English Translation
These trees must be infested.
I believe this should be infestati.
I expect that this is just a misreading of “infested” as “infected” by the Tatoeba translator (GuyBrush88).
1 Like
I’m with you here @zzcguns. Infested is rather an odd word when it comes to trees and they’d probably prefer “infected”
I think Infetto and infestato are two words that have the same meaning of the English infected and infested.
A tree could be infested by bugs, for example, or infected by a virus.
3 Likes
The trees were infected by an infestation of bugs
Yes indeed, the examples that you give in English would use two different words. So it would sound incorrect to say that the tree was infected by bugs, or to say that someone or something was infested by a virus.
Could I therefore take it from your answer, that in Italian the two verbs infestare and infettare are interchangeable?
I looked on Treccani at infettare and infestare but couldn’t identify that they were interchangeable.
1 Like
I looked on Treccani at infettare and infestare but couldn’t identify that they were interchangeable.
They aren’t. Sorry I did not make it clear. “Infestati” is the correct translation of the English sentence.
Or, to match the Italian, the English sentence should use “infecetd”.
3 Likes
Yes, I had in my mind either an infestation of boring beetles (i.e. beetles that bore into the wood, not beetles that are tedious company at a dinner party!), or more figuratively speaking that there were so many birds in the trees that they were “infested”.
2 Likes
Ah yes, sorry, I misread what you’d said. I’ve now secretly added the word “respectively” to the end of the sentence, and it is indeed clear.
Thanks for all your help with these clarifications. @MsFixer has mentioned on Reddit that there is “one informative native Italian speaker taking questions from learners”. I think she means you 
3 Likes
And he is very much appreciated!
3 Likes