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- "Barnet hans liker ikke ulver…
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How would it sound if it were "Barna hans liker ikke ulver." instead? I have difficulty differentiating these two suffixes (viz. -et and -a).
On the "slow mode" I can hear: "barnet" (she says: 'barne' without -t in the end), but using normal speed I hear every time: "barna". Gosh, so confusing :-(
Yep. Sounded like Barna for me too. Still not fixed after 2 years. Come on guys....help us out!!!!
Especially in a sentence like this where the possesive doesn't give context to -a vs -et
"Barnet" is definite singular "the child".
"Barna" is definite plural "the children".
So "barna hans" would be "his children" rather than "his child"
Sorry if it wasn't clear, but the question was about pronunciation (see "how would it sound").
That's true. And "His children do not like wolves" is a perfectly valid sentence too.
Me too. On first hearing, I wasn't sure, so I listened carefully for at least 10 times, both regular and slo-mo. Finally, I was sure it was "barna".
My opinion is that Duolingo strings the words together itself, and so to make it sound more fluent it cuts out a little at the start and end, probably to eliminate blank space, but ending up taking out some of the word sounds. This is very evident in sentences with a lot of small words (et, en, og) as it sounds very broken and unnatural.
From what I understand, 'barnet sitt' would imply that the "him" we're talking about 'owns' or has the child. But, since it is 'barnet hans', we're talking about "that guy over there" or "some other guy's" child.
Edit: Mhm, now that I'm thinking about this even more...and I could still be wrong... The subject of the sentence is "the child". 'Sitt' can only be used to describe something the subject has or owns. Obviously, we're not talking about the child owning his/herself. So, we need to use 'hans' to talk about "his child".
But, let's say, we wanted to say this sentence: "The child does not like his (own) dogs." Then we would say/write: "Barnet liker ikke hunder sine."
I believe you would actually have to say "hundene sine" (or sine hunder). But not "hunder sine".
"Sitt" is a reflexive possessive, so it refers back to some previous subject. Note that here, "barnet hans" is the subject. There is no "previous" subject. In contrast, I might say "Han liker barnet sitt". He likes his child. The subject here is "han". So "sitt" refers back to this earlier subject. If I said "Han liker barnet hans", it would imply that he likes some other man's child.
I guess Duolingo doesn't like contractions. Probably because it doesn't show the 'does' and the 'not' separately, and so it does not find all the words it is looking for.
Barna hans liker ikke ulver would be correct, though, if it was "his children," right? Is there any way to hear the difference, or do they sound exactly the same, and you just determine (IRL) what someone is saying based on context? Like, you might know if a man has one or more children?
Yes, "Barna hans liker ikke ulver" is a valid sentence. "barna" and "barnet" should not sound the same, and so you should not have to rely on context. "barna" should sound like barn-ahh and "barnet" should sound like barn-ehh. With really well-enunciated audio I can hear the difference, but in this particular exercise it still sounds more like "barna" to me.
