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These is a sentence in English that is formed in the following way:

I kinda feel ((adj)) about ((sth)).

In my notation of it, ((sth)) is something (some sort of situation), and ((adj)) is an adjective expressing a specific feeling (for example, nervous, jealous, curious).

According to the general meaning of that phrase as I understand it, the speaker felt indifferent to ((sth)) prior to ((sth)) happening, but when ((sth)) actually happened, the speaker is not sure if that indifference has changed to feeling ((adj)) or not. Generally, it's equal to 'I am not sure if I'm still indifferent to what has happened or feeling somehow else about it'.

Now, my question is: how to express just the same thing in Russian, but keeping it English-level short and in the voice of the speaker? While Russian is my native language, I am going through this confusion of word choice for quite a while.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Edit: since my question turned out to be too vague and general for others to understand, I'm extending it with an example of a dialogue where such wording is used. Let's say, Alice and Bob are having a talk about Mallory. In my case, it will go like below.

A: Will you feel jealous of Mallory if he'll win a fortune?

B: To be honest, I don't really care much. After all, it's not me who'll be so lucky.

A: Okay, Bob, actually, Mallory won one million dollars in a lottery today!

B: Uh... Now I kinda feel jealous...

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  • Hi and welcome to Russian SE! I'm afraid I don't fully understand the kind of expression you're looking for. Could you maybe please provide a short dialog in Russian with a gap to fill? Like probably a couple of phrases by each party describing the situation and the feeling, and then a placeholder which could be filled with the expression you're after. Thanks!
    – Quassnoi
    Nov 2, 2020 at 0:06
  • И с прилагательным определитесь, потому что от управления (а оно у каждого слова разное) зависит конструкция (синтаксис) предложения.
    – V.V.
    Nov 2, 2020 at 7:48
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    I've added a sample dialogue on the cause. Thank you for your tips!
    – Rusurano
    Nov 2, 2020 at 11:39

1 Answer 1

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I didn't expect I would feel this

If you are looking for a way to convey a surge of emotion you wouldn't expect to feel before, I would go with что-то:

— Это, Боб, такое дело, Мэллори сегодня и правда выиграл в лотерею миллион долларов!

— Ну вот. Теперь мне что-то завидно.

Что-то particularly conveys that you didn't not expect you would feel envious but now you realize you do.

As for keeping the active voice, this depends on the emotion.

Russian tends to convey emotions and feelings using verbs like я завидую, я ревную, я боюсь and impersonal predicatives мне завидно, мне страшно, мне больно rather than personal constructs with adjectives that English tends to use "I am (or feel) afraid, jealous, hurt" etc.

If you for some reason absolutely need a personal construct here (and for this particular emotion), you could use something like:

  • — Ну вот. Теперь я что-то завидую.

or a generic construct with чувствую for the emotions which don't have explicit verbs:

  • — Ну вот. Теперь я что-то чувствую себя неловко.

However, the verb form does not work well for all emotions.

In addition, the impersonal form (something happening to you, not something you are doing) emphasizes that you are experiencing an emotion you didn't expect to.

I'm not sure if I'm feeling this or not

If you are to convey that you're not sure whether you are feeling it or not, I would go with вроде и, which is quite similar to English kinda:

— Если Мэллори выиграет кучу денег, тебе будет завидно?

— Честно, мне всё равно. Не мне же, в конце концов, такое счастье.

— Это, Боб, такое дело, Мэллори сегодня и правда выиграл в лотерею миллион долларов!

— Ну вот. Теперь вроде и завидно.

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  • "что-то" here would translate (in my interpretation) into "for some reason". This is one way to understand it, however "kinda" has a much broader sense of uncertainty - more like "как-то" or (more precise, but low-register) "типа".
    – DK.
    Nov 2, 2020 at 18:05
  • @DK.: I'm still confused what the op is actually asking about (the way I see it, the English phrase, the op's description and the dialog are three different things). I went with the dialog (the party thought they would react one way, turned out they react the other way)
    – Quassnoi
    Nov 2, 2020 at 18:15
  • @Quassnoi your interpretation is the most common way a Russian-speaker would perceive that dialogue. However, the question and the dialogue really are in line. Another interpretation, way more common to English-speakers: 'I kinda feel jealous' carries a meaning of 'I am not sure whether I feel jealous or indifferent'. 'Возможно' is too formal, 'Может (быть)' is still off. 'Как-то даж завидно' is way more accurate but still not perfect. That's from what I know.
    – Rusurano
    Nov 2, 2020 at 18:48
  • Yes, we kinda have "kinda" meaning an uncertainty of "with some probability", "to some degree", and/or "for some reason". And yeah - Russian translations can be interpreted differently. BTW, I'd add "похоже" to the list.
    – DK.
    Nov 3, 2020 at 5:47

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