Polyglot Club WIKI - User contributions [en]

Language/Russian/Grammar/Кое-То-Нибудь

2017-08-15T19:48:25Z

Kungfurussian: Created page with "In the frame of this lesson let us discuss a very important topic referring to usage of particles ‘-то’, ‘-нибудь’ and ‘кое-‘ in the Russian language. T..."

In the frame of this lesson let us discuss a very
important topic referring to usage of particles ‘-то’, ‘-нибудь’ and ‘кое-‘ in the Russian language. The topic may be difficult for foreign students to master because the usage of each particle depends on exactly what they want to express or say.

When we are going to inform about some object or place, without naming it, we should find out whether the speaker knows the object or place he or she is talking about. When he or she knows, we use a particle ‘кое-‘, for example: кое-кто, кое-где, кое-куда, кое-откуда, кое-кому, etc.

'''·We use it when:'''

'''We want to keep things from other people:'''

· Я хочу тебе кое-что сказать – I want to tell you something

Let us have a closer look at this example. Here we can see that the speaker definitely knows what he or she is speaking about, but he or she does not want other people know it. Study this example.

You have just seen a hooligan crushing your best friend’s car a little way from the school. You want to stop him but he manages to go away. So you head to your friend and tell him:

-Знаешь, я должен тебе кое-что сказать…» - You know, I must tell you something.

You of course know what you are going to say, but you notice that your friend is not alone when you approach him; there is his father behind him. You don’t want his father to hear your message, so you use ‘Кое-что’ to hide it.

'''We do not want to name it because of the quantity of the objects.'''

The idea is pretty simple: You walk into the park and
some people once or twice approached to you to ask the time. You came home and
tell to your daddy:

-Я гулял в парке, пап. Кое-кто подходил и спрашивал, который час – I was walking in the park, daddy, and some people came up to me to ask the time.

We use ‘кое-то’ because we know who approached, but they were many of them so we don’t want to mention each we just say that some people (we know who exactly) approached to you.

'''Alright, now let us have a look at the situation when we don’t know an object or a person, or a place we want to denote. Here we have the choice:'''

'''We can use ‘то’''' if have already chosen the object but we still don’t know it. For example:

- Посмотри, кто-то звонит в дверь!   - Look! Somebody is knocking the doorbell.

We don’t know who this is, but we have already chosen
the object (someone behind the door), so we are talking exactly about the one
behind the door although we don’t really know who this is.

The ‘-то’ particle is commonly used with the verbs in
the past tense because in the past the object is tend to be determined by the
speaker.

In the future tense we use ‘то’ when the object
has already been chosen, for example:

Вечером мы куда-то поедем – мама и папа уже весь день обсуждают это. - We’re going
to go somewhere in the evening – parents are discussing it for the whole day.

We don’t know the place, but there’s no options, we
know that we’re going to go to the right place, it has already been chosen by
parents.

N'''ow, if don’t know the object and it’s not determined
we use ‘-нибудь’.'''

-Я не могу открыть дверь, позови кого-нибудь! - I can’t open the door, call somebody!

'''Remember that in the Imperative we commonly use ‘-нибудь’:'''

-Дай мне что-нибудь! Сейчас же!                                                –Give me something! Now!

-Ты совсем не знаешь материал.                            -You don’t know the material at all.

Что ты скажешь?                                                     What will you say?

-Что– нибудь придумаю                                      –I’ll invent something

'''So, it’s time for a short quiz, isn’t it?'''

1.    Иди сюда, я должен тебе (1) …сказать.

2.    Я хочу (2) ... съесть. Я очень голоден.

3.    Эй, дед, машина не заводится, позови (3) …

4.    Я сидел дома, и вдруг (4) … позвонил в дверь.

5.    (5)... знает ответ?

6.    Что мне сказать президенту? - Не знаю, скажи
(6) …

7.    Эй, Ксюша, (7) … пришёл и хочет тебя видеть.

8.    Почему у неё такая ужасная причёска? - Её парикмахер
всегда делает свою работу (8) …

9.    Я не хочу изучать русский …(9), я хочу изучать
хорошо.

10. Мари! - Да, Марк, ты хочешь мне (10)... сказать? -
Да, ты наступила мне на ногу!

I hope this short lesson has helped you understand the difference among these three particles and made the process of choosing much easier. Thank you for your time and attention!

Language/Russian/Grammar/A-vs-И

2017-07-29T17:55:41Z

Kungfurussian: Created page with "What does this strange looking title mean? According to my experience, when learning Russian, foreigners always confuse the meaning of these two conjunctions. In the previous..."

What does this strange looking title mean? According to my experience, when learning Russian, foreigners always confuse the meaning
of these two conjunctions. In the previous lesson we discussed two of them, '''‘А’ and ‘Но’'''. In today’s lesson we are going to talk about these
conjunctions in use and particularly about how to distinguish the using of ‘И’ from ‘A’.

Let’s begin. There are two sentences for you below:

'''''У меня есть друг. - …у меня есть друг.''''' (1)

'''''У меня есть друг. - … у меня есть подруга'''''                                         (2)

Where should we use ‘а’ and where ‘и’? Let’s sort this problem out.

The first one is: '''''‘I have a friend. – And I have a friend as well’'''''. What can we say? We can say that both speakers have a friend, so
in other words, they have the same object. When two speakers talk '''about the same object''' they have, we use ‘И’ conjunction.

-У меня есть друг.

-'''И''' у меня есть друг!

Obviously, that we should use ‘А’ in the second sentence.

'''''У меня есть друг.                                             I have a (male) friend'''''

'''''- A у меня есть подруга. –                               And
I have a (female) friend'''''

Now let’s find out why we have used ‘a’ in the
sentence. The thing is that now both speakers have '''''different objects'''''. The
first one has a male friend, let’s say, Boris. The other has a female friend, let’s say Natasha. When both speakers have '''''different objects''''' we use ‘A’, not ‘И’.

Remember ‘A’ always adds some new information into the sentence, while ‘И’ adds some old or at least expected information. Often ‘A’ appears in the beginning of the sentence in purpose to change the subject:

'''''-А, кстати, ты знаешь, кто такой Фродо? – Ow, by the way, do you know who Frodo is?'''''

Or when we repeat the question:

'''Как тебя зовут? – Борис.
А тебя как? –What’s your name? – Boris. And what’s your name?'''

Let’s us also have a look at the example below:

Он написал ей, '''и''' она ответила '''- He messaged her and she replied.'''

We use ‘и’ because we '''''expected''''' her to reply to the
message.

But what if we say:

Он написал ей, '''а''' она ответила.

What do we mean? It means that we have just added some new information there. The fact that '''she replied''' is new and that’s what our virtual speaker meant to say.

There’re also some examples of using ‘И’.

'''''…я, … ты, мы оба не умеем                  Either you or me, we both can’t play'''''

'''''играть в теннис                                     tennis.'''''

What do we have to put here? Let’s have a look.

'''И''' я, '''и''' ты, мы оба не умеем играть в теннис.

We use ‘И’ in order to express the meaning of ‘either …or’ in Russian.

'''Now it’s time for a short
quiz.'''

'''1. У меня есть машина.'''

'''- (1) у меня есть машина.'''

'''2. У меня красная машина.'''

'''-(2) у меня синяя.'''

'''3.     Я пошёл в кино (3) посмотрел фильм.'''

'''4.     (4) кстати, ты смотрел «Властелин
колец»?'''

'''5.     (5) ты, (6) Борис, вы оба не умеете плавать как следует.'''

'''6.     Я сказал привет, (7) она убежала.'''

'''7.     Как твоё имя? – Пётр, (8) как твоё?'''

'''8.     Откуда у тебя миллион долларов? – (9) у тебя он откуда?'''

'''9.     Он сказал “Здравствуйте”, (10) она сказала “До свидания”.'''

'''So in today’s lesson we’ve made an attempt to find out how to distinguish two conjunctions of the Russian language. If you have any questions you can easily leave a comment or submit your question into the comment box. Thank you for your attention! Practice makes perfect.'''

Language/Russian/Grammar/А-vs-Но

2017-07-26T06:56:55Z

Kungfurussian:

There are many conjunctions in the Russian language but the most difficult ones for foreigners to use are following: «А», «Но». There are difficult because it’s very hard to decide which one to use in the appropriate situation, it depends on what speaker wants to say or express. Despite the fact that there’s a big difference between these two, Russian learners always face a great deal of problems when picking up which one to use. This is why we’ve made this wiki-lesson.

Let’s talk about ‘A’ and ‘Но’ as the most difficult and meaningful conjunctions.

When choosing a conjunction remember the following statements:
# '''‘Но’''' means that something has occurred is different from the things we expected to happen. For example:
'''''I called him, but he didn't answer - Я позвонил ему, но он не ответил.'''''

So you expected that he would respond, but he did not. In English they use '''<nowiki/>'but'''' to express this meaning. The Russian use '''‘Но’''' to express contradiction as in example:

'''''My car is very old, but good.''''' – Моя машина очень старая, но хорошая.

So despite the fact that it’s old, it’s still good. When
we say that a car is old we expect it to be bad, but it’s still good, so we use
‘Но’ in this case. In the next example:

'''''I have a car, but not a computer - У меня есть машина, но нет компьютера.'''''

Again, this is contradiction: I have THIS, but not THAT. Another example:

'''''Her salary is low but she likes her job'''''               '''''У неё маленькая зарплата, но она любит свою работу.'''''

So her salary is low and we expect her to hate her job due to the fact but she does not hate it, but loves it!

''To sum it up, the main
meaning of ‘Но’ is a contradiction to expectations.''

Now, we use the ‘А’ conjunction in the comparison constructions like

'''''I study Russian and you study English                        Я изучаю русский, а ты английский'''''

'''''My name is Boris and your name is Sasha'''''                 '''''Меня зовут Борис, а тебя Саша.'''''

'''''My name is Boris, and what’s your name?                 –Меня зовут Борис, а тебя?'''''

The ‘A’ conjunction always
tells us some new or something different from the things were mentioned before.

Another way of using ‘A’ is to add some new information, let’s say in purpose to change the subject:

'''''Oh, by the way, what time is
it, I am late!                  А, кстати, сколько сейчас времени? Я опаздываю!'''''

Remember also that in negative constructions like:

'''''‘This is a house, not a car’                                         Это дом, а не машина'''''

''We have to use ‘A’ conjunction.''

So the main difference
between ‘A’ and ‘Ho’ is that ‘A’ is not a contradiction, it simply adds some
new information into the conversation, whereas ‘Ho’ is a contradiction to expectations.

Great. Now let’s have a look
at some exercises to train our skills. Let’s do a small quiz.

'''А или НО'''

1.     У меня есть машина, (1) нет дома

2.     Это мой друг, (2) мой враг.

3.     У меня высокая зарплата, (3) я не люблю свою работу

4.     У тебя есть брат, (4) у меня есть сестра

5.     Я позвонил президенту, (5) он сказал, что
он больше не президент.

6.     Я хотел купить учебник, (6) забыл деньги дома.

7.     Эта машина очень старая, (7) ездит прекрасно

8.     Этот поезд выезжает в 10, (8) тот в 12.

9.     У меня нет учебника, (9) у тебя есть.

10.  Этот кинотеатр хороший, (10) очень дорогой.

So, in this small lesson we’ve discussed two very important conjunctions in the Russian Language. Complete the exercise above and leave your comments if you have any questions about that or any other topic. Thank you for your attention!

Language/Russian/Grammar/А-vs-Но

2017-07-26T06:55:42Z

Kungfurussian: Created page with "There are many conjunctions in the Russian language but the most difficult ones for foreigners to use are following: «А», «Но». There are difficult because it’s very..."

There are many conjunctions in the Russian language but the most difficult ones for foreigners to use are following: «А», «Но». There are difficult because it’s very hard to decide which one to use in the appropriate situation, it depends on what speaker wants to say or express. Despite the fact that there’s a big difference between these two, Russian learners always face a great deal of problems when picking up which one to use. This is why we’ve made this wiki-lesson.

Let’s talk about ‘A’ and ‘Но’ as the most difficult and meaningful conjunctions.

When choosing a conjunction remember the following statements:
# '''‘Но’''' means that something has occurred is different from the things we expected to happen. For example:
'''''I called him, but he didn't answer - Я позвонил ему, но он не ответил.'''''

So you expected that he would respond, but he did not. In English they use '''<nowiki/>'but'''' to express this meaning. The Russian use '''‘Но’''' to express contradiction as in example:

'''''My car is very old, but good.''''' – Моя машина очень старая, но хорошая.

So despite the fact that it’s old, it’s still good. When
we say that a car is old we expect it to be bad, but it’s still good, so we use
‘Но’ in this case. In the next example:

'''''I have a car, but not a computer - У меня есть машина, но нет компьютера.'''''

Again, this is contradiction: I have THIS, but not THAT. Another example:

'''''Her salary is low but she likes her job'''''               '''''У неё маленькая зарплата, но она любит свою работу.'''''

So her salary is low and we expect her to hate her job due to the fact but she does not hate it, but loves it!

''To sum it up, the main
meaning of ‘Но’ is a contradiction to expectations.''

Now, we use the ‘А’ conjunction in the comparison constructions like

'''''I study Russian and you study English                        Я изучаю русский, а ты английский'''''

'''''My name is Boris and your name is Sasha'''''                 '''''Меня зовут Борис, а тебя Саша.'''''

'''''My name is Boris, and what’s your name?                 –Меня зовут Борис, а тебя?'''''

The ‘A’ conjunction always
tells us some new or something different from the things were mentioned before.

Another way of using ‘A’ is to add some new information, let’s say in purpose to change the subject:

'''''Oh, by the way, what time is
it, I am late!                  А, кстати, сколько сейчас времени? Я опаздываю!'''''

Remember also that in negative constructions like:

'''''‘This is a house, not a car’                                         Это дом, а не машина'''''

''We have to use ‘A’ conjunction.''

So the main difference
between ‘A’ and ‘Ho’ is that ‘A’ is not a contradiction, it simply adds some
new information into the conversation, whereas ‘Ho’ is a contradiction to expectations.

Great. Now let’s have a look
at some exercises to train our skills. Let’s do a small quiz.

'''А или НО'''

1.     У меня есть машина, (1) нет дома

2.     Это мой друг, (2) мой враг.

3.     У меня высокая зарплата, (3) я не люблю свою работу

4.     У тебя есть брат, (4) у меня есть сестра

5.     Я позвонил президенту, (5) он сказал, что
он больше не президент.

6.     Я хотел купить учебник, (6) забыл деньги дома.

7.     Эта машина очень старая, (7) ездит прекрасно

8.     Этот поезд выезжает в 10, (8) тот в 12.

9.     У меня нет учебника, (9) есть.

10.  Этот кинотеатр хороший, (10) очень дорогой.

So, in this small lesson we’ve discussed two very important conjunctions in the Russian Language. Complete the exercise above and leave your comments if you have any questions about that or any other topic. Thank you for your attention!

Language/Russian/Grammar/Tricky-Adverbs

2017-07-20T13:09:05Z

Kungfurussian: Created page with "'''Learn the difference between ‘Уже’ and ‘ещё’ in Russian''' Everyone who learns the Russian language asked his or herself a question, ‘what’s the differen..."

'''Learn the difference between ‘Уже’ and ‘ещё’ in Russian'''

Everyone who learns the Russian language asked his or herself a question, ‘what’s the difference between these two?’. The problem is, at least one out of many ones, that these two words can have more than one meaning. So let’s have a look at these words more closely.

'''‘Уже’''' is an adverb may be translated as ‘already’ or ‘any longer’. We use it if we have already done something we’re talking about.

For example:

''Я '''уже''' выучил русский язык                 I have '''already''' learnt Russian''

''Я '''уже''' обедаю                                    I have '''already''' started having lunch (and I am still doing it)''

Easy? Very easy! Now let’s have a look at the word ‘ещё’ which also has several meaning (up to 7 or even more)

'''‘Ещё’''' is also an adverb. It can be translated as ‘still’ or ’yet’. Basically we you use in order to express:
* That we want to do something again
''Я хочу это сделать ещё!''                             ''I want to do it again!''
* That we want to get some more of something
''Я хочу ещё пирога                                       I want some more pie''
* That we still do something
''Я ещё изучаю русский язык                          I still learn Russian''

''Я ещё дома                                                      I am still at home''
* That we do not know someone or something yet
''Я Вас ещё не знаю!                             I don’t know you yet!''

Very easy! Now I would like to share with you an exercise to practice your new skill. I am going to do first three examples and rests are for you, okay?

1.    Владимир уже в университете? – Нет, он (1) дома.

2.    У тебя есть машина? – Да, (2) есть.

3.    Ты студент? – Нет, я(3) работаю.

4.    Ты сейчас завтракаешь? – Да,(4) завтракаю.

5.    Ты читаешь?. – Да,(5) читаю.

6.    Ты (6) ужинаешь? – Нет, (7) обедаю.

7.    Вы его помните? – Нет, (8) не помню.

8.    Кто это? Я его (9) не знаю.

9.    Ты (10) школьник? – Нет, я (11) студент.

10. Ты (12) изучаешь русский? – Да, (13) изучаю.

{| class="MsoTableGrid"
|
1
|
'''Ещё'''
|-
|
2
|
'''Уже'''
|-
|
3
|
'''Уже'''
|-
|
4
|
|-
|
5
|
|-
|
6
|
|-
|
7
|
|-
|
8
|
|-
|
9
|
|-
|
10
|
|-
|
11
|
|-
|
12
|
|-
|
13
|
|}

I have to warn you that almost each sentence can include either ‘уже’ or ‘ещё’, it depends on the context and the idea you want to
express. So, please keep that in mind doing the exercises and please share your answers in the comments that would be highly appreciated.

Thank you for your attention and will to learn
Russian. I hope to meet you again. That’s all for today.

Language/Russian/Vocabulary/Several-ways-to-say-hi-and-bye-in-Russian

2017-07-10T17:26:39Z

Kungfurussian: Someone should use the grammar, I suppose.

'''Several ways to say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ in Russian'''

There are many different ways to say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ in the Russian language. Let us have a look at them in details.

There are two ways to address to someone in Russian: formal and informal. Firstly, let us discuss the '''formal''' ways of greetings. There are not so many of them, actually.

The most common way to say ‘hello’ in Russian is '''‘Здравствуйте’'''. It’s used very often in many different situations. If it’s morning it’s also very polite to say ‘'''Доброе утро’''' which means ‘good morning’. If it’s daytime we say ‘'''Добрый день'''’ which means ‘good day’ or ‘good afternoon’. If it’s evening we usually say '''‘'''which means ‘good evening’. Finally, if it’s night we can say '''‘Доброй''' '''ночи’''' which does not mean ‘good night’, it’s still a greeting used at the night time. But the last one is rarely used and some linguists consider this form of greetings as a wrong one. But the way I feel it, it’s pretty logical form, because it’s strange to say ‘добрый вечер’ if it’s night.

To sum it up, there are the most common '''formal''' expressions we use to say ‘hello’:

1. Здравствуйте

2. Доброе утро

3. Добрый день

4. Добрый вечер

5. Доброй ночи (use it cautiously).

So, now let us have a look at the informal expressions which exist in Russian, there’re much more informal expressions than formal.

The first one, a very famous one, is ‘Привет’ which means ‘hi’. Russian is not English though, and it has lots of ways to say ‘hi’ by changing the word ‘Привет’. So you can '''hear''' something like this:
* Приветик;
* Приветики;
* Прива (slang);
* Прив;
* Привки;
* Прет (it’s still ‘Привет’ pronounced rather quickly);
* Приветствую;
* Привет-привет.
Let us go
further. Remember the word ‘здравствуйте’ which is formal? We use it in informal way, too. How? Let’s find it out. To say ‘hi’ using this word we change it to ‘'''Здравствуй'''’. But they are also some words based on this word like:
* Здарова;
* Дарова;
* Здрасьте;
The globalization processes is now everywhere around the globe , so it’s possible to hear the word ‘Хай’ or ‘Хэллоу’ pronounced exactly like their English brothers ‘hi’ and ‘hello’ in Russian manner, of course.

Now, let’ us talk about saying ‘goodbye’ in the formal way. There are not so few of them, actually! We have:
* До свидания – the most popular one- means ‘goodbye’;
* До скорой встречи (See You later, soon);
* Прощайте (Farewell - You are not going to see that person again);
* Всего доброго/ хорошего/ наилучшего (Have a good day)
* Хорошего дня/ хороших выходных (have a good day, weekends, etc.)
Now, let us talk about the informal ways! There are lots of them in Russian, hopefully this article will include as many of them as it possible. Let’s see what we have:
* Пока! – means ‘bye’- very popular way to say ‘bye’
* Пока-пока;
* Покеда;
* Бывай (cheers, take it easy);
* Будь здоров! (take care)
* Давай (it’s like ‘take care’, ‘take it easy) is also a very popular way to say ‘bye’
* До скорого (see ya, in a while)
* До связи (in touch, it means you have a way to contact with a person by phone or email, etc.)
* Счастливо (You wish a good luck to a person);
* С богом (it’s like Spanish ‘Adios’)
Some foreign expressions:
* Адьёс! (a Spanish word ‘adios’)
* Чау! (an Italian word ‘Ciao’)
* Оревуар! (a French word ‘Au revoir’)
* Ауфидерзейн (a German word ‘Auf Wiedersehen’).
To conclude, in this lesson we’ve discussed the most common ways to say ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ in Russian. Now learn them and try to use as soon as possible.