"Ĉu tiu estas la via aŭ la mia?"

Translation: Is that one yours or mine?

[t0f0b0]

Why is it "la mia" and "la via" and not just "mia" and "via"? The mine? The yours?

[erikblomqvist]

You wouldn't say that in English, but in Esperanto (and Spanish as well) you do, when the possessive pronoun is in definite article. The question was "is that one yours or mine?". I suggest you having a look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto_grammar#The_article

[coenny]

Could someone expand on this? I read the wiki article, but I still don't understand.

[erikblomqvist]

Are you aware of the definitions of a possessive pronoun and a definite article?

[coenny]

Looking up definite article did it. Thanks!

[squelettus]

So... Tio is that, and tiu is that one? Correlatives are killing me :-(

[phle70]

correlatives ending in -o are "undefined object(s)"

correlatives ending in -u are "defined object(s), or person(s)"

There is logic in it, but it may appear confusing at first.

(edit: saw you're French - click here for the link above in French!)

[Orabela12321]

I think this is a good explanation of correlatives: http://www.esperanto.org/stanford/korelativoj/

[stevenvarner]

Some of the uses for the definite article "la" from Jordan:

1. Esperanto "la" often occurs before abstract nouns where “the” would never occur: la libereco = liberty; la bona sano = good health
2. Esperanto uses "la" before a possessive adjective when there is no noun with it. La granda libro estas la mia. = The big book is mine; La via estas malgranda. = Yours is little;
3. Esperanto uses la before an adjective when the noun is not explicitly stated, but rather understood (where English would also use the dummy noun “one” or “ones”): Vi ricevos la malgrandan. = You’ll get the little one; Al mi plaĉas la grandega! = I like the huge one! Jen la vere belaj! = Here are the really pretty ones!
4. Esperanto often uses "la" where English would use a possessive adjective, especially for kinship relations, for body parts, and for clothes and other objects intimately connected with the speaker: Ŝi diris tion al la patro. = She said that to her father. Li faligis farbon sur la pantolonon. = He dropped paint on his pants. Li falis kaj vundis la brakon. = He fell and hurt his arm. Ŝi deprenis kaj la ĉapelon kaj la harojn. = She took off both her hat and her hair.

[Tebis11]

Jeśli dobrze rozumiem, to po polsku można to porównać do ten: Czy to jest ten twój, czy ten mój?

[Athenicuber]

Where does the 'one' part of the translation come from?

[phle70]

I'd say it's part of the English translation:

Ĉu tiu estas la via aŭ la mia?

Is that yours or mine? (as in "Is that your [...] or my [...]? ") should work as well.

[Athenicuber]

When I did that I was counted wrong.

[YosunChang]

Could a more verbose translation be: Do you know if this is yours or mine?

[jumpthewalls]

I wouldn't think so, because your sentence is translated as "Ĉu vi scias se ĉi tiu estas la via aŭ la mia?"

[YosunChang]

Doesn't it mean the same thing?

[jumpthewalls]

I mean. Not really? It seems to me that "Is this is yours or mine" assumes knowledge on the part of the one being asked while "Do you know if this is yours or mine" does not. "Is this yours or mine? - It's yours" / "Do you know if this is yours or mine? - I'm not sure whether it's mine or yours"
Regardless, I don't think they're the same sentence.

[GastonDorren]

You might say it in the same situation, of course, but the wording is definitely different, and the meaning very slightly so.

[jacobthedrummer]

Your sentence is only asking if the other person knows.

[doppeldenk]

If I wanted to say "Is this one yours or mine?" would be correct to say "Cxu tiu cxi estas la via aux la mia?"
I am trying to understand if simply by putting the cxi, translates to "this, here". etc. Thanks in advance.

[phle70]

Yep, if I [komencanto] got this right,

Ĉu tiu estas la via aŭ la mia?
Is that one yours or mine?

Ĉu ĉi tiu estas la via aŭ la mia?
Is this one yours or mine?

Ĉu tiu ĉi estas la via aŭ la mia?
Is this one yours or mine?

(ĉi tiu = tiu ĉi)

(word explanations from Lernu! (lernu.net))

(Esperanto→English)

tiu
that (eg, that book = ~ libro);
pronoun that one

ĉi
here (denotes proximity)

(English→Esperanto)

that
adj that book = tiu libro;
pronoun that one = tiu;
pronoun that thing = tio;
conj ke;
relative pronoun kiu (=which/who)

this
adj this book = ĉi tiu libro / tiu ĉi libro;
pronoun this one = ĉi tiu / tiu ĉi;
(pronoun, this thing) ĉi tio / tio ĉi;
(to draw attention to this thing that follows) jeno