"La pasta nel piatto è la sua."
Translation:The pasta on the plate is his.
53 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
I'm confused which one is a definite he/she. Seems like we can use la sua for both his and hers? It is quite confusing.
When it's used for ownership it conjugates to the thing owned--in this case the pasta, which is feminine as a word, regardless of whether it's a man or woman it belongs to.
The same way: La pasta nel piatto e' la sua. "La sua" is feminine either way because it refers to the feminine noun "la pasta", not who it belongs to
Then why is it wrong to say hers instead of his if no further context has been given?
But the is not saying nel. Its saying nelle or nella. Please take note.
I understand that the possessive is modifying the noun pasta, rather than the gender of the person to whom someone is referring. The problem I am having with this is that out of context, there is no way for me to correctly identify whether it is his, hers, yours etc.
I don't get it .... How do they decide its "his" and that "hers" is wrong? This makes no sense to me
Ok, what I got wrong was her plate as opposed to the plate that is hers. yikes
How would you say "it's yours" in the polite form ? I thought it was "è la sua" but duolingo told me I was wrong. Is i because the capital S is missing ?
Right! Whenever you wish to translate using the formal you, check if the appropriate terms are capitalized. It isn't absolutely necessary beyond Duolingo but here it does make learning easier and you'll never be penalized for the capitalization in real life :)
Trouble being, when you speak, you cannot capitalise letters. So how can you tell then.
So if la sua means both means his and hers how on earth do you tell what they mean?
I would think context? If more specific language was needed, I'm sure a person would just go for that instead. So, if there were a group of people, and it could belong to any of them, someone might use a name "the pasta on the plate is John's," or say "the pasta on the plate belongs to that woman in the blue dress." But in a case where it's not specified, I would just assume the greater conversation would make it clear what you intend.
I've read all these and I'm still confused. The correct answer is "The pasta on the plate is his," right? This sentence can't mean "The pasta on the plate is hers"? If not, WHY not? And if "sua" can't mean "yours" why does "yours" show up as a translation when I touch the word "sua"? I can see this has been talked to death so please forgive me for bringing it up again, I'm just so confused!
Why wasnt my answer accepted? I said "The pasta on the plate is her". Why should have it been "his" instead? I thought italian doesnt make this distinction at the third person singular?
What is wrong with: Her pasta is on the plate? Suo can be used either for he or she and essencially means the same.
You changed the sentence. It is "The pasta on the plate is hers." Hers in this sentence is a pronoun used as the predicate nominative. Her in your sentence is an adjective. DuoLingo is trying to teach all the parts of speech.
I thought that, too. But after listening to the turtle version a few more times, I actually think it's the voice over just over-stressing the "L" sound. But initially that's what I thought she was saying as well.
"The meal on the plate is his"
Pasta is used as meal on other exercises, why is it wrong this time?
I thought because pasta is fem. It would be 'hers (la sua) its confusing...
She said nella not nel. This making me get a lot of things wrong, because of the voice, saying it wrong.
How do we know that the pasta is his rather than hers, masculine vs. feminine. Couldn’t it be either.
There is a glitch in your system!! suddenly sentences (yours) are coming up in half Italian and half English....I think you'd probably like to fix this!!! I am in about lesson 8 of the 2nd or third part of possessives
1263
Sorry to sound like a broken record, but really something has to be done about the missing sound in most of these exercises! Thank you.
I understand that la pasta requires la sua, but then how do I know whose pasta it is?
- 955
I tried 'the food on the plate is hers'. I know it could be either his or hers but I thought pasta can translate as 'food' as readily as 'pasta'. Am I wrong here, please?
So when it says "è la sua", there is the article "la" because it is referring to the pasta not to the person? So rather than saying (in english) "The pasta on the plate is her pasta", they shorten it by saying "è la sua" and removing pasta?
Trying to understand why it's "è la sua" now when sometimes it is just "è sua"
- 958
Part of the problem is that the possessive adjectives in Italian and the possessive pronouns are both his/hers, So it’s hard to see the difference in usage. An easier way to understand it is using my and mine Because in English they are different words. So the possessive adjective will be in front of the noun for example la mia pasta = my pasta. At the end following è it is la mia = is mine. This is a more economical way to say the pasta is my pasta. Now just go back and substitute his in the sentence. As has been noted in other comments, at the end of the sentence after a version of the verb essere The use of the definite article is optional so it could be è la sua or è sua.
I think, I gave right answer. La sua can be both her and his. Am I right?
I write: "The pasta is her". Duolingo says it's wrong, because "The pasta is his". Does it matter? "La sua" can be "his and her too.
Both are accepted:
- his
- hers
Your mistake was that you put her
which is wrong
You cannot say:
- The book is her
you can say
- It is her book.
or
- The book is hers
I wrote "The pasta is her", but Duolingo said it's wrong, because "The pasta is his". Does it matter? "La sua" can be "his" and "her" too.