On 8/1/08, Tom Gysel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> How then would you translate: (let's assume i have a pack of 12 dogs and i
> tell my girlfriend: )
> 3 of the dogs were ill last night
>
> ci le gerku.... would be the litteral translation
> But I KNOW they REALLY are dogs! so.... ci lo gerku?
Both are correct. There seems to be a misconception that in any
given case, either "lo" is correct or "le" is correct, and the other is
wrong. That's not the case. "lo" will almost always be correct,
while "le" requires that you have some particular thing or things in
mind.
("le" also allows more latitude in the sense that the description
might not literally fit, because the definiteness takes the first plane,
but it's not a good idea to insist too much on this aspect because then
people start getting the idea that "le" means something like "the thing
which I describe as but in fact is not really ...", which is quite wrong.)
mu'o mi'e xorxes
