Answers
Mar 25, 2010 - 05:03 PM
The confusion is perfectly understandable, and perhaps the workout that uses "il mal di gola" goes a bit beyond the user knowledge.Ok, let´s talk about "mal", I believe that is what is confusing. "Mal" can be and adjective or a noun, in both these cases it is used as a noun, therefore it has a gender: "Il mal" literally, "the bad" that is why it is masculine, the "il" accompanies "mal" and not "gola".So when you ask: "Posso prendere questo per il mal di gola?" You are literally saying, "Can I take this for THE throat ache?" meaning, for A throat ache? Even in English we would not say "Can I take this for throat ache?"In the other case: "Devo comprare una medicina perché ho mal di testa." You are saying: (I) must buy a medicine because I have a headache. This is one of those few cases where we use the article in English and not in Italian, usually it´s the other way around. So really we would be tempted to use an article in this case in Italian, it would make more sense for us English speakers. Not using the article in Italian here is an exception and it has to do with the use of "mal". If you were to say I have a scar, for example, you would translate it word for word, (Io) ho una cicatrice.You will encounter these types of uses very few times and we will point them out. Try to group them as a family, "the ones that don´t use the article in Italian". "Mal di qualcosa" as a direct object, meaning, as the direct thing that is receiving the action, has no article, otherwise it does, like in the first example where "questo" is the direct object.Hope this helped out.