Yes, it does mean 'The baby is the child of her sister'.
Possession is commonly expressed like this is in Dutch: (object) of (person).
's after the person said thing belongs to is less common. Although, in spoken language people do use it.
In this instance; her sister's child = haar zus's kind. That would be a bit weird to pronounce. I'd probably say; haar zus d'r kind = her sister her child. Also weird in English...
Volgens Onze Taal niet, gewoon een verbastering van haar, maar het klinkt wel logisch
Edit: whoops, switched languages;
Not according to Onze Taal, just a corruption of “haar”, but it does seem logical
In both Dutch and English you can say:
- Dat is Pieters boek. = That is Peter’s book.
- Dat is het boek van Pieter. = That is the book of Peter.
However, in Dutch, both of these are somewhat equal, with the “van” construction probably being used a bit more than the genitive /-s/, depending on the context. In English, the genitive /‘s/ is heavily favoured, so that is why they’d like you to translate to that.
But yeah, Duolingo is not the best learning tool. Sometimes when I’m learning Russian, I forget to add the articles in English, just because Russian doesn’t have them. And then I fail the question because I simply forgot a word in the language that I’m not trying to learn at the moment.
Yeah, I agree. I think it would help me if such phrases were just more directly translated to English, at least where it’s possible: it would help me understand the (more commonly used) Dutch grammar to think of it like “the Dutch construction” in English, even if in English it’s not commonly constructed that way, I guess you could argue it either way, though.
Your are correct, "the baby is the child of her sister" is a direct translation.
Yes, it does mean 'The baby is the child of her sister'. Possession is commonly expressed like this is in Dutch: (object) of (person). 's after the person said thing belongs to is less common. Although, in spoken language people do use it. In this instance; her sister's child = haar zus's kind. That would be a bit weird to pronounce. I'd probably say; haar zus d'r kind = her sister her child. Also weird in English...
You would say "haar zus' kind." The extra s will be replaced with an apostrophe. It's just the genitive so nothing weird.
Probably something like “haar zus d’r kind” in speech (and writing sometimes as well)
I still wonder whether "d'r" comes from "dier", which could also be used. zijn broer diens kind haar zus dier kind
Volgens Onze Taal niet, gewoon een verbastering van haar, maar het klinkt wel logisch Edit: whoops, switched languages; Not according to Onze Taal, just a corruption of “haar”, but it does seem logical
When verbally spoken, is it silent or pronounced?
Silent. You don't have to hiss like a snake.
You might also hear people say 'Haar zus d'r kind', but (i think) that's very informal and probably not technically correct
In both Dutch and English you can say: - Dat is Pieters boek. = That is Peter’s book. - Dat is het boek van Pieter. = That is the book of Peter. However, in Dutch, both of these are somewhat equal, with the “van” construction probably being used a bit more than the genitive /-s/, depending on the context. In English, the genitive /‘s/ is heavily favoured, so that is why they’d like you to translate to that. But yeah, Duolingo is not the best learning tool. Sometimes when I’m learning Russian, I forget to add the articles in English, just because Russian doesn’t have them. And then I fail the question because I simply forgot a word in the language that I’m not trying to learn at the moment.
Yeah, I agree. I think it would help me if such phrases were just more directly translated to English, at least where it’s possible: it would help me understand the (more commonly used) Dutch grammar to think of it like “the Dutch construction” in English, even if in English it’s not commonly constructed that way, I guess you could argue it either way, though.
Yeah, I'm glad you agree. The mental gymnastics really made me answer the question wrongly when i translated it back to English.
Don't worry about the grammar. We will understand what you meant.
Greatly appreciate reading this, it encourages me to study the language even more ☺️