16
votes
Accepted
Describe a Language Without the Noun for "Language"
Yes, it is quite common in conversational speech:
Он знает английский. = He knows English.
Она предпочитает русский. = She prefers Russian.
Note that language names or nationalities are not ...
- 15.9k
15
votes
Accepted
Difference in usage between "пи́ща" and "еда"
The aspects of difference:
Пища из more formal version of еда in the meaning 'food'.
Unlike пища, еда can be used directly in the meaning 'having meals'. e. g.:
(разговаривать) во время еды
...
- 11.9k
14
votes
Meaning of "подъезд"
As an addition to @Artemix' answer, here's a picture of what a подъезд looks like. Usually buildings have several of them, they are counted from left to right, so the leftmost arrow points to the ...
- 26k
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 ...
- 1,740
12
votes
Little questions regarding "tram stop"
Apart from putting the adjective into the feminine gender to adjust it to the feminine noun остановка, you also have to put the resulting word combination into the Accusative case, because the ...
- 26k
12
votes
Accepted
How is яблони different from яблоки?
I think яблони refers to the apple trees while яблоки refers to the apples.
- 417
12
votes
Why are some city names, when named after people, given -sk suffix, but others aren't?
There's no grammatical rule in Russian that specifies city name generation based on person names. It's rather random or based on historical context.
For example, in early soviet times Stalingrad (now ...
- 2,252
10
votes
Accepted
"Радио" or "ра́дио"
Both forms are correct.
The "accent" is a stress mark. Stress marks are omitted in most books. They are printed in books for beginner readers, and in words where a change of stress would change the ...
- 3,088
9
votes
Meaning of "подъезд"
Its "communal entrance hallway" or "entrance of an apartment building".
Other synonym is "парадное".
One building can have multiple entrances which lead to a different parts of a building.
Мы ...
- 11.3k
9
votes
I am confused by the difference between the word for a language and the word for a people who speak that language
Yes, in Russian, the name of the nationality is usually different from the name of the language. That's because nationalities are nouns, English often has the same difference: nationality is Pole, but ...
- 26k
9
votes
"у нас туго с деньга́ми": Does this instrumental "деньга́ми" stem from "де́ньги" or "деньга́"?
The word "деньга́" is ancient and rare, although it might be used as a colloquial or a joke.
In this (seemingly ordinary) case the word "де́ньги" was the original form, no doubt.
- 1,675
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 ...
- 321
9
votes
Accepted
Is there a shorter or more colloquial word for "pet"?
There is the word питомец (etymologically, "the one being fed"), but
it has other meanings, it's less popular than домашнее животное, and, if anything, it's more bookish.
In compound words, ...
- 51.6k
8
votes
"Добавить в друзья" - why nominative?
You're on the right track, but the meaning is more abstract than "friends list"; it's more like the "state of being a friend" in general. Compare записать в члены общества, вывести в генералы, etc. It ...
- 19.2k
8
votes
Accepted
«И беспечной птицей» - why instrumental?
"И беспечной птицей" is indeed in an instrumental case - it answers the question "Улетаешь кем?" - птицей.
To better understand why it is so, think of this phrase as of something with hidden verb ...
- 37.8k
8
votes
«И беспечной птицей» - why instrumental?
It is instrumental case indeed.
One of the functions of instrumental in Russian is conveying sense of similarity. Usually it can be replaced with an analytical construct with как ("like"):
...
- 51.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Can anyone clear up some discrepancies between rules for numeral+adjective+noun agreement for 2/3/4 and actual usage (as found through e-sources)?
Both nominative plural and genitive plural adjectives can be used with feminine nouns. Nominative plural is preferred.
Lisa, you are not the first to notice this variation (and well done spotting it!)...
- 15.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Difference between сожитель, любовник and фаворит
Сожитель indeed has some negative connotation for me. It doesn't mean "lover" in a sense that it is a partner for a married person, but it simply means people living together and having a relationship ...
- 1,542
7
votes
Is there a word for Motherworld, similar to Motherland (Родина)?
Родина means "place of birth". So it's valid word for both Motherland and Motherworld. Other valid translation of Motherworld is родной мир. If Motherworld is planet than родная планета is valid too.
- 605
7
votes
Difference in usage between "пи́ща" and "еда"
Еда means food, meal
Пища means food, nourishment
While these two words are often synonyms, you can think of the difference between "meal" and "nourishment" to understand the difference between "еда"...
- 4,294
6
votes
Is the "Great Patriotic War" used only for the Eastern European Theater 1941 - 1945?
The term "Великая Отечественная война" (Great Patriotic War) refers only to the war between USSR and the Nazi Germany, together with it's European allies (fascist Italy, Romania etc.) It started at ...
- 8,522
6
votes
"у нас туго с деньга́ми": Does this instrumental "деньга́ми" stem from "де́ньги" or "деньга́"?
Russian stress is very mobile, and etymology does not play the leading role in defining it.
Words like серьга, кирка, грудь, ось, глушь, сажень, Обь, Пермь, кружево, зеркало and numerous others don't ...
- 51.6k
6
votes
Accepted
Difference between "в тишине" and "в тишину"?
Your guess is correct. "В тишине" is being in a silence, while "в тишину" is a poetic expression (and you will hardly encounter it in a colloquial conversation, as well as «на ...
- 37.8k
6
votes
Cases after connectives
Sure, both nouns should be in the dative case not genitive.
звонить (кому?) матери и тёте.
- 21.3k
5
votes
Accepted
Nouns with mixed masc./fem. declensions
That's a well-known school question. These nouns are called "разносклоняемые". There are eleven neuter gender nouns ending in "-мя" and one masculine "путь" which you mentioned above.
The full list ...
- 15.3k
5
votes
When does неделя become неделю?
Неделю is the accusative singular. The ending comes from a Proto-Slavic nasal — *neděljǫ — which is a cognate of the accusative ending -am of the Latin first declension, e. g. agricolam vidi "I saw a ...
- 19.2k
5
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between пользование and использование?
Пользование comes from the verb пользоваться (imperfective; -ся is mandatory: пользовать is not used in contemporary Russian) and means continuous (daily) consumer usage.
Пользование холодильником ...
- 11.9k
5
votes
"Я один кто не знал, что вариантов у итогового теста два?"
По-русски мы говорим так:
Интересно, я один не знал, что у теста два варианта (только я не знал, я единственный не знал )
Возможен вариант с инверсией
..., что вариантов у теста два.
"Кто" ...
- 21.3k
5
votes
"Я один кто не знал, что вариантов у итогового теста два?"
При имеющемся порядке слов - "вариантов"(... имеется вот сколько:) два. В случае же прямого указания количества требуется согласование с числительным:
Я один (один я) не знал, что у итогового теста ...
- 11.9k
5
votes
Why are some city names, when named after people, given -sk suffix, but others aren't?
It seems like in modern Russian language there is a "hierarchy" of city name's forms, according to a degree of importance and respectability. If we name a city after a person, for example "Иванов", ...
- 4,294
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