Alan Roskin Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3975 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Studies: English*
| Message 1 of 7 26 February 2014 at 5:32pm | IP Logged |
Hello all,
today we went for a drive in our car.
Goggle translates the above into Italian as follows:
oggi siamo andati a fare un giro in macchina.
'our' is not included in the translation. Is this correct? Also should the noun macchina be accompanied by a
definite article, la?
I shall be grateful for any advice re above.
Cheers, alan
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drygramul Tetraglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4469 days ago 165 posts - 269 votes Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: French, Polish
| Message 2 of 7 26 February 2014 at 6:37pm | IP Logged |
The translation is correct, it's just not literal.
Fare un giro in macchina is a fixed expression, that's why not only neither 'our' nor 'the' are necessary, but they would be absolutely wrong.
However, if you need to put emphasis on whose car it is (as opposed to the car of someone else), you can say
oggi siamo andati a fare un giro nella nostra macchina
Edited by drygramul on 26 February 2014 at 6:38pm
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albysky Triglot Senior Member Italy lang-8.com/1108796Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4389 days ago 287 posts - 393 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German
| Message 3 of 7 26 February 2014 at 6:41pm | IP Logged |
drygramul wrote:
The translation is correct, it's just not literal.
Fare un giro in macchina is a fixed expression, that's why not only neither 'our' nor 'the' are necessary,
but they would be absolutely wrong.
However, if you need to put emphasis on whose car it is (as opposed to the car of someone else), you can
say
oggi siamo andati a fare un giro nella nostra macchina
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I would rather say : oggi siamo andati a fare un giro con la nostra macchina . Doesnt it sound better ?
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drygramul Tetraglot Senior Member Italy Joined 4469 days ago 165 posts - 269 votes Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: French, Polish
| Message 4 of 7 26 February 2014 at 6:43pm | IP Logged |
You're absolutely right. My translation is awfully literal :(
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Alan Roskin Newbie United Kingdom Joined 3975 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes Studies: English*
| Message 5 of 7 27 February 2014 at 9:59am | IP Logged |
So 'nostra' and the definite article for the noun are needed?
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albysky Triglot Senior Member Italy lang-8.com/1108796Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4389 days ago 287 posts - 393 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German
| Message 6 of 7 28 February 2014 at 1:44pm | IP Logged |
If you use" nostra" to point out that the car is yours and not someone esle s , you need to use the
definite article" la" . As a general rule you always need to use the definite article with possesive adjactives
, for example : il mio cane, la nostra macchina , il suo portafoglio etc . The only exeption should be with
relatives , you say :
Mio padre , mia madre , nostro cugino etc .
I hope it helps you .
Edited by albysky on 28 February 2014 at 1:46pm
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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 7 of 7 28 February 2014 at 2:16pm | IP Logged |
It's better if you get a grammar book, OP.
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