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- "Ο σκύλος είναι δικός σου."
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Masculine Feminine Neuter Singular δικός δική δικό Plural δικοί δικές δικά
You need a table like this on the "Notes and Tips page. I had to search the internet for this information. Once you have it, it makes sense
Why is it "δικός σου" rather than just "σου"?
The hints suggest they mean the same thing, literally rendering it"The dog is yours yours".
[Edited] You use just σου if it is to follow the noun as σου cannot stand alone in a sentence; it needs to follow a noun or δικός. Possible combinations with possessives are:
Ο σκύλος σου - Your dog
Ο δικός σου σκύλος - Your own dog (this is a bit emphatic)
Ο σκύλος είναι δικός σου - The dog is yours
Δικός means 'own', and σου means 'your'. One language's words match those in the other in the second example in my comment above (if you just ignore the article). But 'yours', as it stands alone in the third example in English, cannot be conveyed in Greek in the same way, in one word: you use δικός σου for that too.
When I try to listen to it in the slow setting it says "Ο μικρό σκύλος είναι δικός σου." Where in the normal setting it omits the "μικρό"
I may be out of practice, but isn't an alternative way to type this to remove the /ς/ from the end of /δικός/ like other instances where the final letter of a preceding word is a vowel? i.e. to have /δικό σου/
it depends on the gender of the noun in the sentence. In this case a dog is male (o skilos) and δικόσ σου keeps the s, however if it was female it would be δικη σου, and if it was neutral it δικο σου
Only the letter -ν is sometimes removed from the end of some words when the next word starts with a vowel.
When speaking (quickly), δικός σου and δικό σου sound the same, but you understand what the case is by the article just before. You can't omit the -ς from the masculine in written form, though.
"Αυτός είναι ο σκύλος σου" is the most natural sentence and it means "This is your dog" (not "The dog is yours / your own"). The article ο before σκύλος is absolutely necessary here. Αυτό instead of αυτός could be used ("Αυτό είναι ο σκύλος σου"), but it is odd and would require a particular context (e.g. as an answer to the question "Τι είναι αυτό;", made by the surprised owner of the dog).
I wrote, ' the dog belongs to you'. This was wrong. Why? Surely it means the same thing as, ' the dog is yours' which was the 'correct' answer.
They may mean the same, but they are very different sentences gramatically. 'είναι' is a form of the verb 'to be', so you can't use the verb 'to belong'. And 'δικός' indicates that 'σου' is a possessive pronoun, but in your sentence 'you' is a personal pronoun.
If I were to say "your own dog" on its own... Would I say ο δικός σου σκύλος or ο σκύλος δικός σου? Why?
You would say ο δικός σου σκύλος. Let's say that δικός is an adjective. Then, ignoring the decorative things around it, like the article, it can only go before the noun. You can place it after the noun only if you separate it with a verb: ο δικός σου σκύλος vs ο σκύλος είναι δικός σου, as in your own dog vs the dog is your own or a beautiful flower vs the flower is beautiful. It's basically the same principle. :)
I "translate" the sentence word by word this way: the dog is own(ed by) your, allthough horrible English it help me as a tool before making a correct English translation.
