"Она моя родная сестра."
Translation:She is my sister.
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Without «родна́я», it wouldn't be clear if she's a sister (родна́я сестра́), or a (first) female cousin (двою́родая сестра́).
In fact, it can be a more distant relative of the same generation: a second female cousin (трою́родная сестра́), a third female cousin (четырёхю́родная сестра́)... Technically you can have an unlimited number of these: пятию́родная сестра 'fourth female cousin', шестию́родная сестра 'fifth female cousin'... стою́родная сестра '99th female cousin', тысячею́родная сестра '999ths female cousin'. :D
This word is composed of 2 roots, so it has two stressed syllables: the main stress on ю́ and secondary stress on ё.
2726
Great! If so, though, DL surely should accept "...my sister by birth." with arguably just the same meaning. Reported.
No, of course it's correct to use it. It's just less precise: you can say «она́ моя́ сестра́» about sisters and about female cousins, while «она́ моя́ родна́я сестра́» refers only to sisters, and «она́ моя́ двою́родная сестра́» refers only to first female cousins, «она́ моя́ трою́родная сестра́» refers only to second female cousins, etc.
687
Would "birth sister" be an appropriate translation? As opposed to an adopted sister maybe?
No, genitive singular is сестры́: у сестры́ 'at [the] sister's [possession/place]'.
The forms with ё are:
- nominative plural: сёстры 'sisters',
- dative plural: сёстрам 'to [the] sisters',
- instrumental plural: с сёстрами 'with [the] sisters',
- prepositional plural: о сёстрах 'about [the] sisters'.
Genitive and accusative plural also has ё, but in a different place: сестёр. So, у сестёр 'at [the] sisters' [possession/place]' (genitive), я ви́жу сестёр 'I see the sisters' (accusative).
You can see the full forms of the Russian nouns in the Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/сестра#Declension_2 (if the table is hidden, click on the ‘Declension of сестра́ (anim fem-form hard-stem accent-d reduc irreg)’ blue box to open it).