# Preposition "a" vs Genitive case



## 盲人瞎馬

...e mare sursă suferinței...
...e marea sursă a suferinței...

What is the difference here? Is one correct and the other incorrect?


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## farscape

They both look bombastic (can't tell for sure without context  ) but the first one is also wrong:

1.... E o sursă mare de suferință ( needs an article) or E o mare sursă de suferință 
2. (to figure out who determines whom try to simplify the sentence and gradually build it up) :
- e surs*a* suferinței / e o sursă de suferință 
- e mare*a* sursă a suferinței (also less emphatic, e sursa mare a suferinței) / e o sursă mare de suferință


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## 盲人瞎馬

So sursă suferinței, sursă de suferintă and sursă a suferinței are all possible and are all translate the same way to English?


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## farscape

I thought we’ve established that surs*ă* suferinț*ei* is not correct: you'll either choose sursa suferinței, sursă a suferinței or sursă de suferință.

I think you're having difficulties in recognizing the cases of the noun, here the genitive for _suferință_ is _suferinței_ combined with the use of the definite article (enclitic) in the genitival phrase _sursă a suferinței_.

If you want the noun modified by the genitive atribute to be defined you'll use _sursa suferinței. _For undefined you'll use _o sursă a suferinței_.

Translation wise we have:
- _o sursă a suferinței_ -> a source of suffering 
- _sursa suferinței_ -> the source of suffering 

Later,


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## irinet

'The girl's gift' has two possible translations: a) cadoul fetei (a single Genitive); b) cadou al fetei (2 Genitive marks: 1.of the thing that is possessed, and 2.of the possessor).
When say 'gift' is pre- or post-modified somehow, as in 'the *big* gift' (marele cadou) or '*un* cadou', or 'cadou/l *mare*' then you need the Genitival article. 'al' + the possessor takes the Genitive: _marele cadou al fetei /cadoul mare al fetei (_the girl's big gift')_. 
As you can see, we use a kind of 2 Genitives _sometimes, as the English do_.

The gift is hers. It belongs to the girl.
*Cadoul* este *al* ei. 2. E *al* fetei. (we know that it is the gift we are talking of)
_
It's weird that you call these prepositions when these ones do have 'gender attributes', and they are articles (a/al/ale/ai): those of the thing that it is possessed would be an example.

Merry Christmas!


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