6
votes
Accepted
"Кем бы он ни был" or "кто бы он ни был" - which one to choose?
"Кто бы он ни был" tends to mean 'no matter who he is' (in person or by position),
Этот человек, кто бы он ни был, (даже если это сам генеральный
директор или рекомендованный нам Иван Иваныч) не ...
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6
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Case of complements in Russian
Surprisingly, but - no! In a certain context, the first sentence is absolutely correct and is the only possible option. It can be used as a rhema-response (as opposed to a thema-response) to a topic ...
- 4,460
6
votes
Accepted
Быть с именительным падежом
В подтверждение версии, высказанной @user4419802:
В позиции именной части сказуемого именительный падеж конкурирует с творительным падежом. Форма именительного падежа употребляется тогда, когда ...
- 226
5
votes
Accepted
Use of the instrumental case with adjectives in the past tense
Formally, быть (to be) requires the instrumental when used in the past tense:
Работа тяжелая ("the job is hard"). The linking "to be" is omitted in the present tense, the adjective is in the ...
- 276
4
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Быть с именительным падежом
Был вором = занимался воровством; был вор = являлся вором по своей сути.
Это примерно как в английском What he was vs Who he was.
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3
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Use of the instrumental case with adjectives in the past tense
While this construction is grammatically correct, it sounds awkward and unusual to me because of unnecessary complication. In 95% of cases Russian would rather say:
Я был на очень интенсивной ...
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3
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"Who" and "whom" in Russian
In English you could say “Dzherzhinsky was a revolutionary”, while in Russian this would be «Дзержинский был революционером» – in the Instrumental case.
Perhaps it is a little easier to see in the ...
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Use of instrumental with был/быть, e.g. "Ты был забавным."
What can be added to the answers in the past topics referenced by Sergey Slepov in the comments, is that at least in your example, usage of adjective in nominal or instrumental affects semantics of ...
- 19.6k
3
votes
Accepted
Use of instrumental with был/быть, e.g. "Ты был забавным."
The noun and adjective functioning as the nominal part of a compound predicate can be in the nominative or in the instrumental case.
Typically, the nominative here [where the linking verb быть is ...
- 11.8k
3
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"Кем бы он ни был" or "кто бы он ни был" - which one to choose?
An excellent question which in my opinion has an answer, it's just the difference is quite tricky to grasp. Any time you can ask "кем он является" instead of "кто он", you can use "кем" in your phrase ...
- 37.4k
2
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Case of complements in Russian
You are right. "Мой брат -- журналистом." is almost always incorrect and plain wrong.
One exception which I can think about is skipping words when a sentence is repeated:
- Твой брат стал ...
- 8,397
1
vote
Быть с именительным падежом
I think that what you have here is the complex predicate consisting of the helping verb "be" ("есть" : "был" 3rd person Past Tense) and the noun phrase. That is similar to the sentence:
Я - ...
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