Breakdown of Il proprietario ha la sua chiave, e noi abbiamo la nostra.
e
and
noi
we
la chiave
the key
avere
to have
Questions & Answers about Il proprietario ha la sua chiave, e noi abbiamo la nostra.
Why does nostra have the article la in front of it if it just means "ours"?
In Italian, independent possessive pronouns (words like "mine", "yours", or "ours" that stand alone without a noun) almost always need a definite article. So instead of just saying nostra for "ours", you must say la nostra.
How do we know to use the feminine form la nostra when "we" (noi) could be a group of men?
The gender of a possessive pronoun doesn't depend on the people who own the object, but on the object itself! La nostra replaces the phrase la nostra chiave. Because chiave (key) is a feminine singular noun, the pronoun replacing it must be feminine singular too.
Chiave ends in -e. How can I tell if it is masculine or feminine?
Nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, so you have to memorize their gender as you learn them. However, this sentence gives you two big clues: the feminine article la and the feminine possessive adjective sua. Both clearly show us that chiave is feminine.
Is it strictly necessary to include the word noi (we) before abbiamo?