"The cats drink water."
Translation:Le gatte bevono acqua.
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nowhere in these lessons, until now, have I been told that "il gatto" could be "la gatta"!
Il gatto is singular so for plural is i gatti I think when the last letter of the object is o, the form for plural is i for the last letter And for the last letter is a, the form for plural is e for the last letter
The posts and reference materials given by the moderators (who graciously donate their time), are only helpful if we slow down and read them. Try not to get too upset- learning takes time... And you can do this :-)
my frustration is I thought one was plural and then other singular gatti plural gatte singular ???
Five years too late so you probably know this, but for anyone else...
il gatto = the cat (male)
i gatti = the cats (male/mixed group)
la gatta = the cat (female)
le gatte = the cats (female)
It's like gato and gata in Spanish.
I just realized this was dealing with sire and dam, bitch and stud, etc. For the love of Mike, it would've been nice to have been told... I too, thought I was going insane trying to remember plurals for cats, when dogs were more simple (as in life, so in language?!?)
Yes, but in the english phrase doesn't specifi, so saying gatti is incorrect is wrong
You should enter the spirit of Duolingo and learn by the mistakes you make. It costs nothing. Certainly you/we as learners cannot know everything, but making a mistake is normal. Follow up on your mistakes and read the discussion notes. they are extremely helpful.
I've seen some examples, a cat can definitely be male or female, but as in English this phrase doesn't specify gender, it should give correct both gatte or gatti, or give correct the gatti answer, which is the generic way of calling a cat. This is so annoying, unfair and misleading, it feels they do this little things to piss off people, I don't see a way this can make sense
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"Gli animali bevono acqua." but "I gatti bevono l'acqua."? Why am I always corrected to use "l'acqua" and then Duolingo comes with a sentence without the "l'"?
Good question, I would like to know the answer, too. Generally I believe it is the Italian use of the article, which is more frequent than in English. viz: We eat apples can be - Mangiamo mele, or Mangiamo le mele. But that does not explain why leaving the article off 'acqua' is wrong.
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Cat (singular) is "il gatto" and Cats (plural) are "i gatti" . Now we can refer to the female cat (in singular) as "la gatta" and female cats (plural) becomes "Le gatte"
When do you say l'acqua and when is it just acqua? Or can you just say both? Please help
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For all confused people here :
il gatto = the cat (masculine singular)
i gatti = the cats (masculine plural)
La gatta = the cat (feminine singular)
Le gatte = the cats (feminine plural)
gli is used when the noun starts with s followed by a consonant or if the noun starts with a vowel. Ex: gli uomini (l'uomo) and gli stivali (lo stivalo). it is the plural form of "lo" and "l' ", the articles used, respectively, in front of singular male nouns beginning with s and a consonant, and singular male nouns beginning with a vowel.
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Please see this nice link http://italian.about.com/od/grammar/a/italian-definite-article-forms.htm which explains Italian Definite Article Forms
"The cats drink water" should be translated as "I gatte beveno acqua," but Duo says it should be "l'acqua." Nowhere in the English sentence is the word "the" before "water." I believe this is an incorrect translation on Duo's part.
plz someone tell me when to use (gli, il, i, le, la) cant tell the difference
Il, gli and i are the articles that you have to use when you are reffering to male words. Il and l' are used for singular nouns, gli and i for the plural ones. La is the article you have to use when you're referring to a female noun. Le is for the plural female nouns. You have to learn and memorize just by training which words need one type of article or another.
So basically, if you'd use il in the singular, use i in the plural, and then the same for lo > gli and la > le.
il gatto > i gatti
lo zaino > gli zaini
l'uovo (lo uovo) > gli uovi
la donna > le donne
l'arancia (la arancia) > le arance
Il is before a masculine singular (libro), gli (pronounced lee i think) is before any plural starting with a vowel (gli animali), "i" is before a regular masculine plural (i gatti), le is before a feminine plural (le donne), la is before a feminine singular (la ragazza), and l' is before a singular noun starting with a vowel (l'uomo)
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Please see this nice link http://italian.about.com/od/grammar/a/italian-definite-article-forms.htm which explains Italian Definite Article Forms
since gatto is masculine, it would be I gatti because "le" is the feminine plural article
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A female cat is 'una gatta'. A male cat is 'un gatto' and this also seems to be used when you don't know the sex of the cat..
I got this wrong last time and i put the exact same thing! Le gatti bevono acqua and it said it was wrong (turned red) and said the correct answer was I gatti bevono acqua (i have been using i gatti and le gatte interchangeably because it seems to allow that)
Why does it always bug me that I gatti could be le gatte, yet trying it here was marked wrong? Why are there two plurals?
Just a thought how about changing this example to read, "le gatte incinte bevono acqua." That would make it clear that in this case, the cats in question are female, thus avoiding all the confusion.
I am having a very hard time working out when it should "i" and when it should be "le".
Der Satz unmittelbar vorher war genauso übersetzt in anderer Richtung und nun soll es falsch sein? Das ist frustrierend!
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Seriously, how is "Il gatti bevono acqua" wrong? It says that my answer should be: "Il gatti bevono l'acqua". And the questions says "the cats drink water" not THE water
You're wrong. You sentence is "The cats drink water" NOT
the cats drink THE water. You said the cats drink water, there is NO "THE" in this sentence.
I need to know the rule for starting a sentence with a plural animal: I wrote" I gatti bevono acqua", but your answer behins with LE GATTI. How do I know which is I and which is LE?
So from what I see in the other posts it shoukd be as follows: le gatti bevono l'acqua. I see that more clearly now!
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It should be "i gatti" (male cats or a group of both male/female) or "le gatte" (female cats).