Answers
Dec 05, 2012 - 01:58 PM
Hi Melissa. I was curious so I went back to the tutorial for this lesson. Sophie explains that "frutta" is used in the singular like we do in English, but "cereali" is used in the plural, unlike English (the singular is cereale). So in this sentence, you need "are" to fit with the plural "cereali". Does that help?
Dec 05, 2012 - 05:30 PM
Absolutely. Thank you so much for your clarification, Kristin!
Apr 21, 2013 - 11:24 AM
I had the same question, thanks for posting
May 05, 2013 - 09:06 PM
Curious on this one. Is the ci sono b/c cereali is plural or because you are referencing multiple items? I.e. if the sentence was, "At home there is an apple and a pear." would it translate as "A casa c' `e una mela e una pera" or would it be "A casa ci sono una mela e una pera" because while each is singular you are referencing multiple items?
May 06, 2013 - 08:10 PM
Sophie's explanation in the tutorial is that you use "ci sono" because Cereali is plural, but the second part of your question is not addressed. Given the context in the tutorial, my guess would be that you would use the singular, c'`e, rather than "ci sono", but that's a guess.
May 10, 2013 - 05:23 AM
Yes, you use "ci sono" because "cereali" is plural. Regarding the sentence "at home there is an apple and a pear" the truth is that you'll hear it both ways in Italian: A casa c'è una mela e una pera / A casa ci sono una mela e una pera. We're talking about more than one object here, so the logical verb to use would be in the plural: ci sono. But specially in spoken language "c'è" is frequently used in this type of enumeration, because the verb is implicitly understood in the second part: a casa c'è una mela e (c'è) una pera.
May 12, 2013 - 11:19 PM
It appears to be a case of "how are you thinking about these things: collectively or singularly. Also, this is an explanation by contrast: There are these things but not this thing.