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- "उसकी बहन उसे पढ़ाती है।"
17 Comments
338
And if we wanted to be clear that 'his' and 'him' (or 'her' and 'her') refer to the same person, how's that said? तो उसे? Or do you have to rephrase to make him the subject, so that you can use अपना, like 'उसे अपनी बहन पढ़ाती है'?
If you are speaking about a boy it comes his and him and if you speak about a girl it becomes her and her.
I never understand when to used apna/apni/apne vs uska/uski/uske. This seems like the perfect time to use apni... why is it not used here? Is it totally arbitrary or is it actually according to some grammar rule?
From my understanding, अपना/नी/ने is used to refer to something belonging to the subject of the sentence. For example वह अपना केला खाता है = he eats his (own) banana. वह is the subject of the sentence, and as the banana belongs to him we need to use अपना.
However, in the sentence we are discussing, the subject is "his sister", not "he", so अपनी shouldn't be used to translate "his". If instead the sentence would have been "he teaches his sister", then "his sister" would have been translated as अपनी बहन because the subject is "he" and we're talking about his (the subject's) sister.
- 539
वह अपनी बहन को पढ़ाती है - She teaches her sister
उसकी बहन उसे पढ़ाती है - Her sister teaches her
वह अपने भाई को पढ़ाती है - She teaches her brother
उसकी बहन उसे पढ़ाती है - His sister teaches him
- 338
This happens a lot with ह in the middle or end of words, I'm not sure if there's a universal rule, just something to be aware of and keep an ear out for I think.
- 338
No, it has to agree with the thing possessed, the sister in this case, who is of course feminine. So it's उसकी or राज की or जूलिया की etc. regardless of the gender of the possessor - whether Raj or Julia.
