"Det er hans slips."

Translation: It's his tie.

[MatthiasKDK]

'Slips' is pronouced the way it's spelled, isn't it? I'm hearing 'shlips', with a sh sound.

[grydolva]

You will frequently hear both "slips" and "schlips" in Norway ("slips" mostly in the West and South and dialects closest to the written Bokmål standard used in Duolingo)

[MatthiasKDK]

Ahhh, thank you so much! I've never been to Europe, much less Norway (even though I've done my fair bit of traveling), so I would've never gotten that bit!

[kamil.p]

So how can one say "This is his tie" because duo did not accept this answer?

[Regney]

Dette er slipset hans, or Dette er hans slips.

[SamuelJame12]

I put "they are his ties." DL says "it is his tie" is another translation. How can i know if it is singular or plural?

[grydolva]

You can't. You might pick it up from context. Slips is both the singular and plural indefinite form. (Which is quite common for monosyllable neuter nouns).

[fveldig]

"De er hans slips" would unambiguously mean "they are his ties", but the above sentence is always ambiguous, unless context is provided of course.

Alternatively you could say "Det er slipset hans" or "[Det/De] er slipsene hans" if you wanted to remove this ambiguity.

[RachelPun]

Why is "there is his tie" incorrect?

[Gidget84]

"there is his tie" = Der er hans slips.

[sonoluigi]

So from what I've gathered up to now, this is someone elses tie? As opposed to " sin slips"?
(Probably Hans' tie)

[Delphinine]

You don't actually have the option of using sitt slips in this sentence, because there is no concrete subject for sitt to point back and refer to (e.g., hun, han, etc.).

If you had a sentence along the lines of "Mannen har hans slips," you'd be right: the man would have someone else's tie in his possession, as opposed to the man in "Mannen har sitt slips," whose tie is his own. :-)

[sonoluigi]

Mange takk for svaren!

[AndrewGuegon]

I am not getting this! How can we know (without context) that it is "hans slips" and not "slips hans"