Questions tagged [грамматика]

How the grammar works: how different forms of the same word can be used, what they mean, how they are composed into phrases or sentences. Use this tag with or without a more precise one (check out "morphology", "syntax", "word-order", and tags for different parts of speech ("nouns") and grammatical categories ("cases")).

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59 votes
2 answers
8k views

What are the lesser known Russian cases?

In schools, it is taught that Modern Russian has 6 cases: Nominative (Именительный) Genitive (Родительный) Dative (Дательный) Accusative (Винительный) Instrumental (Творительный) ...
Armen Tsirunyan's user avatar
31 votes
5 answers
6k views

Why do Russians add -то behind a word?

Just watched a Russian show today (The Road To Calvary), and I noticed they frequently add -то behind a word. For example: «Когда ж это будет-то» «А потом-то вернетесь» What does adding -то mean? If I ...
universe's user avatar
  • 319
31 votes
6 answers
2k views

Genitive plural of "башка"?

What is the genitive plural and nominative plural of башка? My search returned a lot of contradicting information. Is there any authoritative source with a single concrete answer?
Philip Seyfi's user avatar
  • 2,615
28 votes
5 answers
2k views

Elementary understanding of the concept aspect

First, for the aim of this question I must say that I am not familiar with the Russian language, but I read a bit about it and am curious. I've never learned Russian before and just able to say a ...
Em1's user avatar
  • 1,658
27 votes
2 answers
104k views

Слово "дно" во множественном числе

Как выглядит слово "дно" во множественном числе? Одно дно Два дна Три дна Четыре дна Пять ??? Я знаю правильный ответ, но не знаю почему так. Хотелось бы услышать аргументированный ответ, ...
k06a's user avatar
  • 389
25 votes
8 answers
3k views

How are short and long form adjectives used differently?

I'm confused by long form adjectives (which seem to be more common) and short form adjectives. For example, from свобода (freedom) there is the long form adjective свободный and the short form ...
Derek Morrison's user avatar
23 votes
2 answers
992 views

What's the first person singular future of победить

What is the first person singular of победить in future tense? The other person-numbers have obvious forms such as: ты победишь, мы победим, они победят, вы победите, он победит, я ??? The obvious &...
Armen Tsirunyan's user avatar
22 votes
6 answers
26k views

Quotation marks

Which quotation marks should I use? Some sentences use double-quotes, i.e. "...", while others use double-angle-quotes, i.e. «...». Obviously, the " is correct in English. However, I am not sure ...
ctype.h's user avatar
  • 1,515
19 votes
4 answers
2k views

Why do I keep seeing зову́т for third person singular?

I've seen phrases like Как его зовут? in several places, but when I look up зовут, it appears to be the third person plural. Why is it being used for the singular, here?
Jack M's user avatar
  • 1,119
19 votes
3 answers
12k views

Does "есть" mean to eat or to have?

I'm very new to Russian and was wondering if the word есть has different meanings? I thought it meant eat, but then noticed it was being used in different contexts. Forgive the simplicity of my ...
Day's user avatar
  • 193
19 votes
7 answers
1k views

Why "лук" is a mass noun while "огурец" is not?

In Russian, we use some fruit and vegetable names as mass nouns and don't form plural for them: Салат с луком / капустой / клубникой while the others do form plural: Салат с огурцами / ...
Quassnoi's user avatar
  • 52.2k
18 votes
4 answers
2k views

In Russian, can "мы" be used to refer to "you" in conversation?

А чего это мы такие ворчливые? I just received an IM from my girlfriend, in which she used the pronoun "мы" (jokingly, I suppose) although it was I alone who was grumbling about something in a ...
Con-gras-tue-les-chiens's user avatar
17 votes
5 answers
5k views

What is most common word for "car" in Russian?

I have seen two words for "car" in Russian: "машина" and "автомобиль" or "авто". Which is most common?
Ева's user avatar
  • 515
17 votes
7 answers
2k views

How is Yoda Speak rendered in Russian? Are there easy, yet universal, rules I can follow?

Full disclosure up front: I've never watched Star Wars in Russian. Nor do I plan to. (Edit in response to comments: that is not meant as a stab at Russian, of course. It is a stab at the movies ...
RegDwight's user avatar
  • 1,259
16 votes
5 answers
5k views

How acceptable is to omit pronouns in certain verb usages?

That's it, for example, is it acceptable to say Люблю тебя, or do you have to use я Люблю тебя. Or читал книгу instead of Я читал книгу?
MyUserIsThis's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
1k views

How do I know when to use -тся or -ться in a verb

The title pretty much says it all. It's a very common mistake which (unfortunately) even many native speakers make. Is there a rule to unambiguously decide should I end this verb with -тся or -ться?
Sergio Tulentsev's user avatar
15 votes
5 answers
1k views

Why "ничего не понимaю" ? Isn't "я ничего понимaю" enough?

There is already a negation included in ничего, in the statement "Я ничего не понимaю". I cannot figure out why instead of using "Я ничего понимaю" one uses that expression that apparently contains a ...
c.p.'s user avatar
  • 3,093
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Are there some typical mistakes made by native Georgian speakers when speaking Russian?

I've been living in Georgia for half a year and most of my friends are fluent in Russian. I've been focused on learning Georgian rather than Russian so far. But when I want to learn some Russian too, ...
hippietrail's user avatar
15 votes
6 answers
945 views

What form is "в гости"?

So, "Я в гостях" seems to be prepositional plural of гость "Я иду в гости" leaves me puzzled, though. According to conjugation tables, it is nominative plural, while в used to express direction ...
Pasha Syrnikov's user avatar
14 votes
6 answers
1k views

"Пока чайник закипит" or "пока чайник не закипит"

There is a russian joke the optimist is that who says "Ждать, пока чайник закипит" and pessimist is, in turn, a person who'd prefer to say "Ждать, пока чайник не закипит". Those two form are opposite ...
shabunc's user avatar
  • 37.9k
14 votes
2 answers
890 views

Order of declensions (склонения)

I'm learning Russian, and I see it mentioned in study material that Russian nouns have three declensions (склонения). In English-language learning material, the order of the declensions is like so: ...
Derek Morrison's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is "ну ты бухать" grammatically valid?

I don't understand what makes "ну ты бухать" a valid language construct. Can anybody point out some references? Is it some sort similar to "ну ты даешь"?
Trident D'Gao's user avatar
14 votes
5 answers
979 views

How can I say "start both hourglasses" in Russian?

I've been given the following task: "Let's suppose you have an hourglass that measures 7 minutes and an hourglass that measures 4 minutes, and you need to time 9 minutes by using only these ...
Mitsuko's user avatar
  • 11.3k
13 votes
3 answers
248 views

How do I specify a non-whole number of nouns which have no singular form?

For most nouns which have no singular form, fractions are meaningless (e.g. штаны, ножницы, весы), but there are a few such nouns where this is not the case. For example, how do I say "it went on for ...
Vitaly Mijiritsky's user avatar
12 votes
7 answers
4k views

“Она врач” or “она врачь”?

So my question is whether I should use a soft sign at the end of врач when I am referring to a woman doctor? It seems like in this case врач becomes feminine and the same rule as for ночь has to be ...
Trident D'Gao's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
1k views

Why does she say "Я понимаешь" and not "Я понимаю"?

I've heard people say "понимаешь" when they clearly intend to mean "I understand", such as in this line from the Serebro song Не Время: Я понимаешь, я это чувствую потом мы всё ...
Isa's user avatar
  • 453
12 votes
7 answers
1k views

Can you use "едать" and "игрывать" in the present and future tenses?

There is a big conflict between what I was taught here in Japan and what is written in most Russian grammar sources, and I am very curious what the native speakers have to say about it. I am ...
Mitsuko's user avatar
  • 11.3k
12 votes
4 answers
2k views

Why is мною used here instead of мной?

In this line: он сел наземь между мною и Верой
Lawrence DeSouza's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
2k views

Зачем и Почему. The difference

What's the difference between зачем? and почему?
ALI's user avatar
  • 131
12 votes
3 answers
635 views

What circumstances led to the dramatic change in the Russian language between the 17th and 18th centuries?

The language of the 19th century (even at its beginning), judging from the poetry and prose of Pushkin and Lermontov, was much the same language that we speak today. If somebody decided to compose ...
12 votes
2 answers
338 views

Не справился с управлением транспортным средством/транспортного средства?

What way is correct here? ... водитель не справился с управлением транспортным средством or ... водитель не справился с управлением транспортного средства
brilliant's user avatar
  • 5,752
11 votes
10 answers
1k views

Why do Russians say "Чего?" and not "Что?" when they didn't understand something?

Иди, дело есть. ― Чего? ― спросил Карусельщик с подозрением, но из тумана все же показался. // [Елена Хаецкая. Синие стрекозы Вавилона/ Семеро праведных в раю господина (2004)] Could anybody explain ...
Paul Throttle's user avatar
11 votes
4 answers
7k views

Difference between "тоже" and "также". Where to place "тоже"?

The first part of the question is straightforward. Is there any difference between "тоже" and "также"? If so, what? The second one is likely to have a "yes"-answer, but ...
c.p.'s user avatar
  • 3,093
11 votes
6 answers
677 views

Is "глядя на нас, сразу понятно, что ..." grammatically valid?

I heard the following phrase in one media advertisement: Глядя на нас, сразу понятно, что я ... , а он ... . Subconsciously I doubt if it is grammatically correct phrase. Could you clarify it ...
VisioN's user avatar
  • 675
11 votes
2 answers
357 views

Склоняется ли слово "коала"?

On some sites коала, коалы, коале, коалу, коалой/коалою, коале On some sites коала, коала, коала, коала, коала, коала What is right?
Marina Curcic's user avatar
11 votes
6 answers
1k views

две пары = 2 or 4?

In comments on dasblinkenlight's answer to the question "У меня оба часов/обеи часы/обои часы сломались"? some write that две пары часов means 2 watches and три пары часов means 3 watches, ...
KCd's user avatar
  • 4,964
11 votes
2 answers
752 views

Difference between "за" (as in "за что-либо/кого-либо") and "для"

In what contexts should I use за or для when saying "for" or "to" something or someone? For example, I understand that it is proper to use "за" when calling out a toast: "за Россию!". But that you ...
Maksim's user avatar
  • 113
11 votes
1 answer
265 views

How to define a general pattern to choose between n-participles and t-participles?

In Russian, when we speak with past participle, there are either н-patterns (сделано/положено/доказано/разъяснено) or т-patterns (принято/сшито/открыто). No verb, to the best of my knowledge, can ...
Manjusri's user avatar
  • 4,502
11 votes
2 answers
357 views

Are there analogous words for words оба, обе for three and more?

I can take two books in the bookshop and say обе to indicate I want to buy both. Are there any analogous words for three and more items, to indicate that I have all of them in mind?
Stepan Vihor's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
333 views

Why "обо всём" but "перед всем"?

Why is it обо мне обо всём but передо мной перед всем
Philip Seyfi's user avatar
  • 2,615
11 votes
3 answers
339 views

What part of speech is 'на!' when used for 'take!'?

Not sure what part of speech 'на!' is when used in the meaning of 'take!'
Trident D'Gao's user avatar
10 votes
5 answers
3k views

What exactly separates Russian swearing from others?

I've been told more than once by Russian speakers that Russian swear words have some kind of different connotation than English ones do, yet without being a speaker I can never quite understand how. ...
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the subject of the sentence "Друг, можно сказать, детства и вдруг вышли в такие вельможи-с!"?

This is the words spoken by the thin in Chekhov's "Толстый и тонкий". Although the subject looks like "Друг детства", which is a singular noun, the verb "вышли" is plural. (Here, I omitted the ...
okazatsky's user avatar
  • 641
10 votes
4 answers
1k views

What part of speech is "нельзя"?

What part of speech is "нельзя"? I see so many Russian dictionaries say it is used as a predicative complement (предикатив), but none of the ones I saw would "dare" state it as an adverb (наречие).
brilliant's user avatar
  • 5,752
10 votes
5 answers
705 views

Why in the russian often used "все точки над И" but not "все точки над Ё"?

Why is this in use: "все точки над И"? There is no dots - И, there is dot in English version i. Why instead there is no usage for such construction: все точки над Ё or все бреве над И краткое ?
user2496's user avatar
  • 459
10 votes
2 answers
595 views

пришлось / мне нужно было

I've always used мне нужно было to mean I had to / it was necessary to but today I came across мне пришлось which seems to mean the same thing. I can't find it in a dictionary but it looks like a past ...
Echilon's user avatar
  • 317
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is there a better way to express "I will give it a try"

I was told that it is possible to use: "Я попробую" when referring to "i will try" (to answer the question). I know that the verb: "попробовать" means "to try". Is there some other phrase/s that could ...
Ева's user avatar
  • 103
10 votes
6 answers
416 views

Use of не стану [делать]

I came across the following construction: «Ерунда! – воскликнул принц. – Я не стану есть свою собаку! The context is an Indian prince, who is told he may have to eat his dog if the food runs out. ...
CocoPop's user avatar
  • 8,265
10 votes
3 answers
343 views

Construction—Как бы не...—Why is "не" used?

In Constructions of the type КАК БЫ НЕ..., what exactly does the "не" add to the phrase. I'm looking for a literal interpretation from those of you that know both English and Russian at a very high ...
VCH250's user avatar
  • 3,497
10 votes
3 answers
3k views

Difference between нужно и надо

Hello probably this is duplicate question but I still can't understand the difference in use between these 2 words? Надо и нужно Can you give me some examples please?
John's user avatar
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