14
votes
Accepted
The infinitive of "уймитесь"?
It's "уняться". Well, usually the answer supposed to be somewhat wider, but in this particular case that's virtually all that can be said)
UPD: To make this answer slightly more informative, here's ...
- 37.8k
10
votes
Accepted
Откуда суффикс -л у существительных: "страшило", "чернила", "пряло" и т.п
Суффикс -л-о происходит от праславянского суффикса *-dl-ŏ, который служил для образования названий орудий. Происходит от праиндоевропейского суффикса *-dʰl-, который соединялся с тематическим *ŏ и ...
- 26k
9
votes
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Почему так часто "ничего" а не "ничто"? (Why "ничего" and not "ничто"?)
Negation of existense (i.e. "no such thing") in Russian requires Genitive. Ничего is Genitive. That's it.
Accusative Ничто is a special object. It isn't nothing. It's Nothing.
But the difference may ...
- 15.3k
9
votes
Accepted
How non-native Russian language course will approach to deciphering the phrase "Косил косой косой косой"?
The original phrase can be extended/modified:
Лопоухий косой за песчаной косой пал под острой косой косой бабы с
косой.
The updated phrase uses the word "косой" with 5 different meanings. Extra ...
- 3,088
8
votes
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Why is it "девяностОлетний", but "сорокАлетний"?
These are the rules for declining composits with the first numeral root.
We use the genitive in this case but not a connecting vowel:
Одиннадцать → одиннадцати
Двадцать → двадцати
Тридцать → ...
- 1,080
7
votes
Accepted
Where does the -и ending in "Ныне отпущаеши..." come from?
Yes it's the archaic form. In Old Russian it had been the form for the second person (one that is used with ты) - roughly speaking where we now have шь in modern Russian it was ши. in Old Russian (or ...
- 37.8k
7
votes
Why is "Никита" a typical masculine name?
Typically short from of masculine first names also end in -а or -я.
For instance:
Дима
Петя
Вова, Володя
etc
The following full form of masculine first names also end in -а or -я:
Илья
Добрыня
...
- 8,306
6
votes
Accepted
Why does оставлять/оставить mean to leave when it literally means 'to put around'?
(a) Оставить does not mean "misplace". It can of course mean a related thing, forgetting/abandoning/leaving something behind, but that's not the same as "misplacing". You remember the location; you ...
- 19.2k
6
votes
Why is "Никита" a typical masculine name?
Russian nouns ending in -а or -я are either feminine or masculine.
Feminine: мама, тётя, Наташа, Ольга, Светлана
Masculine: папа, дядя, воевода, Никита, Данила, Серёжа, Саша, Коля, Петя
- 26k
6
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How non-native Russian language course will approach to deciphering the phrase "Косил косой косой косой"?
"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." is a grammatically correct sentence in American English, used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create ...
- 2,442
6
votes
Accepted
Why is "Никита" a typical masculine name?
It comes from Greek masculine name Νικήτας meaning "victor". The Greek ending -ς is usually dropped in Russian so the word ends up with -α. This is similar to French masculine name Nicolas (which was ...
- 14.4k
6
votes
Accepted
'По окончании этапа' или 'по окончанию этапа'
В данном контексте (в значении "после окончания этапа") правильно: по окочании.
Подробнее: ссылка1, ссылка2.
По окончании — если мы говорим в контексте «после какого-либо события», тогда в конце ...
- 8,306
5
votes
Regarding the adjective "Христов"
I can't think of any others that look like it
Tons. Отцов, дедов, братов etc.etc.
I'm only familiar with -ов in modern Russian, where it is an ending for plural nouns or singular male surnames
...
- 15.3k
5
votes
Why do many military unit types have weird declension?
Zero ending in Genitive plural could be a remnant or influence of both Church Slavonic, where both forms seem to be equivalent, and Old Russian, where it was characteristic of the words we now inflect ...
- 19.6k
5
votes
Writing "o" or "a"
Well, this is a problem of a vowel reduction: unstressed Russian "О" is usually replaced by "А" in the spoken language (called Áканье). So to write it properly one usually has to find a word of the ...
- 15.3k
4
votes
Белка живет в дупле. Две белки выглянули из своих ...?
The correct answer is дупел: ru.wiktionary.org.
Plural forms of some neuter nouns are rarely used in everyday language. Also significant part of the neuter nouns have no plural form at all. To be ...
- 8,306
4
votes
Accepted
тупенькая meaning
It means thick (headed). Grammatically it is the word тупая with the suffix -еньк(ая) (-ая is ending)
-еньк (-оньк) is a suffix of adjectives, adverbs and nouns which imparts them diminutive ...
- 19.6k
4
votes
Accepted
Examples of compound words "hidden in plain sight"?
Well, that could be trickier than you think.
"нет+(genitive)=не+есть"
Actually "нет" goes from "нету" which is "не [есть] тут" (not here).
"когда=кого+года", "всегда=все+года"
This is a ...
- 15.3k
4
votes
Regarding the adjective "Христов"
In Russian we have got possessive adjectives, which mean belonging to a person or an animal (singular ):
мамина сумка, отцовы кроссовки, кошачьи следы, нянькины сказки, кровь Христова братовы ...
- 21.3k
4
votes
Etymology of -ова in Russian surnames
It will be formed as the possessive form of a name or nickname:
Иван: Иванова дочь Марья.
Мороз: Морозов сын Василий.
-а is a distinct morpheme — an ending denoting case. The masculine nominative ...
- 2,645
3
votes
Почему так часто "ничего" а не "ничто"? (Why "ничего" and not "ничто"?)
On my map the accusative of ничто is still ничто. Example:
Из-за кризиса все облигации превратились в ничто.
I cannot come with an example where ничто would be in accusative but having the form ...
- 14.4k
3
votes
Why do many military unit types have weird declension?
Actually de-facto, form like гусаров, партизанов, солдатов are perfectly legal but have slightly different meaning. Here's a quote:
Существительное, одушевлённое, мужской род, 2-е склонение (тип
...
- 37.8k
3
votes
Why do many military unit types have weird declension?
One theory maintains that these exceptions from the regular pl.G. ending rule can most of the time be classified as collective nouns (not exactly the same phenomenon as well-known English collective ...
- 2,383
3
votes
Accepted
Writing "o" or "a"
Checking o/a with finding the same root based words doesn't work if there is an alternation of vowels in the root.
A Here is the list of alternation vowels roots with o/a inside:
зар – зор
клан – ...
3
votes
Strange Genitive Plural of просьба: why просьб and not просеб?
I think свадеб is the real outlier here. Просьб is in line with служб, тяжб, and even женитьб. What's more, I think свадеб is a later development, driven by ease of pronunciation, from an earlier *...
- 19.2k
3
votes
Strange Genitive Plural of просьба: why просьб and not просеб?
Not sure but I think that's because "просьба" is pronounced as "прозьба" ("с" becomes voiced because the following "б" is paired voiced). So if it were "просеб", "с" wouldn't become voiced unlike its ...
- 326
3
votes
Accepted
Времена в русском языке
В школе учили правильно: времен три. Плюс два вида, два залога, три наклонения.
Слышал, слыхал, слыхивал - разные глаголы. Корень один, но связи между ними нерегулярные, примерно как между рука, ...
- 15.9k
3
votes
Accepted
Are "из лесу" and "из леса" completely interchangeable?
Sort of yes, modification with adjective sounds ok here, like in "из тёмного лесу/леса", "из зимнего лесу/леса" - though I have to admit that most likely one will use adjective in ...
- 37.8k
2
votes
Accepted
Strange Genitive Plural of просьба: why просьб and not просеб?
I've checked words ending with all (or almost all) possible combinations of C1C2V and C1ьC2V type, where C1 and C2 are different consonants, and V is vowel а, я, о or е. The main conclusions are:
...
- 2,157
2
votes
Почему так часто "ничего" а не "ничто"? (Why "ничего" and not "ничто"?)
Building on Kovyl's post: a good example is the line from Olga Berggolts' poem at the Piskaryovskoe Cemetery, where many victims of the WWII blockade of Leningrad are buried:
Никто не забыт, ничто не ...
- 604
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