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It's optional when the possessive adjective is alone following a form of "essere," e.g. "è mio" (it's mine).
In this situation, we are not saying 'my dog' but 'the dog is mine'. I believe that if the possessive modifies the verb, it stays the possessive, but if the possessive modifies the noun, it changes to 'il mio'. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks!
The possessive does not ever modify a verb. The noun has the definite article and the possessive refers back to the subject, so it is not necessary to repeat the definite article.
DuoLingo wants you to practice the possessive pronoun this time instead of the possessive adjective.
http://italian.about.com/od/grammar/a/italian-possessive-pronouns.htm
I think it is: E il mio cane (It is my dog). El cane e mio (the dog is mine)
If you have the article before cane, the subject, do you not need it before mio? Is this a general rule?
You do not need the article before "mio" if the possessive adjective is alone as a predicate. It is required in most other cases.
It's optional when the possessive adjective is alone following a form of "essere," e.g. "è mio" (it's mine).
Am I right that when mio/mia is used as 'mine' you don't put articles before it? for example:
The dog is mine - Il cane 'e mio.... It is my dog - 'E il mio cane
It's optional when the possessive adjective is alone following a form of "essere," e.g. "è mio" (it's mine).
I'm not sure why 'Il cane e il mio' is wrong' as an answer to the dictation question. Is that not good Italian? (Aside from lack of accent on the e which I don't know how to do here in comments.) Or is it that we are supposed to hear the lack of 'il' in the sentence? I can't hear whether it is there or not.
If you have the listen to Italian and write it down, then yes you have to write it exactly. I think that maybe they find it repetitious to say "il" for dog and again for mine since "mio" already refers back to "cane". It is optional with the pronoun and this is probably why.
"It's my dog" should be accepted as a correct translation as the meaning, with regard to frequency and register, is respected in both languages. Being a translator myself, I strongly feel learners are given the wrong signal by (sometimes) only allowing literal translations. In this instance for example, it should be clear that "the dog is mine" in English is rarely used in a standard situation unless someone wanted to explicitly express ownership.
It is used to explicitly express ownership in Italian also. “It’s my dog.” would be “È il mio cane.“ When you realize that Duolingo is teaching possessive pronouns here, then you may understand that possessive adjectives are not the same. If I said “The dog is mine.” in English, I would not feel that you were giving justice to my words if you translated it as “È il mio cane.“ So we do need to learn this.
Hi, thanks for your comment. Of course I am aware of what it is Duolingo is focusing on in this particular chapter; which is possessive pronouns in Italian though, not English. From a translation point of view, translating Romance constructions using possessive pronouns into English (Dutch/German/Frisian etc.) adjectival constructions is not wrong, on the contrary, in many cases more desirable.
Not necessarily, as you make it sound as though we don’t use the possessive pronouns when we actually do use them and not rarely.
Unfortunately, the computer thinks an apostrophe s after a noun is the possessive form, so write out “ is” for Duolingo.
Duolingo only allows a typo if it does not make another word. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/id
