"Which dog is yours?"
Translation:Lequel est votre chien ?
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My answer was: quel chien est vôtre. The response: You need the article "le" here. Quel chien est le vôtre ? Not sure why le (the) precedes vôtre
Because le/la is part of the grammatical construction. The noun here being possessed, chien, is masculine, therefore le vôtre = yours.
la vôtre = yours (fem).
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Not understanding why le/la is part of the grammatical construction. Could I get around it by always using lequel instead of quel?
Possessive pronouns all use a definite article:
- le mien, la mienne, les miens, les miennes
- le tien, la tienne, les tiens, les tiennes
- le sien, la sienne, les siens, les siennes
- le nôtre, la nôtre, les nôtres
- le vôtre, la vôtre, les vôtres
- le leur, la leur, les leurs.
Besides, "quel" is used when there is a choice among several to many options and "lequel" is used when there are only 2 or 3 options.
- Quel est ton chien ? = Which is your dog?
- Lequel est ton chien ? = Which one (of these 2/3) is your dog?
Why is the definite article "le" not required with ton but is required with vôtre?
These are two different parts of speech. In the first example vôtre with the circumflex is a possessive pronoun. We would translate that as yours, and it always has le/la/les in front of it.
C'est le vôtre = It's yours.
The second example votre is a possessive adjective and is always followed by a noun, in this case, dog.
C'est votre chien (no circumflex) = It is your dog.
This is true for le/la/les tien(nes) and ton/ta.
Ton/ta are always followed by a noun while le tien/la tienne/les tiens/les tiennes are always proceeded by the corresponding article.
C'est le tien = It's yours. (for a singular masculine noun like chien)
C'est la tienne = It's yours. (for a singular feminine noun like fleur)
C'est ton chien = It's your dog. / C'est ta fleur = It's your flower.
