My, your, our vs. his, her, their
Okay here's something to think about...
In Russian if I want to say my, your or our I have to choose between "мой, моя, моё, мои" "твой, твоя, твоё, твои" "наш, наша, наше, наши" "ваш, ваша, ваше, ваши" depending on the gender/plurality of the noun.
But if I want to say his, her or their I have to choose between "eго, её, их" depending on the gender of the person/how many people there are.
Whereas in romance languages, using French as an example, all of these things depend solely on the gender/plurality. If the noun is masc. you use the masc. form of my, your, our, his, her their, if the noun is fem. you use the fem form, and if it's plural you use the plural form of these.
So why doesn't Russian do the same thing, i.e. use his, her, their depending on the gender / plurality of the noun insted of the gender/number of the pronoun...or conversely why not use my, your, our depending on who is speaking...i.e. men talk about everything as мой and women talk about everything as моя?
I asked my girlfriend this question and she couldn't think of an answer...but it is something to think about...
Re: My, your, our vs. his, her, their
Basically, what you're saying is that Romance languages have identical possessive pronouns for "his" and "her". I think the fact that Russian has separate pronouns for "his" and "her" is better than the Romance idea of having the two the same. The only difference between these and the "мой, твой, наш, ваш" lot being that they don't decline with the gender of the object, (which frankly just saves time when learning all the possessive pronouns).
Re: My, your, our vs. his, her, their
Quote:
Originally Posted by tdcinprc
So why doesn't Russian do the same thing, i.e. use his, her, their depending on the gender / plurality of the noun insted of the gender/number of the pronoun...or conversely why not use my, your, our depending on who is speaking...i.e. men talk about everything as мой and women talk about everything as моя?
I asked my girlfriend this question and she couldn't think of an answer...but it is something to think about...
Well, it is a weird question to ask. The language is a fact, it's just it. It's there, happens to be as it is. Why did it turn out like this - nobody know for sure... When I was starting to study Friench, I was very confused by its possessive pronoun system. And I asked: "Why it's so odd? Don't you, people mix - which pronoun belongs to whom?" Well, I just had to get use to it... :D