# Norwegian: Our family computer was my dad's IBM XT-Turbo...



## Absu

Hello,

I have a question regarding the possessive pronoun in relation to a proper noun. I am trying to translate the following sentence:

"Our family computer was my dad's IBM XT-Turbo..."

XT-Turbo was a computer built by IBM in the late 80s. I'm not sure of its gender but since it's a computer I am assuming it's masculine.

This is what I have so far:

_Familiedatamaskinen vår var_

But to be honest I don't even know where to begin after that. Normally I can hack away at these things until I come up with something resembling what I am aiming for, but in this case I am completely stumped. I think the combination of the possessive pronoun and the proper noun, and that "dad" is in its genitive form is what's confusing me so much.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!


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## Eskil

Complicated sentence, and I am not sure we would claim a computer to be “our family computer”. But the following would work: 
Familiens datamaskin var min fars IBM XT-Turbo…


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## Eskil

In principle you can add as many links of possession as you like in a sentence. If the computer belonged to the next door neighbor of a childhood friend of your father, the sentence would run
 
Familiens datamaskin var min fars barndomsvenns nabos Turbo IBM XT-Turbo


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## Absu

Thanks for the reply!

"The family's computer" could definitely work for me.

I have a question, though. My grammar book says that possessive pronouns usually come after the noun they are referring to. How would the sentence...

_Familiens datamaskin var min fars IBM XT-Turbo…_

...be written in that case? Is "my" referring to "dad" or to the XT-Turbo?


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## basslop

It refers to dad.
This sentence could also have been written: "Familiens datamaskin var faren min sin IBM XT-Turbo…" or "Familiens datamaskin var IBM XT-Turboen til faren min …". These are probably the most common in everyday Norwegian speech.


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## Absu

I like the second example; I will use that. Could you quickly explain what the "til" means in that sentence, though?

Thank you!


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## basslop

Well, I'm not a professional in languages. However my guess is that "til" is short for "som hører til". In English that is "which belongs to", so "til" is "to".


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## hanne

"of". My father's computer, the computer of my father.


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## basslop

hanne said:


> "of". My father's computer, the computer of my father.



Of course


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## Absu

Thank you guys!


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