- Forum >
- Topic: Italian >
- "His steak does not have salt…
"His steak does not have salt."
Translation:La sua bistecca non ha sale.
45 Comments
What precisely was your answer?
AVERE/TO HAVE
io ho = I have
tu hai = you have
lui/lei ha = he/she/it has
noi abbiamo = we have
voi avete = you have
loro hanno = they have
https://www.italian-verbs.com/italian-verbs/conjugation.php?parola=avere
La sua bistecca non ha il sale questa è la risposta giusta oppure la sua bistecca non è salata!
There are exceptions (unless you're dealing with something like Esperanto, there are always exceptions), but in general, the rule of thumb is this:
| If the word ends in... | Then it's... |
|---|---|
| -o | masculine singular |
| -i | masculine plural |
| -a | feminine singular |
| -e | feminine plural |
There are some words that end in -e in the singular and -i in the plural, and you just have to memorize whether they're masculine or feminine.
And then there are foreign loan words that end in whatever they end in (like "yogurt") and they're almost always masculine and don't change in the plural.
As for which definite article to use...
Technically yes, but it feels as bad as "of him"; nonetheless, it is used. It's also often used for a bureaucratic or archaic effect, usually in inverted order, as "la di lui bistecca". It's rare in real life though :)
Because the possessive forms must agree with what is possessed, not with who possesses it. "Bistecca" is feminine, therefore the possessive must be feminine, regardless of whose it is.
That leaves the question how to indicate the person we speak about. La sua bistecca ... can be his or her steak. How do I add the persons gender, if i want to clarify the case? In a conversation I would tend to: Giovanni's bistecca non ha il sale or Chiara's bistecca ha troppo sale. Just as example...
If I am just reading the Italian, "La sua bistecca non ha sale", how do I know if it means him or her?
I made an error and wrote "sala" instead of "sale". The explanation of why I was wrong was itself wrong:
You used the singular "sala" here, instead of the plural "sale".
There is no appropriate option for reporting it, though.
Wouldn't it be okay to say "La sua bistecca non ha la sale"? I thought the definite article "la" would be acceptable in this case.
2107
In multiple choice I selected both of these options, however the second was marked wrong:
"La sua bistecca non ha sale."
"La propria bistecca non ha sale."
It seems like a valid (though perhaps slightly less accurate) translation to me, however I still struggle with Proprio.
Can anyone clarify?
"La sua bistecca non ha sale."
"La propria bistecca non ha sale."
"Propri*" means "one's own". The first sentence says "His steak does not have salt." The second sentence says "His own steak does not have salt."
That's not how it works.
"la sua" reflects that "bistecca" is feminine. It has nothing to do with the gender of whose it is.
I am confused. la sua means HIS?! Why? I thought the a ending indicated f. always
You're level 25 in Italian and haven't learned that possessives are just like any other adjective and must agree with the noun it modifies and not the one who owns the thing?
How is it determined if HIS or HER steak doesn't have salt? The "sua" is linked to the fem form (La bistecca) not the person owning the steak. Sometimes it makes no sense because it is Suo, or Sue, or Sua, and it is confusing. It will come to me eventually. Practice!!!
Context, context, context.
And it does make sense. As you have observed, the possessives follow the same agreement rules as any other adjective. You're just used to how it works in English.
Italian speakers learning English want to know why it's "his" dog when clearly she's a nursing mother. Neither way is better than the other, they're just different strategies.
"La sua bistecca non ho sale" is this wrong ? If yes , why? .. because have is 'ho' in english .. so why does the sentence has 'ha sale' instead of 'ho sale' ? ( 'Ha' refers to 'has' in italian)
It is not as simple as that. But yes, it should be ha because "la sua bistecca" is 3rd person singular. "His steak has", not "his steak have".
| TO HAVE | AVERE |
|---|---|
| I have | io ho |
| you have | tu hai |
| he/she has | lui/lei ha |
| we have | noi abbiamo |
| you have | voi avete |
| they have | loro hanno |
So "His steak does not have salt." and "Her steak does not have salt." are the same in Italian?
That's right. The possessive agrees with the noun it modifies, just like any other adjective.
"La sua" isnt that feminine when the question ask you to translate his steak
"Bistecca" is feminine and the possessive (which is just a subcategory of adjective) must agree with that, not with whose it its. "La sua bistecca" can equally mean "his steak" or "her steak".
how you gotta know if it's a "his" when it's "sua" which is "hers". i don't know if it's about 'La' bistecca or not because if it's like that we're not gonna know the gender. I'm confused
As explained elsewhere on this page, the possessive is just like any other adjective, so it must agree with the possessed thing and not the one who possesses it. The grammatical gender of a noun is relatively easy to determine, since most of them are regular. "La sua bistecca" can equally mean "his steak" or "her steak", but it must always be "la sua bistecca" because "bistecca" is feminine and it needs "la sua" for agreement.
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/634955?comment_id=28241432
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/634955?comment_id=34936001
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/634955?comment_id=41682858
- 172
What's the difference between "la sua" and "sua" ? It seems it's not the same here. When should I use one or another ?
With the exception of singular unmodified family members, you must always use the definite article with the possessive adjective.
Why is it "la sua" if it's "his"? I thought that possessive words were determined by the gender of the person
It is different in Italian. While in English the gender of the possessive pronoun matches the possessor, in Italian it matches the possessed subject!
Possessive pronouns are adjectives, they take gender and number of the noun they refer to.
