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- Topic: Italian >
- "Gli elefanti sono i tuoi."
46 Comments
I always wanted an elephant. I will name him 'George', and I will love him and hug him and give him a bath every Sunday. (Looney toons ref)
I like to think this sentence was part of the reading of a dead person's will.
I hear him working it out:
Son, in my will, i'm distriuting my zoo to my family, listen:
Let's see...
The man has a bull
The woman has a butterfly
The girl has a lion and dolphin.
The elephants are yours.
What do you think?
461
Lol! Most people get a paperweight or something, these people end up with a herd of elephants.
- 200
Right, imagine you just forgot? "Oh, my bad. I've been wondering why they were parked out front all day like that and all."
I hereby present thee... elephants!!!
They are yours now, blessed tidings, amico xo. . . hah X;"-}P
- 297
Why do you put "i" before tuoi? In some sentences, it is left out. Is it correct to the "Gli elefanti sono tuoi" why/why not?
It's my understanding that in the vast majority of uses of possessives (mio, tuo, suo, etc), you always put an article (conjugated to that which is possessed) before the possessive itself, regardless if the noun directly follows it. The only exceptions I know of are family members (claiming someone as "my mother" or "my father," I don't actually know the words for "mother" or "father" yet).
Yes, in general the article is always specified except for singular family members and some other special costruction (such as casa mia). Anyways, in this case "tuoi" is a subject complement and you can also omit the i, since there already is the gli. Putting the i you slightly emphasize the tuoi.
In Italian an article is almost always mandatory before a possessive. THE EXCEPTIONS ARE:
It's not used before close family members, in the singular and not modified, e.g. "mio padre" (my father), unless the possessive is "loro" (in which case the article is needed).
IT'S OPTIONAL (!!! = confusion!!!) WHEN THE POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE IS ALONE FOLLOWING A FORM OF "ESSERE" (e, sono), e.g. "è mio" (it's mine).
IT'S NOT USED IN A SMALL NUMBER OF SET PHRASES, e.g. "casa mia" (my home).
You will find the forgoing notes just below the possessive-lesson-icons (icons you click on to start any of the 5 or 6 lessons on possessives), plus additional explanation about possessives, in gray script.
Sorry to be so un-concise, but at least I'm ON TOPIC, y'all! :)
I'm sorry but how am I going to use lo? Ehehe I forgot. I have a clue how to use it but I'm not clear. ✌✌
I've been pronouncing it "lyee" as a single syllable. Like the gl in Pagliacci. I'm probably doing it wrong, though.
I think it's correct, though I personally think of the y actually being simultaneous with the l.
"tugli" is not a word. It must be "tuoi" and since it does not start with a vowel sound "gli" is not used, so it is "i tuoi".
Only 2 out of 30 comments are really relevant. That's something bad about weird sentences.
Yeah, this is a real problem. This place was supposed to be a place to ask questions about the language we are trying to learn, but now it's more like a chat room.
the sentence defines the owner of the elephants,. So what's the difference between "the elephants are yours" and "they are your elephants"?
"The elephants are yours." = "Gli elefanti sono i tuoi."
"They are your elephants." = "Sono i tuoi elefanti."
There is a difference between the possessive pronoun "yours" and the possessive adjective "your", so Duolingo will want the same matching form in each language. Grammar is being taught as well as definition.
