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- "वे मेरी दादी हैं ।"
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दादी is only for paternal grandmother and नानी for maternal grandmother.
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'
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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?
