14
votes
How can I say "start both hourglasses" in Russian?
You could say:
Переверните и те и другие песочные часы (одновременно).
The numerals два, три, четыре, оба don't play well with plural-only words like часы, весы, брюки, ножницы, сутки. You can ...
- 16.1k
13
votes
"Действующий и будущий регуляторы" - why not "действующие и будущие"?
That's short for "действующий регулятор и будущий регулятор".
It's a perfectly valid and quite widely used construct in Russian.
E.g. "a blue pencil and a green pencil" (синий карандаш и зелёный ...
- 16.1k
13
votes
Accepted
Plural for indeclinable nouns
You just leave it as is. Like 'deer' in English - "One deer", "many deer", etc.
У неё уже есть три пальто - зачем ей ещё одно?
Он может делать два сальто подряд.
На столе лежат ...
- 1,750
12
votes
Accepted
Succinct and gender-neutral Russian word for "writer"
In Russia there's ongoing discussion - and it's getting quite fervent- on whether so called feminitives (the English wiki is called just "Gender_marking_in_job_titles") should or shouldn't be used.
...
- 37.9k
11
votes
Accepted
В каких контекстах употребляются слова "человеки", "человекам", и т. д.?
Судя по странице в викисловаре, "человеки" - это устаревший вид множественного числа.
Также такая форма употребляется для придания ироничного, нарочито странного оттенка фразе ("все мы люди, все мы ...
- 134
10
votes
Succinct and gender-neutral Russian word for "writer"
Currently in Russian collective designation of people engaged in the same profession or occupation defaults to the plural masculine form, in which case it becomes unisex even if a feminine form exists ...
- 19.6k
10
votes
To say "my brother and sister," do I use мои because it's two of them or one each of моя and мой?
Should I put мои there?
Yes, you should, and you got the other pronouns right as well.
In Italian I would most likely repeat the adjective, hence going for what would literally be translated as мой ...
- 52.2k
9
votes
В каких контекстах употребляются слова "человеки", "человекам", и т. д.?
Мне кажется, в основном, "человеки" употребляется когда надо подчеркнуть что речь идет именно о людях (не об инопланетянах (рептилоиды, зеленые человечки и т.д.), не о фентезийных расах (эльфы, гномы ...
- 2,809
8
votes
Accepted
What is the plural of "кочерга"?
It's кочерги, though yes it used relatively rare. Here's how it's inclined:
Им. кочерги́
Р. кочерёг
Д. кочерга́м
В. кочерги́
Тв. кочерга́ми
Пр. кочерга́х
PS. Actually it's not non-standard, and ...
- 37.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Каким правилом определяется какая буква, а или ы, будет во множественном числе существительного
Так как же узнать какой вариант правильный?
Посмотреть в словаре: корпус, договор
Точнее, это "нормативный". А что еще может означать "правильный"?
Есть ли вообще какое-то логическое правило, ...
- 16.1k
7
votes
Accepted
How is погода (weather) a count noun?
Погоды [стоят] means "the weather during several days". The most famous instance of that 'weather in plural' used in a work of fiction is in Двенадцать стульев ('The Twelve Chairs'), a classic ...
- 26k
7
votes
Agreement in always plural words
If I understand your question right, you are making some assumptions about Russian which are not quite correct.
In Russian, there is no such thing as a noun adjunct. If you want one noun to modify ...
- 52.2k
6
votes
Accepted
Case and number of words in a label (as opposed to words in a sentence)
It's (c). "Жилых строений:" is a label and "1" is the exact quantity. Yes, genitive plural is normally used for the noun. However, the numeral is in the nominative, agreeing with the noun in gender ...
- 16.1k
6
votes
How is погода (weather) a count noun?
Mitsuko, you seem to have developed the talent of stumbling upon 'false quotes' (remember your Bismark question?)
Disclaimer: I realize that this is not an answer to the question about the plural ...
- 3,012
6
votes
"Чтобы не пропустить новые видео" or "новых видео"?
This is an accusative case. "Видео" is inanimate noun.
So, despite the noun itself is unchangeable you need to put the adjective in the correct form.
Thus, only
"Подпишись, чтобы не пропустить ...
- 524
6
votes
Accepted
In "Lesson one", should I use одӣн, одна or одно?
You have two options:
Урок номер один (not одӣн!)
That means literally "Lesson number one"
Or you could say
Первый урок/ Урок первый
That means literally "First lesson".
A ...
- 1,293
6
votes
Accepted
Do there really exist plural forms for "математика" and "физика"?
The very fact that some noun has valid plural form doesn't mean that that plural is in active use. In practice it can be used quite rarely. Consider, for instance, "сметана" - we can ...
- 37.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Singular usage of волосы
The word волосы only exists now in plural form.
I think "волосы" is a plural form of "волос", which is perfectly useful in its singular form. Apart from Wiktionary, I haven't ...
- 1,542
5
votes
How is погода (weather) a count noun?
Could you explain the logic and usage of the plural form of погода?
Погода is a regular noun (ж 1а by Zaliznyak's classification), and so it has plural just like any (or should I say many?) other.
...
- 15.3k
5
votes
Plural female gender of «Попутчик»
It's попутчица in single and попутчицы in plural. More general, -чик has correspondence -чица. Be warned however, that it's not always an equally used feminine form and there's ongoing discussion to ...
- 37.9k
4
votes
How to say "two of these"
In Russian, it actually changes a lot depending on whether the things you are referring to are animate or inanimate. Animate and inanimate nouns are declined in different ways; the same goes with ...
4
votes
"Действующий и будущий регуляторы" - why not "действующие и будущие"?
That's because Минфин is действующий регулятор отрасли and ЦБ is будущий регулятор отрасли.
At this moment Ministry of Finance is responsible for audit activity.
But Central bank will get this ...
- 371
4
votes
Accepted
How to say "two of these"
Мне нужно <выбрать> двоих из них.
See lemmata двое
and
Я выберу троих из вас.
See lemmata 'трое'
Next: четверо, пятеро, шестеро, семеро...
Would you normally use the regular number if it ...
- 328
4
votes
Difference of pronunciations of музей and музеи
Му-зей is two syllables, the зей part is just one sound.
Му-зе-и, on the other hand, is three syllables. The и is elongated into a separate vowel. This can be hard to catch in quick speech, but with ...
- 1,270
3
votes
How to say "two of these"
The main feature of these examples is that they don't have a noun attached to the numeral, while the “container” of the things counted is mentioned and attached with the preposition “of”. Actually, ...
- 544
3
votes
Accepted
Sources of the difference in using "года" and "лет"
В формах единственного числа слова год и лето очевидно употребляются в разных значениях. Но во множественном числе имеет место "конкуренция" между ними. Например,
Дожив без цели, без трудов до ...
- 15.3k
3
votes
Accepted
When does "e" change to "ё" in plurals?
Actually, as Zaliznyak (1967) shows, it is, synchronically, ё>е in the singular not e>ё in the plural. Words like "десна'" are actually "дёсна'" (' for stress), but ...
- 1,003
3
votes
Why are berries always used in singular?
Names of small berries are usually used as collective nouns in Russian. In cooking, berries are often used in the form of jam, mashed with sugar, so you can also look at that as mass nouns.
Also, ...
- 26k
3
votes
Accepted
Plural of сын as сыны instead of сыновья
Сыны is an obsolete form which indeed survived in particular phrases like "Сыны Отечества", "Сыны Господни", "Сыны Божьи" etc. and phrases that are intentionally built to ...
- 37.9k
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