They both mean "something" but I have seen somewhere that there is a subtle difference between their respective senses. Could someone give me a hint at the difference along with sentences?
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1Just a side note. Russian typography normally doesn't use en-dash. Compound words need hyphens: что-то. En-dash looks weird here. Quotation marks go either like this «...» or like this „...“, never like this “...”, though most text typed on computers use "..." these days.– n. 1.8e9-where's-my-share m.Oct 29, 2014 at 19:50
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@n.m. Looks like en-dashes are added by the RussianSE engine itself.– ArtemixOct 30, 2014 at 14:45
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@Artemix RLY? Can you point to other instances of this abomination?– Incnis MrsiOct 30, 2014 at 19:34
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@n.m. not use of a specific sort of dash was an egregious mistake, but using a dash as a replacement for hyphen.– Incnis MrsiOct 30, 2014 at 19:38
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3 Answers
Roughly, the difference is like between "something" (more close to "что-то") and "anything" (more close to "что-нибудь").
While these words are indeed interchangeable in many context, you can say only
Что-то ударилось о бампер (Something hit the bumper)
but not
Что-нибудь ударилось о бампер (Anything hit the bumper)
By the way, the same is true about "кто-то" and "кто-нибудь", which can be translated like "somebody" and "anybody" respectively.
When you are speaking about a person, a thing or a place that actually exists, but whose identity is not known to the speaker, use pronouns, adjectives and adverbs combined with the particle -то: кто-то, что-то, какой-то, чей-то, почему-то, где-то, куда-то, откуда-то...
Please, note that "когда-то" means "a long time ago".
Кто́-то дал мне э́тот каранда́ш, но не по́мню кто. Somebody gave me this pencil, but I don't remember who.
Вдруг отку́да-то пришёл Ва́ся. Suddenly Vasia came from somewhere.
When you are speaking about a person, a thing or a place that hasn't yet been chosen or identifies, use pronouns, adjectives and adverbs combined with the particle -нибудь: кто-нибудь, что-нибудь, какой-нибудь, чей-нибудь, где-нибудь, куда-нибудь...
Please, note that "когда-нибудь" means "some day in the future".
Я хочу́ что-нибудь почита́ть. I want to read something.
Кто́-нибу́дь зна́ет, где кни́га? Does anybody know where the book is?
"что-то" and "что-нибудь" have the same meaning. I'm Russian man and we speak these words like "something" and "somebody"