I think (although I could be wrong) it's my cat = il mio gatto but the cat is mine = il gatto è mio

I wrote : It is not my soup-- a far more English version, but it was not accepted

Both are fine: there is a slight difference in that when using the article in this case tends to hint you do have the mentioned object but it's not the subject (in this case, you'd have your own soup). But they're more or less the same.

agreed - it sounded like la lupa (wolf ❤❤❤❤❤) to me

It is like "zu" was a "tsu" in tsunami... "Tsuppa".

The lessons are about vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. Meaning takes a backseat. Semantically, "The soup is not mine" and "It is not my soup" mean almost the same thing, but syntactically they are very different.

The soup is not mine. Here, "the soup" (a noun phrase) is the subject and the object of the verb is "mine", which is a possessive pronoun.
It is not my soup. Here, "it" (a pronoun) is the subject and the object of the verb is "my soup", which is a noun preceded by a possessive adjective.

Both are correct in Italian, but they have slightly different connotations.

When it's verb-article-possessive it means "this thing (and not the other thing) is someone's".

When it's verb-possessive it means "this thing belongs to this person (and not someone else)".

"La gatta è la mia" means "The cat (and not that cat) is mine."

"La gatta è mia" means "The cat is mine (and not his)."

I agree that is should be either "This is not my soup" or "This soup is not mine." And I am a native speaker.

That would be "Questa non è la mia."

Totally agree

It means the same thing semantically, but since we're also learning grammar, it's not the same kind of construction. It's the difference between "The soup is not mine" and "It is not my soup."

"The soup is not mine" might mean the same thing as "It's not my soup", but the two sentences use different grammatical structures in both Italian and English.

The soup is not mine. = La zuppa non è la mia.
It's not my soup. = Non è la mia zuppa.

If it's by itself, it's "mine". If a noun follows it, it's "my".

(la) mia = my singular feminine thing
(le) mie = my plural feminine things
(il) mio = my singular masculine thing
(i) miei = my plural masculine/mixed things

That's a different grammatical structure and would be "Non è la mia zuppa."

Well, the reasons why the Google Translate answer is wrong is

1. The genders don't match. "La zuppa" is feminine, but with the answer it gives you "mio" is masculine. The genders must match even if they are separated by a verb.

2. In Italian, to mark possession, at least to say something is "mine, yours, etc", you have to include the definite article, which is the "la" in the correct answer "la mia".

I believe those are the only two things wrong with the automated translation, but the correct answer, as far as I've seen, is "La zuppa non è la mia".

That's just a requirement of Italian grammar.

That's a different grammatical structure and would be "Non è la mia zuppa."

That's a different grammatical structure and would be "Non è la mia zuppa."

Both ways are grammatical, but they mean subtly different things.

"...è la mia" emphasizes "la zuppa" (as opposed to something else).
"...è mia" emphasizes "mia" (as opposed to belonging to someone else).

This only applies to the possessive pronoun, though. For the possessive adjective, you must always use the definite article (except with singular family members). So it would always be "la mia zuppa" and never "mia zuppa", for example. The exception would be that it's always "mio padre", for example, and never "il mio padre".

Duolingo famously has trouble with apostrophes, particularly contractions. It's one thing when it offers it to you as part of a multiple choice or in a word bank, but it's a different mechanism when you free-type.

Did you flag it and report a problem with the audio?