If I want to say "can I take a photo of you (your face)", how should I proceed?
Могу снять фото на вас?
Могу снять портрет ваш?
Or neither of the aforementioned?
3 Answers
It's можно вас сфотографировать?
Фотографировать is Russian for "photographing", "taking a picture", and it has a direct object in accusative, so there is not need to recourse to analytic constructs similar to English ones.
As a side note, Russians are usually not particularly fond of people on street taking their pictures without a good reason, so if you just want to take a photo of a stranger on the street, it would not hurt to throw in some kind of explanation:
Простите, можно вас сфотографировать? Я из …, мне для …
"Excuse me, can I take your picture? I'm from …, and it's for …".
answered Jul 19, 2018 at 17:23
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Better yet, use the form: "... разрешите Вас сфотографировать ..." offering an apology and an explanation, like @Quassnoi said. Jul 19, 2018 at 17:54
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As a side note—I've never heard a Russian use the word (с)фотографировать. They all seems to use (с)фоткать/ (с)фоткаться.– VCH250Jul 19, 2018 at 18:52
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2@VCH250 LOL. I wonder (actually no, I want never know that) who are people with who you are usually contact.– DmitriyJul 20, 2018 at 7:09
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What a coincidence! When I was in Russia last year, I told a few people "можно сфотографировать вас?" precisely! I just wanted to know if there's an alternative way to tell it, but apparently not.– swrutraAug 1, 2018 at 18:48
If one is asking complete strangers I'd go with Вы не против, если я вас сфотографирую? - it sounds to me subtly more polite and sort of less insistent rather than можно-form mentioned in the different question (which is 100% percent valid of course).
в разговорной речи так ( in colloquial speech so ) :
не правильно (not properly) : простите разрешите..
правильно: можно вас сфоткать? можно с вами сфоткаться?
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2Too many mistakes (almost in every word) for a person pretending to be a teacher...– DmitriyJul 20, 2018 at 7:12