Doubt with Possessive Adjetives in English

Question

Could you explain me why the first answer is correct? Thank you.

Marca todas las traducciones correctas

La gata bebe su leche.

• The cat drinks their milk.
• The cat drinks our milk.
• The cat drinks its milk.

Alguien podría decirme si la primera respuesta es correcta. Para mí suena raro decir en español ( La gata bebe SUS leches)... ¿De algunas otras gatas?

The exercise marked me the first and third answer like good.. The first is correct?

Answer 1

Yes, the first and third sentences would be correct translations.

The possessive matches the noun or nouns that are owned rather than number of owners that there are.

La gata bebe su leche. The cat drinks his/her/your/their milk.

• su is singular because milk is singular

La gata bebe sus leches. The cat drinks his/her/your/their milks.

• sus is plural because there is more than one milk

Las gatas beben su leche. The cats drink their milk.

su is singular because even though there is more than one cat, the thing that belongs to them is singular.

• the second one of course is not very likely to be said but I just wanted to illustrate what I meant.

Perhaps this would be a better example.

El bebe ama a su abuelo. (The baby loves his grandpa.)

• su is singular because there is only one grandpa

El bebe ama a sus abuelos. (The baby loves his grandparents.)

• sus is plural because there are two grandparents

Los bebes aman a su abuelo. The babies love their grandpa.

• su is singular because there is only one grandpa that the babies have (or one that is being referred to at least)

I hope I've helped and not confused matters even more.

Perhaps this story book would help. Learn to say who things belong to.

I hesitate here because I know so little about conjugations...sorry...is 'ama' a typo? 'Los bebes ama.. - 0095ca4c, Oct 14, 2013

* Los bebés aman a su abuelo. :) - 007e54d7, Oct 14, 2013

Ups, thanks for the catch Francot :) - Kiwi-Girl, Oct 15, 2013

I'm glad to find out that I actually knew something :-) - 0095ca4c, Oct 15, 2013

Answer 2

Yes, the first one might sound a little bit odd at first but remember, their is plural, and their could also be referring to plural 3rd parties (rather than plural cats), in other words, ¨la leche de ellos¨

Ya me quedó claro. Gracias. - 007e54d7, Oct 13, 2013

Answer 3

The third one is more used.

Answer 4

How do you know it's "la gata" and not "el gato"?

To me is "el gato", else I guess I would use either "female cat" or "pussycat"

Creo que el genero en este ejemplo es irrelevante. Sólo quería saber si era la leche de la gata misma o de algun otro gato, perro, etc. De algún otro sujeto. - 007e54d7, Oct 14, 2013