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Cesare M. wrote:Baltās lauvas bija baltos mazuļus
The white lion had white cubs.
Baltajai lauvai bija balti mazuļi.
orBaltajam lauvam bija balti mazuļi.
In Latvian possession is expressed by having the subject in the dative, the object in the nominative and būt (to be) in the third person. This is really basic stuff. For example:
I have a pen.
Man ir pildspalva.
Man (dative of es) ir (third person of būt in the present) pildspalva (nominative of pildspalva).
To make it the past tense, you just use the verb in the past tense.
I had a pen.
Man bija pildspalva.
The subject is lauva (it's the lion who had cubs) and the object is mazuļi (the lion had cubs). So replace man with lauva in the dative.
Man bija pildspalva. I had a pen.
Lauvai bija pildspalva. The lion (feminine) had a pen.
Lauvam bija pildspalva. The lion (masculine) had a pen.
Now replace pildspalva with mazuļi. Mazuļi is in the nominative case (plural, but still nominative) so all you have to do is replace pildspalva with mazuļi.
Lauvai bija mazuļi. The lion (feminine) had cubs.
Lauvam bija mazuļi. The lion (masculine) had cubs.
Now let's add the adjectives. The white lion. You need to look for definite (because of
the) feminine (because lauva is a feminine noun) singular (because there is one lion) adjective in the dative case (because lauvai is in the dative case and adjective has to agree in case): -ajai
Baltajai lauvai bija mazuļi. The white lion (feminine) had cubs.
Definite, singular, masculine (because the lion is now masculine), dative ending is -ajam
Baltajam lauvam bija mazuļi. The white lion (masculine) had cubs.
Now let's describe mazuļi. It should have an indefinite (there is no "the"), plural (many cubs), masculine (cub is mazulis which is a II declension noun which means it's masculine), nominative (because the object is in the nominative) ending: -i
Baltajai lauvai bija balti mazuļi. The white lion (feminine) had white cubs.
Baltajam lauvam bija balti mazuļi. The white lion (masculine) had white cubs.