Ash
Are articles necessary when listing things? For example this sentence "I like your music, culture, food, etc." In Italian it would be "Mi piace la nostra musica, la nostra cultura, il nostro cibo, ecc." But is it possible to shorten it, and leave out the articles? I spoke with an Italian and they said I needed the articles. But it seems so extensive and bulky. How does it work? "Mi piace la nostra musica, cultura, il nostro cibo" "Mi piace la nostra musica, cultura, cibo" ???
Sep 7, 2014 10:48 PM
Answers · 10
1
First step ("To Each His Own" :-) ): "I like your music, culture, food, etc." = "Mi piace la vostra musica, la vostra cultura, il vostro cibo, ecc." "Mi piace la nostra musica, la nostra cultura, il nostro cibo, ecc." = "I like our music, culture, food, etc." Second step ("To Article or Not to Article" :-) ): In Italian, the article is needed for every possessive adjective but with a few of relatives' nouns "my dog" = "il mio cane", "you car" = "la tua auto", "his books" = "i suoi libri"... and so on... But possessives aren't the matter, so let's leave them. Third step ("One, No One and One Hundred Thousand" or rather "Six Articles in Search of a Noun" :-) ): In English, the nouns haven't a grammatical gender, furthermore there is one and only one definite article: it goes with every noun, singular or plural: "the dog", "the squirrel", "the tiger", "the horses", "the ostriches", "the hyenas". In Italian there are six definite articles: two for masculine singular nouns, one for femminine singular nouns, two for masculine plural nouns and one for femminine plural nouns: "il cane", "lo scoiattolo", "la tigre", "i cavalli", "gli struzzi", "le iene".
September 8, 2014
1
Fourth step ("The Last Question" :-) ): "I take care of the dog" = "Mi prendo cura del cane" "I take care of the squirrel" = "Mi prendo cura dello scoiattolo" "I take care of the tiger" = "Mi prendo cura della tigre" "I take care of the horses" = "Mi prendo cura dei cavalli" "I take care of the ostriches" = "Mi prendo cura degli struzzi" "I take care of the hyenas" = "Mi prendo cura delle iene" "I take care of the dog, the squirrel, the tiger, the horses, the ostriches and the hyenas" (btw. I never considered if I could say: "I take care of the dog, squirrel, tiger, horses, ostriches and hyenas" - ?) "Mi prendo cura del cane, dello scoiattolo, della tigre, dei cavalli, degli struzzi e delle iene" (literally: "I take care of the dog, of the squirrel, of the tiger, of the horses, of the ostriches and of the hyenas") Which article could I chose if I would shorten it? "I take care of my dog, squirrel, tiger, horses, ostriches and hyenas" "Mi prendo cura del mio cane, del mio scoiattolo, della mia tigre, dei mie cavalli, dei miei struzzi e delle mie iene" (literally: "I take care of the my dog, of the my squirrel, of the my tiger, of the my horses, of the my ostriches and of the my hyenas") Which article could I chose if I would shorten it? So, because there is the chance that two or more articles (or also attributes) can't agree, we are used to repeat them for every noun also if they were the same.
September 8, 2014
1
In order to avoid a bulky sentence, you might try to rephrase it, like for instance (more or less in order of increasing emphasis ) : 1. Dell' Inghilterra mi piace la musica, la cultura e il cibo. 2. Mi piacciono la musica, la cultura e il cibo di XYZ. 3. Mi piacciono la musica, la cultura e il cibo, tutto quello che di buono c'e` in XYZ. 4. Mi piacciono la musica, la cultura, il cibo, e {altre cose ancora, molto altro} che {ho trovato in, conosco di} XYZ. Note how we use /e/ at the final element of the list. (Personally I dislike too much emphasis, as in my mind it is associated with pure lies).
September 8, 2014
Totally agree with Andrew and Riky. Just to be a little more clear, one can even completely omit any article in such sentence. In "Mi piacciono la nostra musica, cultura e cibo." the article is there to hold the adjective "nostra". If you omit it you can omit the article saying "Mi picciono musica, cibo, cultura, sport e teatro." That would obviously be a general statement, but it's completely correct.
July 26, 2015
Si può dire in entrambi i modi: Mi piacciono la nostra musica, la cultura e il cibo. Mi piacciono la nostra musica, cultura e cibo.
September 11, 2014
Still haven’t found your answers?
Write down your questions and let the native speakers help you!