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- Topic: Italian >
- "Lui ha un cane?"
20 Comments
Like in all question sentences in italian on duolingo. They need to fix this asap =/
I agree with you all. The way Italian is structured this could be either a statement or a question- the only aural clue as to which one being a rising inflection at the end- but as there is NO rising inflection in the voice here, it should be the statement 'He has a dog'.
Besides, vocal inflection or not, the two translation options they have given you here ("Does he have a dog?", "He has a dog?") can mean two different things. "He has a dog?" could mean you are surprised to find out that "he" has a dog (e.g., "He has a dog? I had no idea."). Whereas "Does he have a dog?" sounds like you are genuinely asking whether or not "he" has a dog. Did anyone else notice this?
Perfectly explained, Smaug! I too noticed this right away. In Spanish, the Italian question being discussed would be, "¿El tiene un perro?" This question is a literal translation between both Italian and Spanish. Thus, both of these languages face the same complication, when translated to English.
The question, "Does he have a dog?" Is the correct translation between English and Spanish; "¿El tiene un perro?" But, the question in Italian, "Lui ha un cane?" (for those whose native language is English, and are new to a second language), the audio section would help the student determine the correct translation greatly.
If the correct translation was to be the "He has a dog?" (being surprised to find out "he HAS a dog") question, in all three languages, Italian, English, and Spanish would be the exactly the same literal translation verbatim; "Lui (He/El) ha (has/tiene) un (a/un) cane (dog/perro)?"
It all leads me to believe that the best way to be sure we answer correctly is to watch for the "?" sign at the end, until the Duolingo team can improve the pronunciation issue at hand. If one doesn't have access to the reading, then an email should be sent to Duo, in order to stress this matter.
Bottom line: The audio needs to be fixed so it doesn't sound like a statement, but a question.
She says:"Lui è un cane" (He is a dog), right!!???
"Lui ha un cane" means (He has a dog).
Good thing they mark it as right. When it's the same sentence structure, all we have to listen for is an influx for a question. When it's a different structure, we know it's a question regardless of the sound because of the way it's spelled. But yes, they need to fix it.
Romance has a problem to show if the sentence is a question or not. They has no word for Does or Do, right? Does he have a dog? He have a dog!
It sounded like - it is a dog. Where is the question form? What is the difference between question and statement?
In the slow version it really sounds like a statement - "Lui E un cane" :)
