39 Comments
Why does vår come before vin in this case when in most other sentences the owner comes after the noun?
The possessive is often placed first as a way of stressing it: "That is OUR wine (not yours)".
If it's placed first in cases where it's clearly not meant to be stressed, then Aaron is right in saying that it may sound a bit old-fashioned. There are, however, cases where placing the possessive just sounds better or is easier to say, and also semi-set phrases where it's customary to place the possessive first regardless.
So, as you see, there are no strict rules governing the placement; only guidelines with plenty of wiggle room and exceptions.
I am not 100% sure but I think my wife told me that "vår vin" is more old fashioned than doing it the other way. Just a guess though.
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So are there any rules we can apply here, or is it just how old fashioned we want to be?
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I think that when the vår comes after, it uses definitive nouns so this would be "det er vinen vår" and if it uses non-definitive it comes beforehand: "det er vår vin"
That's right. Both are correct, but "det er vinen ver" is probably what a young person would say and the other way is more what your grandma would say.
- 1187
So, using a definitive noun is considered more modern and a regular noun is more old fashioned?
Adjectives get modified based on the gender or quantity of the noun they affect. Since "vin" (wine) is masculine you use the masculine form of "vår" which is just "vår". If it were "hus" (neuter) then it would be "vårt hus". If it were "baller" (balls) then it would be "våre baller".
It is all explained in the first lesson on adjectives I'm pretty sure. Hope that helps.
This is correct, but whether an adjective get's a neuter 't' ending is sort of inconsistent; many adjectives don't
Thank you for explaining this. Even though I knew it, it didn't make sense until I read it.
That would be "Dette er vår vin".
"That is our wine." is an accepted translation though.
It's accepted on our end, so if you're sure you had no typos then you must've fallen victim to a bug.
When the noun has yet to be mentioned, we default to the neuter form, "det". Once the noun has been mentioned, and "det/den" is used as a pronoun pointing back to said noun, it follows the gender of the noun.
Can this be understood as: 'That is spring wine'? I know, wine is generally not made in the spring, but could this be argued as an alternative meaning for the sentence? (www.chaddsford.com/wine/spring-wine/ Not a plug, just evidence of spring wine =) )
The former is used when the object of possession is singular and masculine or singular and feminine.
The latter is used when the object is singular and neuter.
If the object of possession were plural, it would correspond to the possessive våre.
The form of the possessive depends on the grammatical gender and number of the object of possession:
våris used for singular masculine or feminine nouns.
vårtis used for singular neuter nouns.
våreis used for plural nouns (f/m/n).
