Catalan to Galician: one item each differs from shared possession
A distributed object is not simply a plural collection
Optimot illustrates Catalan cadascun and cadascuna with objects assigned individually to members of a group. In its example of architects carrying a model each, the statement distributes a model to every architect rather than merely reporting several models somewhere in the group.
The Xunta de Galicia teaching resource documents distributive possessives such as cadanseu and cadansúa. Its bicycle example assigns a bicycle to each girl. A Catalan source expressing one item per participant therefore has a documented Galician construction capable of retaining that distribution.
Retain the allocation rather than only the total
For an original Catalan instruction giving each of four participants a key, the practical requirement is four individual allocations. A target statement that the participants have four keys collectively would not establish that every person receives one. One participant could still be holding them all.
Conversely, if the Catalan source describes one shared key for the whole group, a distributive Galician possessive would invent separate keys. Determine whether the source distributes, shares, or merely counts the objects. The same number of people can participate in all three situations, so a plural subject cannot resolve the ownership pattern.
The Xunta resource places the distributive possessive before the possessed element. This target word order should be selected as part of the construction, rather than by placing an each-like expression wherever it appeared in Catalan. What matters is preserving which item is associated with each member.
The possessive’s agreement does not identify the owner’s gender
The Galician resource explains that possessive agreement follows the possessed noun in gender and number. Its cadanseu and cadansúa series therefore needs to be understood in relation to the distributed item. A feminine form does not independently establish that all recipients are women.
For a Catalan allocation of one folder to each member of a mixed team, retain the team as described. The target noun’s grammatical gender must not cause new assumptions about its recipients. Equally, changing the distributed item from a folder to a book can change the target agreement without changing the group of people.
Having a home differs from emphasizing property of one’s own
CPNL explains Catalan casa meva as the home where the speaker lives. The Galician resource separately documents de seu in an expression contrasting a rented home with a home of one’s own. These constructions can make different claims about a person’s relationship to the property.
An original Catalan invitation to the writer’s home need not assert that the writer owns the dwelling. Do not introduce Galician exclusive-property wording merely because the source includes a possessive. On the other hand, a source explicitly contrasting renting with ownership should retain that contrast. Distribution and ownership are both relationships between people and things, but neither can be inferred from a possessive ending alone: identify whether the Catalan passage assigns one item per person, shares an item, or asserts ownership before choosing the Galician expression.
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