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- Topic: Italian >
- "Perde le sue chiavi."
44 Comments
So, this sentence can mean 1. He loses his keys; 2. She loses her keys; 3. He loses her keys; 4. She loses his keys. How do we know which when there's no pronoun?
Yes, this sentence can be translated using any of your four sentences. As I said, without context there is no way to know, therefore we can use any of them.
Yes, duo now shows the translation as "he loses her keys." (and I answered just now 'she loses her keys' and was appropriately marked correct. :-) I am prepared for context and immersion; thank you duo for teaching me!
Is "key" masculine or feminine? if the plural is with an 'i' at the end, then why is it not i suoi chiavi?
Maybe, but at times it's still all Greek to me! Thanks for all your helpful explanations. There much appreciated. Ciao!
How do you know that it's not She loses her keys? Where does it say that it's a man?
Without context or subject pronoun (lui, lei) we don't know, it could be "he" or "she".
Yes, it all depends on the context. There is no other way, we must know what the object of the conversation is.
You confirm the saying that 'any text without a context is a pretext'.
Because it's the past tense and 'perde' is present tense. So "loses" not "lost", no matter who the subject is.
I think it's because in most of these exercises this 3rd person form is assumed to be 'he' or 'she'. If the formal 'you' is meant, usually the pronoun "Lei" would be included for clarity -- (though granted, here it could also be taken as 'she' since it'd be the first word in the sentence). In addition, the lower case "sue" would refer back to a 3rd person subject, not to "you" -- otherwise it'd be capitalized "Sue" (though I understand that capitalization for the formal 'you' isn't always obligatory.)
Given the right context, I believe that's right -- or even "You lose his keys,"
Would the hearer assume the person who lost the keys is also the same person who owns or is it actually ambiguous?
I suspect that the listener would know because the sentence would be part of a larger context.
RamonAnaton: See my comment right above to Maateus or my comment to Brenda at the end. Without a clear subject, it can be He or She and without a spicific context it can be 'her keys or his keys" In other words it can be: He loses her keys or She loses his keys or any combination, even It loses its keys/his keys/her keys.
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and who is " IT " when it says ... it loses her keys is the right answer ? ; I said she loses her keys and it said I was wrong ... dah .......
mercede777: the answer shown above is "She loses her keys." That said, "perde' could be he, she, or it. "le sue..." could be 'his, her, or its" Which answer is most logical depends on context, "it" being admittedly the least logical, but grammatically possible, as e.g. if referring to a rental company, real estate firm, automobile agency, etc.
"Lost" is past tense. Right now we're just learning the present tense.
"Lost" would be "perdeva".
https://www.italian-verbs.com/italian-verbs/conjugation.php?parola=perdere
Yes. It's "le sue" because "chiavi" is feminine, not because the subject is.
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Why is the verb in first place? Is there any particular position for the verb in Italian?
Italian is subject-verb-object like English, but unlike English the subject pronoun is optional.
Perde le sue chiavi.
Lui perde le sue chiavi.
Lei perde le sue chiavi.
So i answered "she loses her own keys". I dont get why that is incorrect. Doesn't "le sue" imply the keys are her own?
"Her keys" is "le sue chiavi".
"Her own keys" is "le proprie chiavi".
