"वे मेरी दादी हैं ।"
Translation:She is my grandmother.
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Why is the pronoun वे instead of वो for a singular subject? Is it a stand-in for आप?
Nouns referring to people older than yourself are treated as if they were plural as a show of respect. This is the reason वे and हैं are used.
वह मेरी दादी है is grammatically correct but would be seen as rude. (As a personal anecdote, I use तुम while talking to my grandparents because that is how things are done in my family but I would never use the singular form while talking about them in the third person).
Also, though it is pronounced वो, वह is the correct written form. ,
But then, I answered "Those are my grandmothers", and it was marked as wrong. What's the correct Hindi translation for this phrase then?
'Those are my grandmothers' will be 'वे मेरी दादियाँ हैं' which uses the plural form दादियाँ. However, note that because there is a separate term नानी for your maternal grandmother, both these दादीs should be paternal (on your father's side).
'This' is यह and its respectful (plural) form is ये.
'This is my grandmother' = 'ये मेरी दादी हैं'
But that's what I typed in and they marked it as incorrect. The correct answer was "she is my grandmother"... Even though in the other cases they used the word this.
This sentence has वे so 'That is my grandmother' will be accepted.
'This is my grandmother' would have been ये मेरी दादी हैं.
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I finally realized the difference between the two grandmothers, paternal and maternal. And was marked wrong for putting it in brackets after the correct translation!!
I don't know how often I have seen here my grandmother as meri nani/dadi (but always mere nana/dada), so that's always disrespectful?
मेरी is both the feminine singular form and the feminine plural form. So, it doesn't change when you treat the subject as plural as a way of showing respect.
On the other hand, the masculine singular and plural forms are different (मेरा and मेरे). So, it changes when treating the subject as plural.
Hi, yes I understand, but am not expressing myself clearly - what I mean is that so far it has always been यह and never वे so was that always disrespectful?
Using यह/वह as opposed to ये/वे is only disrespectful if it is used for someone considerably older or you are being formal. For example, if you are older than Julia's grandparents, you can say वह जूलिया का दादा है or यह जूलिया की दादी है without it being disrespectful.
'That is my grandmother' will probably be accepted.
For 'this', you need to use ये.
