Quote Originally Posted by grafrich View Post
'наш-то' means (according to the great google, anyway...!) 'our something', so in English it refers to an inanimate object (a thing) rather than an animate one. Bearing this in mind, I wonder why this expression does not use 'наш кто-то' (who, therefore animate) instead of 'наш-то'? Is 'наш-то' just a contraction?

Is this saying a common idiom (ie worth learning by rote)?

The other point concerns word order. I would expect (from very little experience) that the word order would normally be 'adjective-noun', but in this case it appears to be reversed. Is this because the adjective 'calm' effectively refers to the phrase 'our someone' rather than just the pronoun 'someone'?

Thanks for putting up with my nitpicking; this is the best way for me to learn!

Richard B
It is not always a good idea to translate words separately from sentences.

1) Particle -то has nothing to do with animate/inanimate.
2) -то added to relative/interrogative pronouns makes indefinite pronouns as like as in English adding "some...":
кто - who, кто-то somebody
где - where, где-то somewhere
почему - why, почему-то - for some reason
etc.
3) with other words -то has a meaning of emotional emphasis and is used in colloquial speech.
4) In your example "наш" is used as adjective "тихоня" is a noun and "-то" adds some emotional coloration.