"O queijo é seu."

[shelbytes]

When you mouse over "seu" it says that it can be translated as "his." I answered "The cheese is his" and it marked it wrong...?

[pfeil]

You are right. I think it's now fixed. But seu with the meaning of his/her is only used in formal/written language. Spoken language will say o queijo é dele/dela = the cheese is his/hers.

[jucag]

"The cheese is his" would be translated as "o queijo é dele".

[Vezoy1]

Seu is his in portuguese portuguese I think. And it means yours in Brasil portuguese. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[hsaski]

You are partially right.
"Seu" (possessive pronoun for 3rd person) means "his" in both Brazilian or Portugal's Portuguese. However, since a lot of people in Brazil use "você" (3rd person) in place of "tu" (2nd person), you have to use correct pronoun: in this case "seu". Ex: 'You sell your car' can be written in these two ways: "Tu vendes teu carro." or "Você vende seu carro."

For a more detailed explanation, check my comment on this thread: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/1136527

[Kilowoo]

"The cheese is from him" (dele) is wrong? Why??

[pfeil]

I'm not an anglophone, but I think The cheese is from him denotes a transition, thus it would mean that someone received this cheese from him. It could indeed translate as this, but it's not a common translation, at least not with cheeses... But we say it often when referring to gifts, for example:
O presente é meu = The gift is mine / The gift is from me (I gave it)
Eu ganhei esse presente dele = I received this gift from him

[keithokeplinger]

Thank you pfeil. You are correct about the "transition" sense of from -
If one wants to indicate transition or transfer, one could also say,
O queijo veio dele. = The cheese came from him.
Eu ganhei o queijo dele. = I got the cheese from him.
Nao e?

[pfeil]

Exatamente.

[keithokeplinger]

"de" indicates possession (dele = of him = his). Although in other contexts "de" means "from". Perhaps a native Portuguese speaker could further clarify.

[eddiedugga]

Why is "Your cheese" is deemed incorrect?

[sharkbbb]

While the meaning is very close, the construction is very different.

O queijo é seu. = The cheese is yours.
É (o) seu queijo . = It is your cheese.

[rafafrancis]

it actually means "his" in a more formal way of talking

[fred1211]

The cheese is his.

The cheese is hers.

Remember it can be for any of theses.

[mr_majestic]

The word queijo is very muffled. It could be more understandable. Especially on the slow dialog.

[keithokeplinger]

I agree it sounded like "O que e o seu" to me. Unfortunately, there are some glitches in the sound track that cause it to sound garbled. :(

[PaoloPignatelli]

Why is "It is your cheese " wrong?

[mildrechenko]

There is no hint that the sentence is in plural!

[sharkbbb]

"Yours" is not a plural form of "your". The former is a possessive pronoun (always used alone), while the latter a possessive adjective (always used before a noun phrase).

Possessive pronouns (most of them end in -s)

• The cheese is mine
• The cheese is yours
• The cheese is his
• The cheese is hers
• The cheese is its
• The cheese is ours
• The cheese is theirs

Possessive adjectives (most of them don't end in -s)

• It is my cheese
• It is your cheese
• It is his cheese
• It is her cheese
• It is its cheese
• It is our cheese
• It is their cheese

Note that (only) "his" and "its" serve both roles, because they already end in -s.