20
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Is "тройбан" derived from "ебан тремя"?
-бан is an argotic suffix that is used to create word that is not used in normal/official language as one of purposes of argot itself. See тройбан, щелбан, дружбан.
14
votes
What are the subsequent terms in this sequence?
In Russian, there are no such words as *однаждый or *дваждый, there are words однажды “once” and дважды “twice”. Then goes трижды “thrice, three times” and четырежды “four times”. These words are ...
- 26k
13
votes
Do Russian use the Cyrillic Thousands Sign (“҂” U+0482)?
҂ is indeed a historic relic. It was only used in the letter-based numerals (a system where A = 1, B = 2, etc; ҂A = 1000). It is not in active use for at least three centuries.
One can see 10k (or 10K)...
- 3,098
12
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The etimology of the "-дцать" postfix?
"Дцать" is just a reduction, originally "двенадцать" was "дъванадесѩте", sort of "two on top of ten". English word of Latin origin "decimal" can give you a hint.
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11
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"В об(о,е)их коробках оказались семена" - which vowel should I choose?
You can interpret "коробки" as a plural of "коробка" or "коробок", so it's obviously a trick question. With seeds either one would make sense. The examples you've found are indeed utterly incorrect ...
- 1,750
9
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Is "тройбан" derived from "ебан тремя"?
Just to prove the previous answers and to disappoint you:тройбан. belongs to school argot,
"Словарь русского арго" Елистратова
ЩЕЛБАН, -а, м. Удар, щелчок.
Возм. из шк.; общеупотр. «щелчок» + ...
- 21.4k
9
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Pronouncing long decimal numbers
I don't think there's any set rule, but as a native speaker, I can advise the following options: First you have to know that in Russian the decimal separator is the comma , (pronounced запятáя, ...
- 2,262
8
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Двадцать один хорош(?) год - declension after number 21
All the numerals ending in 1, exept for those that end in 11 (11, 111, 711, 1011, etc.), need the following noun in the Nominatve case singular. If there is also an attribute adjective, it agrees with ...
- 26k
8
votes
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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!)...
- 16.1k
7
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How do I construct numerals?
With quantities of 10n + 1, except for 100n + 11, use the single nominative: одна/девяносто одна/сто сорок одна ручка, but тысяча пятьсот одиннадцать ручек;
With quantities of 10n + 2, 3, or 4, ...
- 1,725
7
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Is "тройбан" derived from "ебан тремя"?
I believe this word belongs to school slang exclusively. And concerning its roots, it's most probably derived as a pure occasionalism with a pattern similar to дерибан, щелбан etc.
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7
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"Один" as an equivalent of indefinite article
There's no such thing like articles in Russian, whether definite or indefinite. However, in some specific phrases it de-facto acts very similar to indefinite article.
Compare following two sentences:
...
- 37.9k
7
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Which form of год is года here in “1341 года”?
Апрельским утром 1341 года would be spelt as Апрельским утром тысяча триста сорок первого года.
Утро (morning) here is ins.sg. The morning is specified to be in April (with the adjective in the same ...
- 171
7
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What case is "новых фото"?
The phrase “новых фото” is in the genitive case plural.
The whole sentence Он добавил 10 новых фото is grammatically correct, it is exactly how that should be said in Russian. But the sentence is ...
- 26k
7
votes
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How do you cite amounts of money in Russian?
44 целых–9 десятков?
First of all, this is called "десятые" (доли), not "десятки". Thus, the phrase "сорок четыре целых девять десятых" is correct, although rather ...
- 1,485
6
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Why did ten-based numerals such as пятьдеся́т lose the final soft sign of десять?
The word десять historically was a noun (as were all numerals starting with five), but unlike пять, шесть etc. it had a consonant stem.
Words with a consonant stem had the ending -ъ in plural ...
- 52.2k
6
votes
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Is "51-летний" correct in Russian?
It's absolutely valid Russian and it'a pronounced "пятидесятиоднолетний". Those adjectives respond to the question "сколько летний" and more popular (though considered colloquial) form "скольки летний"...
- 37.9k
5
votes
Numerals and cases - why in this sentence the adjective is in plural form?
Well, it's just like that. You have to remember this.
The long story: here "брата" is actually a relict of dual number, not singular. Some time ago it must be kind of "два старша брата", yet ...
- 15.3k
5
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Я вижу + numeral + noun - governed by what case?
A Wiktionary page for два helps:
два and две, when in the nominative case or accusative case, even in compounds (22, 32, 42, 102, etc.), govern the genitive of the noun.
In the accusative case, ...
- 1,780
5
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Which one is right - "Между двух людей" or "Между двумя людьми"
It was already in 1937 that Dmitry Ushakov in his famous four-volume dictionary wrote that using между with the Genitive case was obsolete. Между двух людей is obsolete, because двух людей is Genitive....
- 26k
4
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Can "одни" be paired with words that exist in both the singular and the plural?
There is another meaning of одни + plural. It means only in some contexts.
For instance:
одни женщины = women only.
В доме жили одни женщины = In the house there were only women.
одни окна = ...
- 8,346
4
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In "делегация из 5 человек во главе с президентом", are 5 or 6 visitors meant?
Well, this is exactly why the words like "включительно", "включая" do exist - otherwise in some cases there is indeed a disambiguation. The answer to your question is that the phrase "делегация из N ...
- 37.9k
4
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In "делегация из 5 человек во главе с президентом", are 5 or 6 visitors meant?
It's them, and it doesn't look like an intuitive kind of mistake: by which I mean, it was likely caused by uninformed overthinking on the part of the person that wrote the letter.
- 19.3k
4
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What case do numbers take in constructions where they are preceded by "на"?
After на you've got to put the following numeral into the accusative case.
The noun that follows the numeral is
in the accusative case singular if the numeral ends in 1 except for those that end in ...
- 26k
4
votes
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Agreement of numerals, adjectives and nouns
You understand everything correctly. The first sentence is incorrect.(Я нашла тридцать шесть #старые газеты#).
Я нашла старые газеты.
Here we observe the rule of the accusative for inanimate nouns....
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4
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Expression of number of people
The 'genitive singular' rule only applies to nouns. For adjectives (or nouns that decline like adjectives e.g. запята́я) it's genitive or nominative plural: два взро́слых биле́та, два ста́рых дру́га, ...
- 16.1k
4
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What is the correct way to write down these numerals with words
С (одна) тысяча девятьсот пятьдесят пятого по (одна) тысяча девятьсот
девяносто первый год Польша была участником Варшавского договора.
PS. "В 1955-1991 годы" is ungrammatical. But since it's not ...
- 4,319
4
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Why is "миллиард" used instead of "биллион"?
As stated in wikipedia:
Слово «миллиард», имевшее вначале значение 1012, получило значение 109 (тысячи миллионов) в «Арифметике» Траншана (1558) и употреблялось во Франции в XIX веке наравне со ...
- 8,346
4
votes
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Mixed animate and inanimate?
Yes, двадцать одна becomes двадцать одну in the accusative and двадцать один will be either двадцать одного if it qualifies an animate noun or двадцать один if inanimate:
Компания приняла на работу ...
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4
votes
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With feminine nouns, how do we know that две and три take the genitive singular rather than the nominative plural?
But how do we know?
Historically, Russian cases are defined by the questions the nominals put into each case answer.
This might not the best way to define a case, because using this definition you ...
- 52.2k
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