"तेरे पिता अमेरिका में हैं।"

Translation: Your father is in America.

[MarcinM85]

I don't understand it. Why is it तेरे and हैं instead of तेरा and है? It seems to me that this sentence means Your fathers are in America. Am I missing something?

[aaditsingh8]

Every subject (person) that needs to be treated respectfully requires all the plural endings in Hindi. This is the reason why fathers, mothers, grandparents, elders, leaders, and so on are mostly referred with the plural endings! :)

[MarcinM85]

Thanks. However, is it possible to translate this sentence as Your fathers are in America? I know it doesn't make any sense (one person can have only one father) but is it grammatically correct?

[aaditsingh8]

Yes, it is grammatically correct. And one might even have more than one father! (Sense8 reference) :D

[AgnusOinas]

You can be adopted by a gay couple, so it's very well possible to have two fathers.

[OJFord]

Or we might be talking to Gaitonde in Sacred Games.

[RanzoG]

Yes, but I would say "pita ji" and there would be no confusion.

[MuthiahRamnath]

In the last question I wrote America as America. But the answer given was 'the USA'. So, in this question I wrote America as USA. But then my answer was denoted as wrong.

[Meg401279]

I have a question:
Does the fact that पिता ends in ा mean that it is singular, and that if it were पिते, we would be saying “fathers”? Or can पिता be translated as “fathers”? I am confused because it is a typical masculine noun, and by the earlier pattern, I thought it should be switched to end in “e” any time we actually mean to say “fathers”.
I understand that we should use तेरे and हैं plurals for respect either way.

Thank you!

[EmanuelAro945792]

in this sentence the respect is toward the father and not/less to whom the sentence is addressed to?
could the sentence start with "आप" - giving respect to the man whom the sentence is spoken to?

[OJFord]

Yes I think you'd achieve that with आप के। Everything else the same.

Or आपका ।।। है if you wanted to remove respect to the father at the same time.

Also bear in mind that you don't know you're talking to a man here, the gender of the personal pronoun, whichever you choose, is agreeing with their father, not theirself.

[Lizmaben]

Is it right to use 'thumhare' instead of 'there' here?

[AgnusOinas]

tere (तेरे) is very familiar (rude if said to someone you don't know)

tumhare (तुम्हारे) is informal/casual

aapke (आपके) is formal/polite

You can use any of the three depending on whom you're talking to.

There is not "there" or "thumhare". The consonant is /t/ त - an unaspirated dental voiceless stop.