"Maybe the cats are not ours."
Translation:Forse le gatte non sono le nostre.
15 Comments
I think I'm starting to finally get this but would an italian speaker please confirm.
In this sentence, if you use "I gatti" you have to finish it off with "i nostri", and if you use "le gatte" then you finish it off with "le nostre", am I right?
Yes, adjectives and possessions have to agree with the gender and the number of the subject.
Why is it that "cats" appears to be sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine? It seems like "i gatti" and "le gatte" are both accepted. I haven't noticed any other words that can have both genders, and it seems like "cat" is always masculine when singular.
Though we do want to show you that there are two ways to say cat, we don't want to bore you by teaching you all the names for both genders of each animal. Feel free to use either wherever appropriate :)
Great! But, maybe a note that this happens somewhere early on might help?
Is "Può darsi che i gatti no sono nostri." a suitable translation? To me it seems that this would mean "It may be that the cats are not ours." This answer was given as an option in a multiple choice question, but it was not highlighted as an answer.
I think you'd need the subjunctive here: "può darsi che i gatti non siano nostri"
If there is only one negative used in the Italian sentence, it should be 'non' instead of 'no'. I can't say about the rest of the sentence ..
I wrote; può darsi che i gatti non siano i nostri. Since the sentence implies a doubt, I believe the subjunctive is the right answer. However, DL rejects it. and gives me this answer: Può darsi che i gatti non sono i nostri. sono is not the subjunctive but the present affirmative. Should I continue learning here where I am taught the wrong way?
