Breakdown of Vostra suocera è qui in vacanza?
essere
to be
qui
here
in
in / made of (material)
la vacanza
vacation
Questions & Answers about Vostra suocera è qui in vacanza?
Why isn't there a La before vostra suocera?
In Italian, you usually put words like il or la (the) before a possessive, like la mia macchina (my car). But there is a special rule for family members: when talking about one family member in the singular, you drop the il or la. Since suocera (mother-in-law) is a single family member, it is just vostra suocera, not la vostra suocera.
Who is being spoken to when we use vostra instead of tua?
Why is it in vacanza when we say 'on vacation' in English?
Italian doesn't always translate English prepositions word-for-word. For being 'on vacation' or 'on holiday', Italian always uses the preposition in. You just have to memorize in vacanza as a set phrase!
The English translation starts with 'Is', but the Italian starts with Vostra. Why?
In English, we change the word order to ask a question ('Your mother-in-law is...' becomes 'Is your mother-in-law...?'). In Italian, the word order usually stays exactly the same as a normal sentence. You just make your voice go up at the end of the sentence to show it is a question.