"Os sapatos dela são vermelhos."
Translation:Her shoes are red.
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The problem I see with most people here is that you guys are trying to speak Portuguese in a way that it makes sense in English. That's a mistake, forget about english. A word for word translation may not make sense at all in English, that's just the way it is.
Why are they moving to more of a formal direction? When I read this, my head is telling me to translate it as, the shoes of hers are red. What I just be able to say her shoes are red? I notice there are a number of acceptable ways of shortening it.
How can you hear the difference between "Os sapatos dela são vermelhos" and "Os sapatos delas são vermelhos"?
Unless I use the slow voice, I find it impossible. In the real world I guess I could work it out from context, but here it seems too tricky.
Yes. In real life, they sound the same and you get it by the context.
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For the listening exercise, is there a way to distinguish between "Os sapatos dela sao vermelhos (dela singular)" and "Os sapatos delaS sao vermelhos (delas plural)" ?
but you don't pluralize the "dela" or "dele" ? for example "os meus sapatos"?
When you use dele or dela for the 3rd person singular, you don't change it to plural.
- His books = os livros dele, seus livros;
- Their books = os livros deles, seus livros.
On the first example, you know if it's related to he or they, but it is not the case when you use "os seus livros", which is the same for both of them.
In order to differenciate one from the other, most of time we use dele/dela. So, inspite of possessive adjectives have plural forms, it does not happen when using dele or dela for 3rd person singular.
"Hers" is not plural. "Her" is the possessive adjective and "hers" is the possessive pronoun. Singular vs plural has nothing to do with it.
Why are "dela" and "dele" not pronounced "jee-lah" and "jee-lee"? I thought "d" was pronounced as "j" in fron of "e", like "verde"?
Thanks :)
It's because the "e" is stressed in "dele/dela", while in "verde" the second "e" has a weaker sound, which also makes our pronunciation of the "d" different and more like a "j".
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Conplementing: the "j" sound of the letter "d" occurs when it is followed by an "i" ("ee") sound. This happens in "verde", but not in "dele/dela" --- because, as Kamila said, the "e" is stressed here.
Im noticing the subject is often before the possessive word. Do Brazilians literally hear in conversation or think in their mind: shoes hers are red or dog his drinks water? Is this how it usually is for them or is this formal?
Yes, that is the correct way to think in Portuguese, Spanish, and other languages. It is English that taught us to think of the adjective first, and then the noun.
Why did they use vermelhos instead of vermelha is it because shoes is masculine
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how many possessives forms are? first, there was the skill (seus suas, teus tuas), after, "dos" and "das", and now "dela" and "dele". are there more of them?
It is very wrong. The possessive of "she" is "her". "She's" can only mean "she is" or "she has".