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Is the Russian expression "мне до ней далеко" grammatical? And if so, what is this phenomenon called?

2 Answers 2

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Is the Russian expression "мне до ней далеко" grammatical?

Yes, albeit colloquial.

Ней can replace the literary неё in the genitive most readily after у, but can be used after all prepositions governing the genitive.

  • Она чувствовала внутренний жар, как будто в груди у ней лежало раскаленное железо. [М. Ю. Лермонтов. Герой нашего времени (1839-1841)]
  • — От ней и башка небось не трещит, сколь ни пей? [Сергей Каледин. Записки гробокопателя (1987-1999)]
  • Не доходя до ней, он услышал с берегу знакомый голос: [Н. Г. Помяловский. Мещанское счастье (1860)]

Before 1900, у ней instead of у неё (нея in the pre-reform orthography) was widespread even in literature.

If so, what is this phenomenon called?

Which phenomenon exactly?

Replacing literary words in common speech and discourses imitating common speech is called "colloquialism".

The tendency towards omitting sounds not crucial for conveying the meaning is called "relaxed speech".

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    нея is definitely not grammatical now
    – Anixx
    Aug 27 at 17:04
  • I did not mean whether it is a colloquialism, but rather whether it is a special form of genitive or what.
    – Anixx
    Aug 27 at 17:05
  • @Anixx: ней is a colloquial way to form the genitive of она, most often used after у but also after other prepositions. What exactly do you mean by "special"? до ней and до неё are semantically the same but stylistically different.
    – Quassnoi
    Aug 27 at 17:42
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Думаю так можно говорить, только чтобы упростить для себя задачу склонения местоимений. Однако в повседневной жизни, использование "ней" в пободном выражении, можно встретить редко. Обычно говорят и пишут "Мне до неё далеко".

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