"His steak does not have salt."
Translation:La sua bistecca non ha sale.
43 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
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
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...
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...
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.
1030
So "His steak does not have salt." and "Her steak does not have salt." are the same in Italian?
907
What's the difference between "la sua" and "sua" ? It seems it's not the same here. When should I use one or another ?
The "tip" before going in shows:
His/Hers/Its/Your (formal)/Yours (formal): "il suo", "la sua", "i suoi", "le sue"
So if the order left/right is mated, then "Hers" (2nd one) matches "la sua" (2nd one).
So NO, "His" steak would not be "La sua bistecca", but "Il suo bistecca".
Either the Tip is wrong (the orders Left and Right aren't mated) or the tip leaves out so many qualifiers as to which to actually use, . . . so as to be useless to the point of misleading.
350
Yes this can throw you but they are not mated .... the Italian possessives shown in the Tips always have to match what is being possessed not the person possessing it hence la sua bistecca is the correct answer. Another example is 'la sua birra' when translating from 'his beer'. See Rae.F's answer about a year ago in this thread for more detail and contained links to other explanatory Duolingo forum discussions.