"My mother's furniture is white."
Translation:I mobili di mia madre sono bianchi.
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I keep forgetting furniture in general is plural and have decided to try and think of it as "furnitures' to see if this helps.
furniture = The movable articles in a room or an establishment that make it fit for living or working.
Beacuse "furniture" is a noun that refers to multiple objects we use plural "i mobili" but if it were "piece of furniture" we would use singular "il mobile". some examples:
This piece of furniture is white. = Questo mobile è bianco.
Il mobile di mia madre è bianco = My mother's piece of furniture is white = (this would be a strange sentence, and we would usually say exactly which piece of furniture we are talking about. "Il tavolo di mia madre è bianco".
If "I mobili di mia madre sono bianchi" talks about furniture in plural, why "is" is there instead of "are"?
In English "furniture" is singular even though it refers to multiple items of furniture, therefore you need to say "is" instead of "are"
Yes, but you aren't speaking English, you are speaking Italian. Languages are not necessarily a one-for-one translation.
Sono = they are... the furniture is the subject of your sentence and is plural therefore sono. (Sono also means I am just to confuse things ;))
What is the rule Italian uses when it reverses the subject and object. For example, this sentence translates directly in English to "The furniture of my mother is white", whereas in America we would actually say "My mother's furniture is white." Thanks for any help!
This is not the subject and object. The "furniture" is actually the subject of the sentence, while "the mother's" shows who possesses the furniture. What happens in Italian and other Romance languages is that there is no such thing as an "'s" as in English to show possession, so you always have to say the thing first and then "of" whoever, if you want to specify who owns it. If not, you can just say «I suoi mobili» for simply "Her furniture." Therefore, possessive pronouns like "her" come before the thing that is owned; otherwise, specified owners must come after it following a «di»
Because «mobili» starts with one consonant. That means, in the singular, «mobile» takes the article «il», which becomes «i» in the plural
First, singular would be 'le mobile.' Second, take a look at the explanation of dnovinc above. In short, furniture is generally thought of as plural and is treated that way in Italian.
Fino a quando la mia ragazza ha visitato, si è ubriacato e ha versato del vino rosso dappertutto.
Until my girlfriend visited, got drunk and spilled red wine all over it. Accidenti!
Why not "I mobili di madre mia sono bianchi" The last sentence had "di casa mia" so is there some rule?
