"Чьё яблоко на столе?"

Translation: Whose apple is on the table?

[Kirschix]

why does "whose apple is this on the table?" not work?

[JanetGidle]

It means the same, but exact translation of what you wrote would аdd это: чьё это яблоко на столе
It would be nice if a native Russian speaker could confirm this.

[Shredder3]

This is what I tried, but it was wrong.

[LDbag]

Why "яблоко" and not яблокa ?

[deactivated user]

Я́блоко is the nominative case, used for the subject of the sentence:

• Я́блоко большо́е. 'The apple is big.'
• Я́блоко на столе́. 'The apple is on the table.'
• Я́блоко моё. 'The apple is mine.'

Я́блока is the genitive case, used to express absence with «нет», or to express the meaning 'of', or in some other situations:

• На столе́ нет я́блока. 'There is no apple on the table.' (нет + Genitive case form expresses absence)
• цвет я́блока 'colour of [the] apple'

In the sentence Whose apple is on the table?, "whose apple" is a subject, "is" is a verb (in Russian it's omited), "on the table" is an adverbial modifier. Since "чьё я́блоко" is the subject, we use the nominative case form.

[LDbag]

Thanks for your appreciable comments.

[detailaddict]

So, if яблоко is masculine (and used here in the nominative case), why not use чей in this sentence?

[deactivated user]

Яблоко is neuter.

If it were masculine, you'd use чей, indeed.

[detailaddict]

Then why not use чья if the T&N chart lists чей, чьё, чья ,чьи for masculine, feminine, neuter, plural - ?

[detailaddict]

That's what I would have thought, so apparently the chart lists them out of order. Can someone fix this?

[deactivated user]

Чья is feminine, and чьё is neuter. If Tips and Notes says чья is neuter, it's a mistake.

These words follow general patterns: most feminine nouns end in -а/-я/-ь in nominative, and чья ends in -я in nominative. Most neuter nouns end in -о/-е/-ё, and чьё ends in -ё.

[FranciskoR4]

why not "an apple"?

[CuriousCook]

Because "whose an apple" isn't proper English

[Domcje]

Why is it here without "лежит"?

[CuriousCook]

U can use that if you want, it would just be more descriptive of the position of the apple.

[qgcQ2]

Почему не нужен неопределенный артикль AN перед APPLE?

[deactivated user]

Потому что местоимение whose выполняет ту же грамматическую функцию, что и притяжательные местоимения (her, his, its, their), с которыми артикль не употребляется.

Лингвистически говоря, 'whose' is a determiner. Т.к. у 'apple' уже есть determiner, то добавлять другой determiner (артикль) не надо.

[qgcQ2]

Спасибо

[JanetGidle]

See curious cook above.

[aguadopd]

Shouldn't it be Whose is this apple on the table

[JanetGidle]

Whose apple is this, is correct for this sentence. The emphasis is on who owns the apple, and there is only one apple there.
Whose is this apple, makes "this" an adjective, emphasizing which apple your talking about. Whose apple? This apple! There is more than one. The word "this" is not in Duo's sentence.