Answers
May 12, 2014 - 10:54 AM
Ciao @travelingnana,
Thanks for your questions. We'll answer them in turn. First of all, it seems that you may not have the most recent version of the program as the program should accept "di primo" as correct. If you haven't updated the program in a while, you can get all the updates by going to http://anywhere.fluenz.com/
To answer your question, you ask why we translate "I used to order spaghetti for first..." with:
Ordinavo spaghetti per primo...
And not as:
Ordinavo spaghetti di primo
In fact, both translations are correct. In level 2 session 6 we teach "per primo" or "per primo piatto" as "for first" and later on in level 3 session 2 we introduce "di primo" as meaning the same thing. Again, you can use both here just as you would be able to say: "I used to order spaghetti for first..." or: "I used to order spaghetti as a first / starter...". All it does is give you more options of saying the same thing.
Now, you are asking why there isn't an article - that "gli" - in this sentence. Well, think of the English versions of the examples you give:
Di primo, voglio gli spaghetti
As a starter / first I want THE spaghetti.
Here we want specific spaghetti. The spaghetti on the menu that the restaurant serves.
Whilst:
Ordinavo spaghetti per primo...
I used to order spaghetti for first...
Here we are talking in general. Any spaghetti.
I hope this helps!
Thanks for your questions. We'll answer them in turn. First of all, it seems that you may not have the most recent version of the program as the program should accept "di primo" as correct. If you haven't updated the program in a while, you can get all the updates by going to http://anywhere.fluenz.com/
To answer your question, you ask why we translate "I used to order spaghetti for first..." with:
Ordinavo spaghetti per primo...
And not as:
Ordinavo spaghetti di primo
In fact, both translations are correct. In level 2 session 6 we teach "per primo" or "per primo piatto" as "for first" and later on in level 3 session 2 we introduce "di primo" as meaning the same thing. Again, you can use both here just as you would be able to say: "I used to order spaghetti for first..." or: "I used to order spaghetti as a first / starter...". All it does is give you more options of saying the same thing.
Now, you are asking why there isn't an article - that "gli" - in this sentence. Well, think of the English versions of the examples you give:
Di primo, voglio gli spaghetti
As a starter / first I want THE spaghetti.
Here we want specific spaghetti. The spaghetti on the menu that the restaurant serves.
Whilst:
Ordinavo spaghetti per primo...
I used to order spaghetti for first...
Here we are talking in general. Any spaghetti.
I hope this helps!
May 12, 2014 - 03:51 PM
Thanks so much for the explanation. I actually did update the program when I started Level 5, so it's curious that it won't accept the "di primo" as one would hope. I started Fluenz at Level 3 because I'd already studied Italian da molti anni so I probably missed some of the basic restaurant word usage that was covered in Level 2. Also, the omission of the article "gli" in this general example makes perfect sense. I'm always a bit confused about when articles can be omitted, so I tend to use them all the time!