how would you phrase that in Italian - Quale cane è?
what does this mean? it might me grammatically correct but it doesn't have sense. which is a problem for a lot of the examples on this site.....
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I was told I had used the wrong word when 'qual e il cane' is exactly what I wrote from listening exercise.
I made it right. Qual é il cane. But I was wondering : why do you say: qual cane, but quale ragazzo. Both words are maschile ? Can someone help?
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here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/22637554/Quale-or-Qual-in-Italian-When-to-use-which and here:http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/qual-e-o-qual-e_(La-grammatica-italiana)/ you have the answer
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Ich lach mich kaputt, ich habe nicht hund sondern fleisch übersetzt, fand ich nicht ungewöhnlich bei all den vegetariern hier...
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The one dressed as a spaceman playing subbuteo,mof course! Allora!
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The one between your pinguin and her hungry bear. But definitely not the one in the boot ...
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Where's the dog?!
I'll do you one better, who's the dog?
I'll do you one better, which is the dog?!
I had to.
