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- Topic: Portuguese >
- "O cachorro é nosso."
22 Comments
I hope that at some point they get a better sounding speaker than the robotic voice that they currently have.
The word for dog is cão. So when I encountered cachorro and it said it was a dog, or puppy, I assumed it was meant more specifically for puppies. However, it corrected my translation of "The puppy is ours." to "The dog is ours."
It's rather simple:
E = AND É = IS (or Are when you have YOU)
O cachorro e o gato = The dog and the cat. O cachorro é meu = The dog is mine.
E sounds like "e" in "then"; é sounds like the first "e" in "better".
E is pronounced with the same "i" as in "bit, sit, quit, mit..." Or also with the "ea" as in "Bea, Sea, Beat, Read, Seat" in quick speech.
É will always be pronounced with the "E" as in "Bet, Set, Red, Ped, Bed"
801
But the first "e" in better is exactly the same as the "e" in then - at least in England! Please give a better example.
Ok, I'm sorry, but I was just commenting on the lesson to share my confusion on that particular lesson. Thank you for telling me I'm going about trying to understand this incorrectly instead of helping me to understand! :)
I just didnt pass u the link cuz i was using a tablet, so it is not possible on duolingo. But i saw u found the page. As u saw, there is a difference in portugal/brazil portuguese. Glad u found that and sorry if i seemed somehow rude...
I've got just the same confusion. Could you guys please post that link for me? Thanks in advance. :)
O cachorro é nosso. - isn't it: The dog is our.. the correct answer? it is just one dog, why then nosso is translated as ours?
Os cachorros é nossos - The dogs are ours. - here it sounds ok for me :D
What confused me was OURS in the first translations.
Can somebody help me, thanks (:
- 781
In English, "our" and "ours" do not indicate number. The difference between when to use which depends on its function in the sentence. If it precedes the noun, drop the s.
So: It is our dog. The dog is ours. They are our dogs. The dogs are ours.
However, in Portuguese the difference between "nosso" and "nossos" depends on the number of the noun.
You have to be grammatically correct in each language, which can be tricky when the two languages follow very different rules!
I hope this explanation helps!
Think of the s as indicating possession. Eg the cat's tail, the tree's leaves. So the dog is ours, the dog is yours. But ours dog is hard to say so we drop the s. It is our dog, it is your dog.
Nosso is used as "Our (singular object)". Nossos is used as "Our (plural objects)".
