13
votes
Why does рот become рту, in the Dative Case?
Unfortunately, your page doesn't mention this important phenomenon which is called беглая гласная 'a fleeting vowel.' The thing is like this: in some words, the stressed vowels o, e, and ё completely ...
- 26k
11
votes
Why does дом become дома instead of домы?
This masculine nouns plural ending -á, as opposed to the traditional -и/-ы, is a comparatively recent innovation. Even in the 19th century it was correct to say and write учители (now it is "...
- 26k
10
votes
Accepted
дверями vs дверьми
Despite they are completely interchangeable, the latter is a bit bookish.
Ending -ьми in instrumental case plural is lost, except for these words:
дочери - дочерьми / дочерями,
лошади - лошадьми / ...
- 8,346
9
votes
Why is "have you returned" "ты вернулся" instead of "ты вернул?"
Because вернуться and вернуть are two related yet distinct verbs. "Вернуть" is to return in sense to give back something you've taken/borrowed beforehand. "Вернуться" is to be back. It looks like you'...
- 37.9k
9
votes
Accepted
How should I inflect animate nouns when they are used to figuratively call inanimate objects, and vice versa?
It's a complicated matter, and as a native speaker I'm lucky not to think about it consciously.
Typically, when a person is named after an inanimate object, the word behaves as if it were animate ...
- 359
6
votes
дверями vs дверьми
Stats from the Russian National Corpus:
Literary texts (Художественные тексты):
дверями: 52%, дверьми: 48%
Non-literary texts (Нехудожественные тексты):
дверями: 74%, дверьми: 26%
(Based on the ...
- 16.1k
5
votes
Why does дом become дома instead of домы?
There is always a problem with "common rules" in Russian. As in Vysotsky's song:
Мы говорим не "штормы", а "шторма" -
Слова выходят коротки и смачны:
"Ветра" - не "ветры" - сводят нас с ума,
...
- 15.3k
4
votes
Why does "та ночь" become "ту ночью", in "I saw a cat, that night"?
"Ту ночью" is ungrammatical. It should be either той ночью or в ту ночь. And no comma is needed. And it's more natural to put it before я видел кошку. Or, more colloquially, between я and видел.
- 19.3k
4
votes
Why does "животное" become "животные" when "animal" becomes "animals"?
Животное is a nominalised adjective. These retain their adjectival declension in Russian but are otherwise treated as nouns for all intents and purposes. So for example there's столовая the adjective, ...
- 19.3k
4
votes
Accepted
What should be the proper word ending of the word "посадка"
Corrected: "посадке на Луну предшествовали тренировочные полеты".
Dative case used: "to which [Moon landing] something [training flights] was something [forerunner]".
- 1,675
3
votes
Declension of adjectives in conjunction with the verb "быть"
Literal translation are not applicable in plenty of cases. One can help you to decline ночь and conjugate быть properly but the real answer is that it's better to be translated like: "Я [cегодня] ...
- 37.9k
3
votes
Why does "животное" become "животные" when "animal" becomes "animals"?
The ending changes similar to those of adjectives (зелёное, зелёные и т.п.) since this word was originally an adjective. You can think of it as short form of "животное существо" (animal creature).
- 11.9k
2
votes
Accepted
Can it be said that the verbs in -ить are more localized in space and time than in -еть?
According to the "Правила русской орфографии и пунктуации. Полный академический справочник" (под редакцией Лопатина):
Глаголы на −еть – непереходные 1-го спряжения – имеют значение ‘стать
каким ...
- 37.9k
2
votes
How should I inflect animate nouns when they are used to figuratively call inanimate objects, and vice versa?
A human language develops over time, and its rules often become counterintuitive. Whether you want it or not, even native speakers have to look into the dictionaries.
"Козёл", as a gymnastic tool, is ...
- 15.3k
2
votes
Why does "та ночь" become "ту ночью", in "I saw a cat, that night"?
Mentioning a period of time when something is happening you have to use творительный падеж. "Ночью" is that form of "ночь".
Other examples:
Я работаю днём ("днём" - творительный падеж от "день")
...
- 4,319
2
votes
Declension of adjectives in conjunction with the verb "быть"
Foregoing the issue of your choice of words (as I don’t know what you are trying to convey), the difference between endings here is purely stylistic, as they are both perfectly correct.
These two ...
- 121
1
vote
How should I inflect animate nouns when they are used to figuratively call inanimate objects, and vice versa?
Usually noun in such usage just preserves the category it belongs "originally", so it's just
Я вижу всех твоих тараканов.
(since "таракан" is animate) - the same about "поставить на доску ската" -...
- 37.9k
1
vote
What should be the proper word ending of the word "посадка"
Accusative is governed by another verb, synonymous to предшествовать, namely предварять
посадку на Луну предваряли тренировoчные полеты
Semantically they're not completely identical, but still can ...
- 19.6k
1
vote
Declension of adjectives in conjunction with the verb "быть"
This answer is not about declension of adjectives, but about idiomatic translations of "I had a short night"
Here are some options to consider:
Я мало спал [сегодня/прошлой ночью] - I didn't ...
- 3,088
1
vote
Declension of adjectives in conjunction with the verb "быть"
Well, it's great that you recognise the as a Fem. Sg. Instrumental. In my opinion, the difference between Instrumental Vs Nominative predicate in Russian is a difference between perfected (non-present ...
- 4,502
1
vote
Why does "та ночь" become "ту ночью", in "I saw a cat, that night"?
The instrumental case is used when something happens during one of the following periods of time: утро, день, вечер, ночь, зима, весна, лето, осень. Examples:
Прошлой весной мне исполнилось четыре ...
- 8,542
1
vote
Usage of -ю ending for Instrumental case?
While I agree to most extend with all answers proovided, I still insist that in colloquial speech not always but pretty often this does not sounds outdated. It is just something quick you don't even ...
- 37.9k
1
vote
past tense without л
That can happen in verbs ending in stuff like -чь and -нуть.
Like беречь. (To take care of)
The masculine singular past tense is берёг.
But this -л comes back in the other forms, plural, feminine, and ...
- 194
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