Answers
Jul 27, 2011 - 09:43 PM
Sonia explains in one of the early sessions that in Italian the apostrophe takes the place of a missing letter and there is always a space left after it (unlike in French)
Jul 27, 2011 - 11:18 PM
Yes, Sonia did explain it. But, I guess my question was (and, still is) why, of all the Italian I see in a million places, only Fluenz knows about this rule? Seriously, I have never seen the space used anywhere else including apparently authoritative sources such as allexperts.com, Schaum's Outline of Italian Grammar and Webster's New World Italian Dictionary. I can't even find a reference on GOOGLE to the question of a space requirement. So, what gives?
Aug 06, 2011 - 09:01 AM
Why is it that some of the questions in this forum are not answered? It makes it seem as if the question is either illegitimate or that no good answer is available. The question leading this thread is one for which I would appreciate an answer. To repeat it here: Why is Fluenz the only place I have ever seen the space used in contractions such as C'è?? If there are other places where the space is used, please provide a corroborative link.Thanks. :)
Aug 07, 2011 - 09:28 PM
Great question - I was wondering about this too. My Italian text never uses a space but Fluenz always does. I emailed my Italian professor to see if she can shed some light on this. I'll keep you posted.
Aug 09, 2011 - 09:34 AM
In level 3 you will no longer use spaced contractions. The space symbolizes that a word or letters used to be there, that way one is more conscious about what the apostrophe is replacing.
Aug 10, 2011 - 11:06 PM
Ok, that explains it Sonia. Thanks. One thing though, unfortunately, level 3 also requires the space to be typed for contractions. Maybe we can lose the spaces in level 4. :)
Jul 22, 2015 - 05:44 PM
This is not how Italian is taught in Italy, and yes I do know. I have studied Italian in Italy. It is not how you learn to spell contractions in English, either. So a requirement that’s leads new students down the wrong path. Is this good? No, at best it’s dumb. Learn one way and then unlearn. Also this program will only recognize one (1) comma. The key board has two (2). This is not a tough software bug that has not been fixed but should be. So you write a contraction in an incorrect manner and then the answer is still incorrect because you choose the wrong comma. On top of that you cannot move on. You should be able to move on if you wish.