"Ποιανού είναι αυτή η αρκούδα;"
Translation:Whose bear is this?
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A toybear is usually diminutive in Greek
αρκουδάκι = small bear, baby bear, teddy bear
Winnie the Pooh = Γουίνι το Αρκουδάκι
I understand αυτή here refers to "this" feminine noun, but can this sentence also mean "Whose bear is she?" or is there another way to ask that (where "she" refers to a female bear)?
Αυτός/αυτή/αυτό are used as both personal and demonstrative pronouns. Here it's the latter. Since in greek pronouns give away the gender, I guess the distinction between "Whose bear is this?" and "Whose bear is she?" doesn't make much sense to me.
So if I know that a specific bear is male, and I'm asking whose bear he is, would I say "Ποιανού είναι αυτός η αρκούδα?"
No, the noun αρκούδα is feminine, so the demonstrative pronoun that is paired with it can only be feminine. You can say though Ποιανού είναι αυτή η αρσενική αρκούδα; (i.e. male bear) or Ποιανού είναι αυτός ο αρκούδος; (but αρκούδος is usually used for teddy bears, not the actual animal).
With all respect + that αυτός ο αρκούδα sounds very odd, but but I found this
Η Υπατία ήταν Ελληνίδα νεοπλατωνική φιλόσοφος, αστρονόμος και μαθηματικός
https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A5%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%AF%CE%B1
You can either say αυτός ο αρκούδος or αυτή η αρκούδα, you cannot mix and match feminine and masculine pronouns, articles, nouns etc. within the same word group.
To describe the properties of any given verb subject, you can use terms of a different grammatical gender. E.g.
Αυτός ο άνθρωπος είναι γυναίκα. (m-f)
Το κορίτσι είναι μαθήτρια δημοτικού και το αγόρι (είναι) μαθητής γυμνασίου. (n-f, n-m)
Αυτός ο διαγωνισμός είναι μεγάλη ευκαιρία να διακριθώ! (m-f)
Αυτή η γυναίκα είναι πολιτικός. (f-f)
Φιλόσοφος, αστρονόμος και μαθηματικός, like πολιτικός are professions for which the feminine form is identical to the masculine, unlike δάσκαλος, δασκάλα. We say Η πολιτικός, η δικαστής, η πρόεδρος κλπ. So there are no problems in the Wikipedia article.
The same thing happens in French, where the word 'person' is feminine (la personne), no matter what the person is. You can say 'Cette personne m'a dit que...' (This person told me...) for a man, but you have to say Cet homme / Cette femme. When grouping the demonstrative pronoun and the article with the noun, they need to be in agreement.
Edited for clarity.
D__ I cannot reply in your answer so I thank you here for your thourough explanation. It is worth at least one lingot
It's amusing, but I suspect it's more likely to be a teddy bear dropped in a daycare, or something of the sort.
So, instead of having a separate word like "whose", the genitive like "of whom" is always used in Greek?
What do you think "whose" is, if not the genitive of "who"? :)
(Or at least it used to be, back when English still had a separate genitive case -- this form survived so now we have "whose" and "who".)
ποιος, ποια, ποιο is who in nominative masc., fem, and neutr
in genitive whose , it becomes: ποιου or ποιανού, ποιας or ποιανής, ποιου or ποιανού
Is there a difference between using ποιανού or ποιου ? Ex. Ποιου είναι η αρκουδα αυτή; vs Ποιανού είναι η αρκούδα αυτή; Σας ευχαριστώ!
Could you please give an example with ποιανής?
I answered ποιανής είναι αυτή η αρκούδα; but the correct answer uses Ποιανού... and I am not sure why.
Is it correct for the male bot NOT to pronounce the "ρ" of αρκούδα? Could a Greek native speaker answer this question?
The pronunciation is correct. Don't confuse the Greek R with other languages that have more intense sounds. what is here is correct. You can hear native Greek speakers here:
As much as the meaning is the same, it's not a direct translation if you add the verb to belong:
Who does this bear belong to? = Σε ποιον ανήκει αυτή η αρκούδα;
Also notice how Σε ποιον = To who(m): both are in the accusative. Whose and Ποιανού are in genitive. ;)