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Definite article confusion... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Lin Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5573 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: Italian | Message 1 of 14 31 August 2009 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Should the definite article be used in the following sentence or is it ok to use
without the definite article? Uovo non è la pasta. Or Uovo non è pasta? Bold: Grammar correction for future studies. Thanks! Edited by Lin on 05 September 2009 at 3:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5607 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes  | Message 2 of 14 31 August 2009 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I do not understand: Egg is not the noodles?
But you have to put decidedly an definite article between "should" and "definite article". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lin Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5573 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 14 01 September 2009 at 6:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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The assignment asks to pick one item out of 4 items that does not belong to the group the
other 3 items are in. Then explain why. What I did was pick out egg because the other 3 items are noodles. The book categorized the other 3 items as "la pasta" so I thought I could just say egg is not pasta. Please correct/help if there is better way to say it. Thank you for the correction for English too. ^^ 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6902 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 14 01 September 2009 at 5:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My knowledge of Italian is very limited so I am out on a really thin and rickety limb with this one and could be totally wrong, but based on my knowledge of Spanish I´d expect you to need a definite article on "uovo", but not on "pasta": "Il uovo non è pasta.". Italian speakers please correct, or confirm.
Edit: All right, "L'uovo" then, and not "il uovo". Thanks for the correction Kveldulv. Edited by Hencke on 07 September 2009 at 4:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| dbh2ppa Diglot Groupie Costa Rica Joined 5696 days ago 44 posts - 74 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian, Japanese, Sign Language | Message 5 of 14 05 September 2009 at 12:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm not very good at Italian, yet, but I am fluent in Spanish which is quite similar.
I think "Il uovo non'è pasta" would be correct. You use definite articles when refering to specific things (In this case, you're talking about a specific egg), whilst when saying "pasta", you're just referring to pasta in general. "La pasta" refers to a specific pasta. "La sedia non è una poltrona" -> Be sure to add indefinite articles when refering to indefinite (but countable) objects. Or, alternatively, you could find reasons why the egg differs from the pasta. For exaple, if the pasta is yellow(ish): Il uovo non è giallo come la pasta. If the pasta is spaghetti or similar: Il uovo non è lungo e sottile come la pasta. (Though that depends on the aim and level of the exercise.) ... then again, this all falls down if it's pasta all'uovo :P (that's a joke, don't take it seriously) But, don't take my word for it. Don't we have any native Italian speakers around? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lingua Decaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5584 days ago 186 posts - 319 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Dutch | Message 6 of 14 05 September 2009 at 2:06am | IP Logged | |||||
An example of the type of grammar rules that are so often encountered in language learning and that are simply wrong. "I dropped the egg on the floor." It was a specific egg. "I dropped an egg on the floor." It was also a specific egg, not an egg in general. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kveldulv Senior Member Italy Joined 6961 days ago 222 posts - 244 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Italian* | Message 7 of 14 05 September 2009 at 9:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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Anyway, in all the sentences above it's "l'uovo".
EDIT: and yes, it's "l'uovo non è pasta". Edited by Kveldulv on 05 September 2009 at 9:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| meus azuis Bilingual Diglot Newbie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6155 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English*, Gujarati* Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 8 of 14 06 September 2009 at 6:15am | IP Logged | |||||
Please explain further why you say it's wrong. "I dropped an egg on the floor" is not about a specific egg. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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