7

I'm trying to get the parallel preposition for "of" in Russian language and I'm really confused a little bit. I want it to explain to a Russian how to use "of" in an English sentence, but I can't find something that I know that it is really like "of" in the following contexts.

This is the president of Russia.
This is the end of the show.
This is the bank of Moscow.
This car is of my mother.

I've checked the translation on Google Translate, and this is what I found... Google Translate screenshot

Improve this question
2
  • 7
    Don't use Goggle Translate as a dictionary! It is not intended to be a dictionary. – Abakan Mar 12 '18 at 9:33
  • 4
    The choice of preposition is slightly arbitrary between languages. Usually, if you take a given preposition in one language, it never has a perfect overlap with a preposition in another language, but different prepositions are used in the target language to cover its uses (also, these prepositions have further uses which are covered by something else in your language). So, you should give up your expectation to find "the" preposition which translates your preposition, in this case and in others. – rumtscho Mar 12 '18 at 13:50
16

No, there is no direct equivalent. 'Of' (indicating possession/containment) is usually rendered into Russian using the genitive case or possessive adjectives/pronouns.

This is president of Russia. -- Это президент России.
This is the end of the show. -- Это конец шоу.
This is the bank of Moscow. -- Это банк Москвы.
This car is of my mother. -- Это машина моей матери.

There are only a few cases where 'of' can be rendered as из:

Сделан из камня -- 'made of stone'

Вилем II из Пернштейна -- 'William II of Pernstein'

Needless to say (or maybe not) that constructs such as 'to be proud of', 'to dispose of' are of a totally different kind and are rendered into Russian using other grammatical cases. Grammatical cases are a huge thing in Russian. You won't get far in your studies without them.

Improve this answer
11
  • 3
    С "шоу" неудачный пример, несклоняемое существительное. – V.V. Mar 12 '18 at 4:23
  • 3
    Конец передачи in the translation could cure the inclination problem. A small addition. Sometimes 'of+a noun' is translated using an adjective: Prince of Wales -> принц Уэльский; a man of decision -> решительный человек; wolf of Tambov -> тамбовский волк. – Alex_ander Mar 12 '18 at 8:23
  • 2
    @V.V. А может быть наоборот удачный? Показывает, что есть несклоняемые существительные. – Sergey Slepov Mar 12 '18 at 8:54
  • 1
    worth pointing out (for those who are new to grammaitcal cases) that when it's translated with the preposition из, it governs Genitive as well – Баян Купи-ка Mar 12 '18 at 10:10
  • 1
    So how people in Russian normally learn the meaning of the preposition "of" if it's not in their original language? I believe that there is a way to understand it. Maybe you know something about that and you can share it. – Influx Mar 12 '18 at 14:21

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.