"It is his water."
Translation:C'est son eau.
6 Comments
848
in the exercises concerning adjectives I came over the expression 'l'eau est claire' that means that water in French is feminine. And now here I see 'son eau' that is quite opposite as 'son' is masculine. Can anyone explain this? Thank you in advance
A singular noun starting with a vowel or a mute H always uses the masculine form of the possession (mon, ton, son). This is to avoid the conflicting vowel sounds. Gender doesn't matter here.
sa eau→ son eauma amie→ mon amieta horloge→ ton horloge
But keep in mind that if an adjective (that starts with a consonant) goes between the possessive and the noun, the rules go back to normal.
mon petite amie→ ma petite amieton grande horloge→ ta grande horloge
- 290
The Duolingo message is wrong here. When I write "C'est sa eau", it gives the error message " "eau" is masculine, not feminine."
But it should be: eau if feminine, but starts with a vowel sound, so you have to use the masculine form.
