"Io sono di gennaio."
Translation:I was born in January.
239 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
The problem with sentences like this is that I know a literal translation is wrong, but when I've only got one heart left I'm not really willing to hazard a guess as to exactly which non-literal phrasing will be expected
I liked the hearts, but I have to admit I think the new system is both less stressful and more enjoyable. It takes the onus from not making mistakes to correcting that made mistake when they (often immediately) throw the same question back at you.
As a largely tablet user I don't usually get to the read the lesson explanation on the lesson summary page or the pop-up explanations during them and partly therefore had a lot of trouble with one of the earlier lessons. I was sorely tempted to quit after failing it for the fifth time and the new system does eliminate that frustration.
Molte grazie Duolinguo!
Oh crap! They need to add that feature on mobile devices.. im literally relying on these comments to explain haha
It's the old Duolingo system. You had three hearts and you lost a heart when you had a wrong answer. If you lost all your hearts you had to start the lesson over again.
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The have brought back the hearts at the end of 2020. Now you get 5 hearts instead of 3. You also have the option of turning on unlimited hearts if losing hearts is too stressful for you.
I use both Duo on both my computer and iPhone. Only my iPhone has the heart system and asks you to speak out loud, my computer doesn't.
You see it when you complete a level with the key, if you press on the key, then it starts with tree hearts, if you complete everything good, you don't lose hearts, if you miss one, you lose a heart, if you fail more than 3 answers you lose all hearts
I don't take them too seriously, but some people do. I guess retaking the whole lesson is to much of a hassle.
We are on a site where the community is focused on grammar, vocab, and understanding of foreign communication concepts... my point is that this may be "TOO" much of a hassle to read this far in the comments. :)
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You're right. Too many overthink & try to compare their own language. It doesn't matter if you say something that's not correct - as long as you're understood.
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I like having to retake the lessons after I failed it's sort of drums it into my head the right way that's the only reason why I like to take the lessons again
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Not a bad idea. Something else you can try is not looking at the screen when you move on to the next question. That provides simple extra listening practice.
Some of us are very busy and have just so much time for these daily lessons, but having to repeat many times if you're tired, etc. is too much
Losing hearts is a sign that you don't know the topic well enough. Lose the heart, do the test again and get some more practice.
That's right. Making mistakes is not a bad thing. That is how we learn. Besides, the hearts system is gone now -- along with the opportunity to earn lingots with the full-heart bonus (presumably because so many people complained about losing hearts) -- so this isn't an issue anymore.
I use the mobile app, I have 5 hearts and after I lose them I cannot play until they renew (after I think 4 hours) or take a take a test to gain 1 more heart. I don't mind being wrong, I mind the system that forbids me to learn something new for 4 hours...
On a mobile, at least, after taking a (revision) rest and gaining a heart, you can then earn a further one by watching an ad, usually 30 secs long. Not a bad trade-off especially if you're trying to get up to level 5 and are unwilling to sacrifice 400 gems to do so.
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Try login through www.duolingo.com instead of or as well as the mobile app. You have the stories also.
Thanks. I do have it on my phone but I don't like to use the phone for DL unless I'm traveling.
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I entirely agree with you. A lot of people seem to be intent on just reaching the next node and forget that their success on doing so should be a reflection of how well they master the level. About the hearts : if you are a DL mobile app user and kept yourself from updating it, you still have the old system and can continue cashing on those lingot bonuses.
Yes, I still have the old app and can use it to get heart bonuses. Thanks for pointing that out. I prefer to use my laptop though, since it has a keyboard. The app is on my phone so it's tedious to use. When I get a tablet maybe I can transfer the app to that. Actually, I have become accustomed to the new system and do not miss the heart bonuses all that much anymore.
I absolutely agree with you. One can be gung ho or cavalier with 3 hearts intact
And there you have all my objections to the entire "Heart" concept in a single statement. It makes one nervous and you can't experiment or play with the materials.
Duo: remove the Hearts. They serve no useful purpose. ("If wrong I be, then here correct me.")
Yeah, I noticed that finally. I mostly use the browser. Which has been updated very nicely recently.
The "heart thing" must be an ios matter. I don't get any limitation on android!
only from northern Italy perhaps, I am from the south and usually we say, ¨io sono nata di gennaio¨
'I was born in January' makes more sense to me than 'I am from January' but what do I know, I'm from New York, lol
Same as first I heard a friend from LA said: "it sucks", take me a long time to find out what does it mean.
Yes, and I am Czech and in my language, one can say the same thing as in Italian. Difficult when the literal translations are wrong then...
'I'm from January' in English can only mean that 'I come from a place called 'January'', (as in 'I'm from England.')
It's an idiom in Italian; idioms are known for not making when translated literally to other languages.
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That's why Duo needs a feature where it shows literal translation followed by the idomatic translation so that those of us who need to see the transition can. Like for the above, the literal translation would be "I am from/of January." Then the idiomatic would be "I was born in January." If duo showed us both, it would make so much more sense
Seriously- I really enjoy the sentences where they make us THINK and figure out something new (that actually makes sense). :)
I know! Translated literally into English I can only think this would refer to time travel, but I was still able to understand that it referred to a birthday on the first try :)
In some languages it's very common to say e.g. "I am from January" meaning "I was born in January". It is so in Polish. So for me "I am from January" sounds absolutely ok and is understandable, even without context. :)
They way I look at it, by saying "di gennaio" that phrase as used as a modifier - so the literal translation would be "I am of January" (not "from January"), and the closest English phrase I can think of would be something like "I'm a January baby" (January being an adj here).
Just my 2 cents!
Hehehaha I got caught by this one. I couldn't think what it was so I put "I am in January." and thought it might be a round-about way to say "It's January.", but duolingo told me the correct answer was "I am of January." which we wouldn't say either. I laughed when I saw this page with "I was born in January."
Interesting ! Thanks ! I was getting a little confused with this sentence...
Nata/nato's genre is about the person (who's born in the mouth), like: "Io sono natA a gennaio" bc i'm a girl; if you are a male, you should say "Io sono natO a gennaio". (Sorry if there are mistakes, i'm italian ._.)
They are the past participle of nascere. As they take essere as the auxiliary they agree with the gender of the subject - so you get nata or nato according to the gender.
nata/ nato does that mean the person is female or male? The months are all masculine, are they not?
Does Duolingo modify their program in response to members comments? Will it remove " I am from January " from its correct responses?
Yes, we do look at user comments, even though it takes a while sometimes. I just took it out. : )
Yes, it does. If you report a problem and offer an alternative solution, they do review it. I've had several emails from duolingo stating they've accepted my alternate and changed the question.
Translated into English and got it right. I wrote 'I'm from January.' But that's not good English just in case anyone here's learning English too.
It makes sense if you're a time traveler but that's not really a thing so...
I wrote "My birthday is in January" which it didn't like. Seems like a valid translation.
surely though the literal sense of the phrase is 'i am from january', when translating one needs to convey the right sense in the target language. so in English because we would never ever say this the only possible correct translation (not transliteration) can be 'i was born in january'.
"I am of January"?? This is a ridiculous sentence for Duolingo...its the best you had? How about Sono nato?
If that is what Italians say then that is what we have to learn. We are translating meaning not words.
in the south and in Sicily it is said "io sono nato di novembre" but the north dominates and country and we are learning northern Italian.
If you think this sentence is ridiculous, all I can say is "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"
Omg someone concerned about hearts and score rather than learning the language! Who cares about the hearts. I just want to speak italian!
I see your point and i (find i have to) agree, but aren't the hearts and the score also the triggers to keep us going?
Yeah, but we didn't start because we wanted to have fun. We wanted the least annoying and tedious way to fluency.
and what is wrong with enjoying it ? I, for one am having a lot of fun and wouldn't be as motivated if it was a chore.
Hearts mark incorrect answers. You need to be sure whether it is correct or not. If program is inconsistent, you get confused.
I worry that some of you make this about perfecting rather than speaking a language. There is no real debate here you cannot be from January as has been said. Anyone saying that in English would only cause confusion so surely it is not worth defending?
it works in Spanish too so it is quite all right. people shouldn't translate literally. De que mes eres? soy de abril. naci en abril.
Well, as per my italian learing so far, what I would say is "Io sono nato nel mese di ottobre - I was born in the month of october". Confirm if it's right.
Swahili helped me understand this one, in swahili you say "mimi ni wa Januari" which literally translates as "I am of January" glad to see Italians apply this too
Ah, the mythical land of January. Strong are its women, beautiful are its men. How I miss its rolling seas and crystal clear hills.
When did sono become past tense. Certainly not taught in the lesson. You have to guess whats correct. Thats really not learning by guess work.
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I got it right, but put 'I am from January' and didn't understand what it meant. It has changed at the top now to 'born', and as it happens, they are right, as I was born in January!! Aren't they clever!!! I also don't care about the hearts and lingots, and never 'use' them. I just want to get a rough idea of the language, if not fluent, then enough to get me by if ever I visit Italy, which I hope I will one day.
I did a literal translation and then came to the comments to figure out what the heck it actually meant. not because I didn't want to take extra questions to get to the end of the lesson - but because I honestly had no flipping idea what the heck "I am from January" was possibly supposed to actually mean. now I feel stupid.
You shouldn't feel stupid, Isabella, but rather affirmed - because your sense of correct English is so much better than DL's.
Yes, I did exactly the same as you Isabella - and I don't feel stupid, just a bit frustrated that it accepts the nonsensical answer that you and I put down, and that it didn't give the real meaning of the sentence, but that we had to look on here.
"I am of January" haha....what?? Is this how you say you were born in January?
I was told the answer was "I am of January". That seems grammatically wrong for a sentence.
It is vital always to use the best translation in whatever language. So of course we learn "Io sono di gennaio". But we must translate that into English as "I was born in January", or "My birthday is in January", not some gobbledygook.
I can't believe "I am from January" was accepted as correct...this would only be a legitimate phrase if the speaker is a time traveller haha.
Well, using some logic, I can see that this phrase MUST mean "I was born in January" since each one of us is "from" a particular month. Other languages use words and word patterns differently than English, that's for sure!!!
These discussions are of no help if you worry about game playing and give that priority over trying to learn a language. I don't even know what a heart is, and this thread gives no help whatsoever.
I am not sure where YOUR priority is, whether game playing or language acquisition, but 'a heart' refers to Duolingo's previous system for completing a level. You started with 3 hearts, and lost one for each mistake. If you lost them all, you had to start over. As for this thread giving no help - what help are you requesting?
I can see the point of asking us to translate the English sentence into Italian, but there's no way to guess which of the several good English versions will be accepted. Usually DL objects to a tense change like this.
duolingo accepted my "I am from January" which was obviously a literal translation and makes not a jot of sense in English, so why is DL accepting it as correct
I am from Star system January, do not resist earthlings! (I know it means "i was born in January", but it also looks like "i come from january")
no clutter ... seriously ... if asked " What month are you born in?" Would your answer be any different than " I am born in January" Am is equally correct here. You could say I was born in January (referring to the birth) or I am born in January (referring to the month) ... Ok hair splitting, I admit, but "I am born in January" should be correct. Unless Italians say that with a different expression.
I am a January baby or I am what ever stay sign is correct but never would I say I am born in January, I was born in January.
《You are from January...???》Wonderful country! I've been there once!
I believe "Io sono" is present tense. I was corrected for translating it "I am" instead of "I was" born in January. So does that mean we should transliterate rather than give an exact word translation, so it makes sense in English?
This is an idiom, so you can't translate it literally. As many have pointed out above, "I am of/from January" is not used in English. "Sono di gennaio" means that your birthday is in January, so you would say, "I was born," referring to an action in the past (being born). The Italian uses the present, like how you could say in English, "I am a Capricorn" (present), which would mean you were born (past) in December or January.
At my age, adult, I wouldn't dream of saying "I am a January baby." "I was born in January" is much better.
I was taught to say "sono nata di gennaio" ... shouldn't both translations be right?
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wasn't it 'sono nato a gennaio'? yes, if you are going from English to Italian.
GraceD0145: if you want to say 'I am born anew' that's ok, or 'I am born of light and darkness' that's ok. but if you mean January is the month of your birth, then you have to use past tense: 'I was born in january'. in Italian, one way is the idiom 'io sono di gennaio.'
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Can someone explain to me why the verb nato is not used here? I figured that this was one of those many idiomatic expressions that many languages have, but I am just curious. I too am doing the Italian on my phone, and have to place the example in google to get to this page. Thankfully I am also taking a class to help me understand the grammer and structure a bit better.
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In Romance languages they sometimes use present tense where English uses past/present perfect tenses. You just have to learn and get used to the idiom.
Sometimes i eant to quit this lessons because you say mistake but there is no mistake.
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since this is an idiom the rules don't apply. if you translate it literally, it would be 'I am'.
this literally translates as "I am of january" so "I was born in january" must be idiomatic. It would be nice if these exercises indicated somehow that actually translating the passage wasn't going to do the job.
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Either the statement is wrong or the translation. The level contains only Present Tense. If the English expression needs Past Tense then this example cannot be used for learning!
I consulted my Italian teacher from Rome about this phrase. She explained that this sentence this is very colloquial, not literary or formal. The use of PProssimo Nascere is correct but not used as much as an "every day phrase". It seems the use of "sono di" followed by a month, changes the sentence to "i was born.." I believe this also applies to "Sei di....."
'Sono di Gennaio' is a perfectly good way to say you were born in January, but for those interested, it is useful to note that this is - unsurprisingly - not used everywhere in Italy. For example, my mum is from Tuscany where they say 'Sono nata a Gennaio' (Nata because I am female, if I were to refer to myself as a male then 'nato' I suppose?) or 'il mio compleanno è/èd di/a Gennaio', and other such variants. 'I am from January/ io sono di gennaio' sounds a bit pretentious in Tuscany apparently, but in Milan they use the 'io sono di gennaio' form, where it would not be considered pretentious at all! All of this to say that there are other forms used in various cities, and to be aware of them so that you don't get thrown off your flow in conversation!
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the answer is idiomatic. "Ero nascire di gennaio" more closely says i was born in January. Converting "sono" from "i am" to the past "I was" is idiomatic. That is, Italians choose to use it in that way.
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I think Duo, in addition to teaching Standard Italian, is also trying to give us a flavor of the dialects in Italy. This is important because Italian dialects are still alive in ways that dialects in England are not. If you learn only the standard version and then go to live in an area where the standard is not spoken it will be very confusing. But if you accept that the differences in spoken Italian are still very great it will be helpful for you and you can ask the locals to help with the local dialect.
I taught English in Dublin for many years mainly to Brazilians. In Brazil the schools unfortunately (as in too many countries) only teach standard American English. As a result (and even allowing for what I said about English dialects above) when they come to Ireland the Brazilians are thrown a real curveball ('murcan expression, hey) trying to get to grips with (mainly Dublin, God help them if they go to Belfast, etc) local English.
And of course the schools in Brazil don't bother mentioning there is another official language in Ireland ...
Fun story: one of my students told me she once turned on the TV and panicked when she couldn't understand a word the people said. Then her host mother came in and asked her why she was watching the Irish-language station ...
So I think it's good that Duo is calling our attention (and judging by the comments, a few Italians' also ...) to the important fact that Italian dialects vary much more than whatever remains of the English ones.
Oh and I forgot to mention that area of Italy where they still speak Byzantine Greek ...:http://istoria.life/greko-calabria/2017/8/14/the-last-of-the-calabrian-greeks
Thanks for the very useful , as well as interesting, explanation. I wish more of the discussion here were like this. It can be a forum which helps with genuine language learning, rather than too often a chance for aspiring stand-up comedians to compete for the funniest line. Hope I don't sound too po-faced!
It is a sentence without sense!!!! I am not a soothsayer. In Italian, we currently say: sono nato in Gennaio
sono = am; sono nato/sono nata = was. In my humble opinion, "sono" would be correct for a newborn, less than 31 days old, born on 1 Jan who could speak during the month of his/her birth.
So is this accurate and common in spoken Italian regarding a person's birth?
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I wrote "i am born in January" and it corrected it to "i WAS born in January". Is sono also the past tense of 'am'? This is the first time so far I've seen a past tense
I am of January. It is important to note the sentence structure and literal translation. It will help next time you are attempting to form a sentence on your own.
When I type "Io sono di marzo" Google translates it into "I am from March." When I type "Io sono di gennaio" Google translates it into "I was born in January." Can anyone explain this please?
Yes and no. Google translation is a work in progress, using some of the most advanced software technology currently in development (deep neural nets). The key phrase is "in development." Some languages Google does better than others (the Latin, for instance is very poor, still useful though as long as you keep that mind!).
The trick is to realize that Google translate is only a rough tool. Some of the owner's manuals and emails I received that are worded so very strangely have in fact been translated by some such software. So rather than hire a bi-lingual expert, these companies use software for translation and end up looking very silly and amateurish. But that's the state of the art.
Why did Google translate that particular set of phrases differently? Dunno... but Google translate does have an equivalent to Duo's "report" feature, and that can help Google get better, like it's supposed to do with Wise Old Owl.
Short version: Watching Google translate in action ought reassure any one who is afraid of AI that AI is still a loooooong way off.
The phrase "Io sono di marzo." is a very colloquial expression that means, "I was born in March." Google Translator may have corrected the phrase for January. The use the verb Nascere (to be born) would be correct but Nascere is not used often in every day speech.
The phrase "io sono di gennaio"doesn't exist...io sono nato a gennaio is correct
How are we suppose to take 'born' from this. Should it not be "Io sono nato a gennaio'?
Nato = born.... but we weren't taught that yet, so they shouldn't use this sentence!
So it didn't accept my answer solely because I wrote Gennaio with capital G?!
So it didn't accept my answer solely because I wrote Gennaio with capital G?!
So it didn't accept my answer solely because I wrote Gennaio with capital G?!
This translates to, I am from January. Io sono nata a gennaio would the correct translation for I was born in January
The italian sentence does not match the english translation should translate to I am of January
Yeah... they don't do that. Duo matches intent of the speaker to intent of the speaker and the nearest phrase that would be used in that situation. I wish they would offer additionally a literal translation as well as a colloquial, but they don't.
And you are correct; that is what is says, but that's not what it means. Literal translation can also change the meaning. Yet it's also a clue to how an entire people think, yet... etc.
'sono di gennaio' is the form used in Milan, and perhaps other places too. It is a bit pretentious-sounding to some people though, so it is not used everywhere. The phrase you are looking for is probably 'Sono nato a Gennaio' I think, with 'nato'(masc.) and 'nata'(femme) as the 'word for being born'. But this form is used in Italy too, in places like Tuscany. I hope this helps! :D
I have written 'I was born in January' - twice! - and twice I have been told it is incorrect and that the correct meaning is 'I was born in January'!!!
I wrote it literally. Sometimes they expect literal...as they say to help you understand their syntac
So I wrote it literal and lost a heart..Im on mobile
I was tempted to answer I was born in shoes, thinking of all those children that that little old woman that lived in the shoe had!
Can someone explain how "Io sono di gennaio" can be translated as "I was born in January"? I thought something like "I am..." and then various attempts for the following could not make real sense. An suggestion could perhaps have been "I am in January", for instance where you are planning for something and discussing a calendar with someone, but again a sentence like this would be rather weird.....
It´s a colloquial response used in everyday conversation. However, its use may be influenced by regional preferences.
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Can't you say "I am January born" or "I am born in January" instead of the "I was born in January"
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This sentence isn't correct, where is the verb to be born, the way this is phrased it means "I am of January"
Leterally, this answer should be right, we stiil not practicing the past tense verbs. It is out of contest.
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Well, the sentence looked like an idiomatic expression, I was tempted to translate it rather literally, (I am from January?) but what does that mean? Does that make sense? I cannot figure it out. So, this is the first time in my life that I encountered this simple looking Italian, but actually I had no idea. I had to allow myself to give it up.
Next time I will definitely know what it means because I will have already discovered the mystery in the meantime.
The second time to try translating came rather soon, as a matter of fact, after a few minutes! The same Italian sentence came back again, so that I will surely learn it in heart forever, I hope. And I did it this time successfully. Repetition is very important in language learning. Don't you agree?
The Italian word for born is not in this sentence. Thanks for tricking me again, DuoLingo
As this has turned into a general observation thread has anyone else finished all of the stories and no new ones have been added? Those two poor girls keep running into the woods with a huge scarey animal chasing them.
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My native italian speaker from the north says that she would never say "io sono di gennaio" but always "sono nata a gennaio" she says she knows nobody who says what dl is suggesting.
I haven't learnt past tense in the lessons yet, can anyone explain this translation please?
