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- "The cats drink water."
"The cats drink water."
Translation:I gatti bevono l'acqua.
58 Comments
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, ❤❤❤❤❤ 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?!?)
736
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.
- 1658
"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'"?
- 736
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.
I didn't think that was how gendered languages worked in reference to nouns like animals. The only singular form I was taught was "il gatto"...can you say "la gatta"? You can't in Spanish...
of course you can in spanish. el gato, la gata, los gatos, las gatas. almost with every animal like dog. el perro, la perra, los perros, las perras. but some are special: el toro, la vaca, los toros, las vacas.
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should... in a beginning lesson on language. When I was learning French in Junior High, I only learned 'le chat' - it was years before I cared to know that one can also say, 'la chatte.' (and auto-correct just defaulted to the masculine form, as I typed it!) And I was a French major-
I don't think it applies in general, but certainly for cats one can say il gatto or la gatta depending on the sex of the cat. Similarly for dogs: il cane, la cagna (nb. cagna, like its English equivalent, can be pejorative).
- 1951
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"
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.
- 1951
Please see this nice link http://italian.about.com/od/grammar/a/italian-definite-article-forms.htm which explains Italian Definite Article Forms
- 587
For all confused people here :
il gatto = the cat (masculine singular)
i gatti = the cats (masculine pluural)
La gatta = the cat (feminine singular)
Le gatte = the cats (feminine plural)
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)
When do you say l'acqua and when is it just acqua? Or can you just say both? Please help
"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.
- 1951
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
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?
- 264
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".
when you hover over the word it gives what it means, but when you type it, it is wrong. WHY!?
How can I know it's gatti not gatte when I translate from english, I already know that the both are plural and "gatti" is Masculine / "gatte" is Feminine
