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- "The wife of my uncle is my a…
"The wife of my uncle is my aunt."
Translation:La moglie di mio zio è mia zia.
33 Comments
1181
It is incorrect with "la" because it is a single, unmodified family member. See: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/15517439/Possessive-adjectives-articles-and-family-members
Well you're in luck, here you wouldn't need the di + article combination because zio and zia are singular family members. But here is a list. They'll probably just require a little memorization:
singular:
- di + il = del il piatto del ragazzo/the boy's plate
- di + lo = dello il gusto dello zucchero/the flavor of sugar
- di + la = della la gonna della ragazza/the girl's skirt
plural:
- di + i = dei la casa dei ragazzi/the boys' house
- di + gli = degli il ristorante degli uomini/the men's restaurant
- di + le = delle le scarpe delle donne/the women's shoes
1181
Someone somewhere came up with this "immediate family member" thing, and unfortunately it's not correct. Singular, unmodified family members (immediate or not) never take articles in the possessive.
Hello IsolaCiao,
Thank you that is much more helpful and avoids the confusions of subjectivism as to who is an immediate family member and who isn't.
PS by ' unmodified family members' I suppose you mean 'unspecified'? So if I specify which aunt it would take a 'la'?
e.g, - Lucia, la moglie di mio zio, è la mia zia?
- La moglie di mio zio è la mia zia Lucia?
Thank you for your time
1181
I'm glad if it helped. What I mean by "unmodified family members" is that there is no descriptive adjective, prefix, or suffix.
Mia sorella (unmodified)
La mia cara sorella (modified by the adjective "cara")
La mia sorellina (sorella is modified with the suffix "-ina")
In your second example, you're modifying "la mia zia Lucia" with her name, so I think that works.
1181
In this case it is incorrect.
See: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/15517439/Possessive-adjectives-articles-and-family-members
1181
It would be easier to help in what went wrong if you posted your answer.
The Possessions skill tips say:
In Italian an article is almost always mandatory before a possessive. The exceptions are:
It's not used before close family members, in the singular and not modified, e.g. "mio padre" (my father), unless the possessive is "loro" (in which case the article is needed).
It's optional when the possessive adjective is alone following a form of "essere," e.g. "è mio" (it's mine).
It's not used in a small number of set phrases, e.g. "casa mia" (my home).
If you check the discussion above, there are other comments as well about when and when not to use the article with a possessive.