"Those girls are my daughters."

Translation: Quelle ragazze sono le mie figlie.

[peter2108]

I thought you did not put an article in front of a possesive when referring to family members. Ciao, questo è la mia anatra but Ciao, questo è mia madre

[marziotta]

For plural, you can put the article. But in some cases it's not needed. For this sentence:

Quelle ragazze sono le mie figlie = Those girls are ALL my daughters OR Those girls are my daughters, not yours or theirs.

Quelle ragazze sono mie figlie = more generic.

Please note that if the relatives are the subject and not the object, the article for plural is needed.

"Le mie figlie studiano all'università" (Mie figlie studiano all'università would be wrong)

[peter2108]

Thanks - and thanks for the correction!

[marziotta]

I forgot to correct your sentences, my bad.

Questa è la mia anatra

Questa è mia madre

(Demostrative pronouns (and adjectives as well) must follow the number/gender of the noun they are connected to)

[xyphax]

This site has some clear rules and examples .. it can be quite helpful (although it does not discuss the plural as object case)

http://www.arnix.it/free-italian/italian-grammar/possessive-adjectives-in-italian.php

[peter2108]

I only just understood this. If the man has eleven daughters and points to two of them he use mie figlie but if he has just two daughters he uses le mie figlie. (ie ALL his daughters)

[marziotta]

Only if they are object you can avoid the article.

The easiest solution is to use always the article for plural, there are few cases when it is a big mistake.

Or we should make 200 examples and find the exact rule. :)

[BeEXT]

Question not related to the sentence, but how did you put the Italian into yellow boxes

[peter2108]

You put ` (backticks) around it. You can also use * for italics and ** for bold. It used to be pink but they changed the stylesheet :-)

Leave a blank line to start a new line.

[BeEXT]

thanks