"Which razor is mine?"
Translation:Quale rasoio è mio?
27 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
412
"Quale rasoio è mio?" = "Quale rasoio è il mio?" (both are accepted by DL)
The difference is Very subtle and in my opinion there is no difference in meaning
However, in negative sentences the article slightly changes the meaning
Example:
- Quel rasoio non è mio = that razor is not mine (maybe I have one or more razors, or maybe I don't have any).
- Quel rasoio non è il mio = that razor is not mine (but surely I have, or I have had, a razor)
http://italian.about.com/od/grammar/a/italian-possessive-pronouns.htm
855
Same meaning but the first il mio is a possessive adjective and the second mio is a possessive pronoun....the difference between my and mine. Using the pronoun keeps you from having to say which razor is my razor, mio at the end stands in for razor. It doesn’t have a definite article because it doesn’t have to. When the possessive pronoun follows a form of essere it is speakers/writers choice to use it or not.
412
all nouns ending in "oio" form their plural by removing the last "o"
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sing. . . . . . . . pl.
(razor) . . . . . . . . . . . . . rasoio . . . . . rasoi
(vulture) . . . . . . . . . . avvoltoio . . . avvoltoi
(tank) . . . . . . . . . . . . .serbatoio . . .serbatoi
(changing room) . . spogliatoio . spogliatoi
855
I didn't appreciate this economy of Italian vowels, until I studied Romanian, and you end up with words like copii which means children, or worse (unless you are Romanian) copiii which means the children, or fiii = the sons. Romanian by the way--one of the stranger Romance languages-- totally mystifies me even after finishing the tree.
855
Here mio means mine not my where the family rule except for plurals and loro is in effect. my is an adjective and mine is a pronoun replacing both the adjective my and rasoio = my razor. The rule for these posessive pronouns is that when they follow any form of essere, the definite article is optional.
14
thanks for the explanation! Optional meaning that both mio rasoio and il mio rasoio are correct?
855
Not quite... in the final position mio is mine...the rasoio is understood because it was just mentioned, but yes, Quale rasoio è mio and * Quale rasoio è Il mio are both acceptable. I would rely upon a native Italian to verify which is the more common.