"It is the man's book."
Translation:Det er mannens bok.
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Pardon my misunderstanding: Given that bok is not neuter, what causes it to be det instead of den. Takk!
You'd only use 'det/den' when your replacing a noun you've previously referred to. Given the context we wouldn't know whether or not this book has been referred to, but it most likely wasn't:
'Den er boken til mannen' would mean 'Den boken er boken til mannen', which is redundant. It could be said if someone asked whose book it was and you needed to be specific of which book you were talking about when you answered. Most often you would still answer with the above sentence. I've accepted 'den' in this case, but it wouldn't be very common, and only when you needed to specify specifically what "book" you were talking about.
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What is "til"? Something like "of the"? It didn't come up on my first two times through this level.
There are two ways to phrase possession, and each varies slightly when a possessive adjective is used.
The first is when the possessor goes first. Note that the possessee is indefinite.
Det er prestens bord. That is the priest's table. Det er mitt bord. That is my table.
The second is when it comes second. Note that the possessee is definite.
Det er bordet til presten. That is the priest's table. Det er borden mitt. That is my table.
They're interchangeable, with slightly different tones and dialect preferences.
"Den er mannens bok" was marked wrong; I get the det/den issue as above, but the suggested answer it gave me was Det er mannens si bok" and I don't understand that answer?
When is more appropriate to pluralize with "" 's" and when with "til"? Is there a slight difference in the way each form is used?
Why if click on the words to see the translation the sentence "it's the man's book" is translated in "det er boken til mannen" instead of "det er mannens bok"? Are the two sentences equivalent and used always in the same way?
They mean the same thing. I would say that "Det er mannens bok " is a better translation of the English sentence.