"Your bear drinks beer."

Translation: Il tuo orso beve la birra.

[OlzWolz]

I get the feeling these imaginary people shouldn't be owning dangerous animals.

[Prof_T_Entee]

unless they are me, batman, or chuck norris.

[gologramme]

...and plays balalayka!

[BabaGrusha]

ahahaha!!! And drinks vodka! After beer))))

[gologramme]

No, he mixes it and drink YORSH)

[BabaGrusha]

Wearing valenki))))

[PianoMan_7]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0Xsqo-n_AE

[mdsawyermd]

I am still confused between whether it should be "il orso tuo" or "il tuo orso"

[dreititita]

The article always before the noun.

[mdsawyermd]

The article yes...but I was asking about the pronoun, not the article. Although now I'd always write "il tuo orso". It's funny how when I come back to these comments after a little more experience that I roll my eyes at my own questions.

[AndrDemetr]

Careful, not "il orso tuo". Use "l'orso tuo", it was marked correct.

[Ismail.H]

You can say:
"Il tuo orso beve la birra"
or
"L'orso tuo beve birra"
Both are correct

[marcsfutures]

No article? When do you place the article and when do you not? There are some examples on here that ding you for placing the article and some that ding you for leaving it out. I don't understand that.

[CallMeAnja]

You must place the article when the sentence begins with the possessive. When the possessive comes after the verb, as far as I know, the article is optional.

http://iltavoloitaliano.com/learning_about_Italian_personal_possessive_pronouns/

[11AgentW]

Has anyone ever seen a drunk bear?

[BabaGrusha]

yep)

[Sionel]

Correct : "L'orso tuo beve birra" and "Il tuo orso beve la birra".

I guess my failure is based around the misplacement of the definite article again; "L'orso il tuo beve birra" was deemed incorrect. Can anyone point me at why? Thanks.

[MeMak1]

You have an extra the (il) in there.

[Sionel]

Ah, yes. Thank you.

[1OwOl]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_%28bear%29

[WesWebb]

How do you know if it's lo or il when a masculine noun starts with a vowel?

[AndrDemetr]

Singular nouns ending in "o" with their counterpart plurals ending in "i" are usually masculine nouns, so you would tent to use "il" or "i". Singular nouns ending in "a" with their counterpart plurals ending in "e" are usually feminine nouns, so you would tent to use "la" or "le". However, there are far too many exceptions to the rule. "lo" is usually used when the noun starts with a "z" or "s" and another consonant but once again there are too many exeptions to this rule. Those rules above (I would have at a guess at this point) around 70-75% correct. Note; il leone (the lion), la tigre (the tiger).

[WesWebb]

Thanks. So all nouns that take "l'" also use "il" and not "lo"? That seems counterintuitive. I'm curious about how this developed. "L'orso" doesn't seem any easier to say make more sense than "il orso" would. It makes sense that it's not "lo orzo" I guess, but it would make more sense that you would want to elide "lo" and any masculine noun that starts with a vowel, sonically speaking.

But basically the rule is, even it's contracted to "l'," that you only/typically use "lo" with nouns that start with "z" or "s" plus another consonant. Correct?

Thanks!