tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7040 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish
| Message 1 of 9 16 October 2005 at 5:14pm | IP Logged |
I heard the folowing sentence: "A nuestra casa".
The "nuestra" is feminine in this case.
But it's a MAN who speaks this sentence.
So I gues then that whether it is nuestra or nuestro depends on casa and not the people who speak the sentence? So two men would say this too?
And 2 women would say for instance "nuestro vaso"?
And if there were 2 glasses it would be nuestros.
And 2 houses nuestras?
Gracias
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ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7244 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog
| Message 2 of 9 16 October 2005 at 5:41pm | IP Logged |
You’ve got it pretty much figured out, yes. Those possessives (ours, yours, etc.) have endings that depend on what’s being talked about, not who’s talking. For either a man or woman speaking:
nuestra casa.
nuestro vaso.
nuestras casas.
nuestros vasos.
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KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 7197 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian
| Message 3 of 9 16 October 2005 at 8:41pm | IP Logged |
Simply put, the rule is that adjectives must agree in number and gender with the nouns they modify. Note that it's NOT with the number and gender of the speaker.
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tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7040 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish
| Message 4 of 9 17 October 2005 at 1:48am | IP Logged |
Cool thanks
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Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7110 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds
| Message 5 of 9 18 October 2005 at 4:51pm | IP Logged |
While we're on this subject, what other languages besides English have the adjective agreeing with the speaker?
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tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7040 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish
| Message 6 of 9 19 October 2005 at 9:38am | IP Logged |
Dutch and I think German too.
Edited by tuffy on 19 October 2005 at 9:47am
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Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7110 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds
| Message 7 of 9 19 October 2005 at 9:45am | IP Logged |
No in French it doesn't agree with the speaker, but that is a good page that explains somethings I didn't know. I just noticed that all the romance languages I've looked at, and I think German, don't match English's way of agreement. Where does English get this?
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tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7040 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish
| Message 8 of 9 19 October 2005 at 9:48am | IP Logged |
Ah, I changed my post later because later I understood I had it the other way round :)
But I retreat from this question because I'm really bad with grammar, even my own :-)
I do know that feminine and masculine is new to me, we don't have that in Dutch (at least not that I'm aware of). But when we say "ons huis = our house" it does change when there are more houses: "onze huizen = our houses". So I gues it does change in Dutch as well. And in German it also changes. So I gues my reply was not correct (not Dutch and German).
Edited by tuffy on 19 October 2005 at 9:57am
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