39 Comments
All I can think of when I see this is:
Cavalli, mucche, uccelli, lend me your ears... :-)
I wonder how you say that in Italian? (mi date i vostri orecchi...?)
"Mi date i vostri orecchi" would be a little bit harsh since after that I think they wouldn't be able to hear anything :p
I would use instead prestare = to lend (Mi prestate i vostri orecchi)
When I looked up my (mini) Italian dictionary under the entry for "lend" it had a sub-entry: "lend a hand" (fig) dare un mano
Given that "lend me your ears" is also a figurative phrase I thought to follow the example of "lend a hand" rather than using the main verb given for lend (prestare). But of course the beauty of idioms is that they don't necessarily follow from logical reasoning so chances are it's something else entirely...
Are you sure about Orecchi ?!?!? :)
I think it sounds more grammatical correct:
Mi prestate le vostre orecchie
EDIT: checked it, you can say both way
I remembered a phrase "lend an ear = prestare ascolto", but I am not sure if it's right in this context. So "lend me your ears" could be: "Mi prestate ascolto"
From my mini dictionary
ascolto (nm) listening; dare ascolto a : listen to
Sounds promising. :-)
What is the difference between orecchi and orecchie ? Are they both plural for orecchio ? And is the grammatical rule of plural here ?
Agreed. I don't know why you're getting so many downvotes. Unless you've already mastered those words, your first thought is to try and put together a cohesive sentence, so it's not clear at first that this is a list.
what exactly is unclear about it ? can you see any verb that would indicate it's a sentence/phrase ?
http://italian.stackexchange.com/questions/1711/what-is-the-difference-between-mucca-and-vacca
"A vacca is, in general, any adult female bovine, while a mucca is a vacca which is giving milk. Mucca was originally a local, Tuscan term. However, vacca is also used as a derogatory term for a female human, so it's sometimes avoided, even though it is more correct when not talking about milk production."
Thanks for your reply.
Vacca is quite a common surname in sardinia :)
la mucca = the cow
Female singular nouns ending in -ca (mucca=cow) form plural by changing the ending in -che (mucche= cows)
check this: http://www.arnix.it/free-italian/italian-grammar/plural-of-italian-nouns-by-changing-the-ending.php
btw I also suggest these two dictionaries:
The hint for uccelli gives 'you bird' which doesnt contain the important plural
There is a town called Capac nearby, some say Cows and pigs and chickens.(To help spell possibly)
Seriously, going bacj to mucche being cows... I only know of vacca and vacche
Like when kids call them 'moo-cows' maybe? Which is going to help me remember this word :)
in italian it's not like english like (horses, cows "and" birds) ? it might be stupid Q sorry
