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- Topic: Italian >
- "Lei non è mia."
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Either way is correct. When you saying something is mine/yours/theirs/etc., the article is optional. It's when you say my/your/their/etc. something that it's mandatory.
Sono le mie; Sono mie
Le mie mele
To expand a bit:
The definite article is required with the possessive adjective, except with singular unmodified family members:
- il mio tavolo
- mia madre
- i miei cugini
- la mia sorella alta
The definite article can be included or omitted with the possessive pronoun, but it changes the focus a little bit:
- "La gatta è la mia" means "The CAT (and not something else) is mine."
- "La gatta è mia" means "The cat is MINE (and not someone else's)."
The section note (on bottom of the sub-sections says:
In Italian an article is almost always mandatory before a possessive. The exceptions are:
<pre>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).
When the possessive adjective is alone as a predicate, e.g. "è mio" (it's mine).
In a small number of set phrases, e.g. "casa mia" (my home).
</pre>In the hints for this lesson it says that there are exceptions for using the "il mio/la mia" format:
-With close family members -Some common phrases and -Following variations of the verb essere ("to be")--which is what I think is what's tripping you guys up. (Sono, sei, e, siamo, and siete are all conjugations of essere!)
I'm pretty sure (someone please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this!) that if you were to be referring to an inanimate object, you would use "essa," not "lei." And in that case you'd probably just drop the pronoun altogether (as I recall, in Italian pronouns for inanimate objects are unusual). I'm also pretty sure you'd also have to add "la" back, becoming "Non è la mia" - if I remember right it's not used here because the sentence is referring to a person.
Ah, no, you may have hoped it was similar to Spanish?
https://www.thoughtco.com/forgotten-italian-subject-pronouns-2011380
https://www.thoughtco.com/demonstrative-pronouns-spanish-3079351
https://www.thoughtco.com/latin-pronouns-120439
http://www.italianlanguageguide.com/grammar/demonstrative-pronoun.asp
https://dictionary.reverso.net/english-italian/this
You may find expressions which in English use "this" that might use "it" in Italian.
Someone please tell me how to study grammar from basics ? so that i can learn this with reference to grammatical rules.
It can go either way. It's only possessive adjectives that require the definite article. Possessive pronouns can have it or not, but the emphasis is subtly different.
"La gatta è la mia" means "The CAT (and not something else) is mine."
"La gatta è mia" means "The cat is MINE (and not someone else's)."
It doesn't matter who you are. Possessives agree with the possessed, not the owner.
IO il mio = my singular masculine thing i miei = my plural masculine things la mia = my singular feminine thing le mie = my plural feminine things
TU il tuo i tuoi la tua le tue
LUI/LEI il suo i suoi la sua le sue
NOI il nostro i nostri la nostra le nostre
VOI il vostro i vostri la vostra le vostre
LORO il loro i loro la loro le loro
If the thing is feminine, but there is another pronoun “essa” just for “it” and usually the subject pronoun is omitted. https://www.thoughtco.com/italian-subject-pronouns-4062604
Remember that in Italian everything is either masculine or feminine, so it could be any feminine noun that is being replaced by this pronoun. The English translation could also be "It is not mine." I would be more worried if they said "She is mine.", but here she is a free person. Then again, "mine" replaces "my + noun", so who is to say that the previous sentence was not "my wife" or "my girlfriend".