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- "La zuppa non è la mia."
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Why is necessary the "la mia" here, when at the beginning of the sentence there is an article: "LA zuppa.... non e LA mia" ?
Could just be: "La zuppa non e mia"?
Ok, 5 years later here I am again with the same question. In a previous sentence posted by Duolingo it says: "Il cavallo non e mio". It is not saying "IL mio". Soooo, something here is confusing me alot with these contradictions.
Both are allowed and used. "la mia" is best translated as "the one which is mine". "Mine is blue" would be "il mio è azzurro".
I don't know how long ago this was asked, but I'll try to answer anyway. When you say "Il cavallo non è mio", you're saying that the horse is absolutely not yours and you may or may not own a horse. When you say "Il cavallo non è il mio", you're saying that the specific horse is not yours, but you own another horse. ...if I'm wrong on anything feel free to correct me.
It was asked 6 months ago.
The way it was explained to me (which I've explained on this page a few times 2 years ago) is as follows:
"La gatta è la mia" means "The CAT (and not something else) is mine."
"La gatta è mia" means "The cat is MINE (and not someone else's)."
But since there is no context in most of these sentences, both ways are equally accepted.
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
It is because it is written in a different order that they dont accept it. 'È non la mia zuppa' is your translation but theirs is different
That would be "Non è la mia zuppa". The "non" must come right before the verb.
Otherwise, you are right. "The soup is not mine" and "It is not my soup" are not the same. The grammatical structure is quite different.
I just had a sentence ending in "e tuo" (I'm missing the accent) and thought I'd figured out that the article is unnecessary with an object. And now here is "e la mia." Can someone clear this up?
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.
I put 'It's not my soup' which has exactly the same meaning. Why tell me it is wrong?
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.
Agree that Duolingo seems very inconsistent about the need for the article or not
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)."
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 is the same as it's not my soup.... but that translation is wrong. or am i wrong..???? i don't mind being wrong..
"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.
(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."
The meaning is the same I believe so as a translation it should be OK, or do the two grammatical structures have different interpretations ?
In ordinary conversation, the two mean pretty much the same thing. But Duolingo's primary focus is to teach us vocabulary and grammar. So "It is not my soup" is marked wrong for "La zuppa non è la mia" for the same reason "the man and the woman" is marked wrong for "la donna e l'uomo". To the extent that it makes sense, Duolingo prefers the more strict translations over more fluid interpretations.
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".
The soup "isn't" mine is an option, but when chosen I got a "spelling" error. "Isn't" and "is not" are equivalent.
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.
Why "Il cavallo non è mio" is correct, and "La zuppa non è mia" is incorrect?
Both should be considered correct. It's possible you had a typo or extra space or something that caused it to mark you wrong.
