39 Comments
Actually, this is one of the best language courses I have taken primarily because it IS difficult to hear at times. You really do learn as if you are "there". I learned German in Switzerland, and people simply don't always speak clearly and slowly. I'm actually enjoying learning this way.
It's a good attitude to have in any case: embrace what's available and get what you can out of it. Like I've been using it a lot for refreshing French knowledge that was and had slipped away from school. So when I can remember enough to be like "hey, don't say it like that Duo", that's actually good practice. And losing a heart in Duo doesn't hurt in rl, even though sometimes it seems like it...
I enjoy that they don't mind the occasional recommendation of supplemental sites for pronunciation and such. People should understand it's a machine generated voice, so definitely not a 'natural' native sound in any case (yet). But as you say, it's sort of similar to the "recognizable conversation" bits, which were always some of the most useful yet frustratingly new and difficult bits of the language classes I had as well...hell, it was usually hard for us to understand each other at the start.
Guys. We are being taught how to read and speak basic sentences in Italian - the way they sound in real life. The sentences do not have to be profound. They are made for us to learn through speech, almost like how we learned our native language - WITHOUT having to memorize long lists of conjugation! And people in real life do not speak slowly like they are reading from a script.
Remember -we could all be reading from a textbook! That we actually paid money for! YUCK! Just take notes of what's new, and enjoy this AWESOME RESOURCE!
You are correct (Present Tense):
io mangio
tu mangi
lui/lei mangia
noi mangiamo
voi mangiate
loro mangiano
Mangia also comes when its 'eats'. The a in mangia is the 's' in eats. I think. Don't quote that.
Sometimes it translate this type of sentence as 'I eat the apple' but there was another sentence ( lui mangia il pane) that was tranlated without the 'the' ( He eats bread). What's the difference?
Actually,I found the conjugation regulars. Different subject uses different letter in the end.----a: refer to you,----o refer to I... They change the last letter simply for let go the subject.
"Ate" would be a past tense (preterite tense) form of the verb "to eat". Preterite verbs have a whole new set of conjugations, differing from present tense. They are learned later on in DuoLingo.
Still. I don't understand. Why would they say that? It's not like when people say "-take a bite out of the Big Apple" meaning New York. And it's not like there's only one apple in the world. Can someone help me?
Would it be "Io mangio" if I am a male eating the apple, but "Io mangia" if I am a female eating the apple?
No, verb conjugation depends solely on the pronoun used with it. Nouns and adjectives do change endings with gender use however.
Does it need to say the apple..isn't it enough to write apple since it implies that it is not some particular apple but any apple?
This is the same in English. You would not say "I eat apple". You either eat "the apple" or "an apple". So in Italian "io mangio la mela" or "io mangio una mela".
I'm not sure when to use mangio and when to use mangia... Could someone help me with that?
Does the verb endings change from one verb to another ?? or they only change with the change of the tense?
It is rather complicated: they always change with the change of the tense, but they also change depending on the infinitive form of the verb. For the simple present, verbs whose infinitive form ends with -ARE have the following verb endings (from the 1 person singular to the 3 person plural): -O,-I,-A,-IAMO,-ATE,-ANO. Infinitive form in -ERE: -O,-I,-E,-IAMO,-ETE,-ONO. Infinitive form in -IRE: -O,-I,-E,-IAMO,-ITE,-ONO.
For instance, the infinitive form of the verb "to eat" is "mangiARE", therefore it has the following conjugation at the simple present: io mangiO (I eat), tu mangI (you eat), lui/lei mangiA (he/she eats), noi mangIAMO (we eat), voi mangiATE (you eat), loro mangiANO (they eat).
You will see that if you take another verb with an infinitive form in -ARE, for example "trovARE" (to find), verb endings change in the same way: io trovO, tu trovI, lui/lei trovA, noi trovIAMO, voi trovATE, loro trovANO.
Unfortunately, there are also some irregular verbs.
Why does capitalizing the first letter of a sentence make the answer incorrect?
I know it sounds weird (I eat the apple). Nobody says this. But i think it's a process, to learn the present tense (without present continuous).
