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 ...
- 16.7k
12
votes
Accepted
Why is «Какого цвета» in genitive case?
Nominative doesn't work for the same reason it doesn't work in this English statement:
*The dress is red colour.
But we can make it work using 'of':
The dress is of red colour.
I don't know why ...
- 16.7k
8
votes
Accepted
How to complete "налей мне" and "отдай мне обратно": "чаёк," "чайка," or "чайку"?
With "Налей мне..." any of the three options can be used:
... чаек. Pour me THE tea.
... чайку. Pour me SOME tea.
... чайка. Same as чайку, more preferred if you are younger.
Partitive (чайку) ...
- 16.7k
6
votes
Accepted
"Ветер" in genitive - why "ветра", not "ветера"?
The disappearing vowel is called a fleeting / mobile vowel («беглая» гласная). Some words have them, most don't. If a noun has a fleeting vowel, then it will obey these rules:
A fleeting vowel can ...
- 16.7k
6
votes
Why is "зуб" in genitive case in the following comparison?
The explanation is very simple - you must use genitive after больше and меньше as well as after много and мало or telling an exact number (у меня десять пальцев и сто тысяч волос).
- 4,309
6
votes
Accepted
Почему у групповых топонимов в родительном падеже обычно нулевое окончание (Мальдив, Альп, Курил)?
Old Russian used endings -ъ, -ь for nouns with historical -o stem in gen. pl.: изъ Варягъ въ Грѣкы, изъ Грѣкъ по Днепру, святыхъ отецъ etc. This means the modern zero-ending in words like татар, армян,...
- 56k
6
votes
Мужчина, который хочет надёжных отношений
It's a legacy of "ждательный" case (sorry, I don't know its Latin name). It is used in the sentences after the verbs "ждать", "хотеть", and others that have similar sense.
Sorry to say, but in modern ...
- 549
6
votes
Мужчина, который хочет надёжных отношений
I am not sure about the exact rules. But maybe with example it can be more understandable.
For instance, if you want to say "A person who wants an apple", it can be
Человек, который хочет яблоко.
...
- 279
6
votes
Accepted
"не люблю шутки" vs. "не люблю шуток"
Is there any general rule in Russian that regulates cases when direct objects can switch from Accusative to Genitive?
Not in a perfectly codified form, not that I know of.
Rosenthal has a whole ...
- 56k
5
votes
"Сейчас у меня есть мало время" or "Сейчас у меня есть мало времени"?
"Сейчас у меня есть мало времени" sounds grammarically correct, but it is lexically strange. We don't say so.
It can fall into two meanings, each of them expressed separately.
1) I am short of time ...
- 4,384
5
votes
Accepted
Почему 'я хочу серьезных отношений'?
Rosenthal et al., "Пунктуация и управление в русском языке":
хотеть чего и (при конкретизации объекта) что.
— Хочешь золота али жемчугу? (Лермонтов).
— Хочу только свою книгу.
This means ...
- 56k
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
"Short of" in Russian
The genitive is because of не.
Я видел ваш чемодан but Не видел я вашего чемодана! (Не видел я ваш чемодан! is also correct.)
Она прожила семь лет but она не прожила и семи лет
Она не дожила трёх ...
- 8,577
5
votes
Why is «Какого цвета» in genitive case?
In Russian, the question about the color of the dress has at least 3 possible answers:
(1) Платье красное. ~ Красное платье.
(2) Платье красного цвета. ~ Красного цвета платье.
(3) Цвет платья – ...
- 26.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Why много раз if много requires genitive plural in the case of countables?
In Russian, some second declension nouns have zero ending in the plural genitive.
These are almost all neuter nouns: лицо/лиц, село/сёл, as well as some masculine nouns: чулок/чулок, солдат/солдат, ...
- 56k
4
votes
Accepted
"Short of" in Russian
The use of Genitive (which is rather Abessive) is linked to the negation of the verb.
The quoted phrase does sound idiomatic (as Abessive case does in Russian), but it would still sound right if ...
- 19.6k
4
votes
Why use Genitive for "something" to say "принести/bring someone something"?
It is so called отделительный падеж, which is in most cases same as родительный падеж.
Принеси мне фрукты - bring me fruits.
Принеси мне фруктов - bring me some fruits.
You may use both, but using ...
- 8,577
4
votes
Why is детей in the Gen. and not the Nom. in this у + Gen. + Nom. construction?
"Сколько" – as a word denoting the quantity of something – takes a genitive noun by default.
An associated genitive noun (like "детей") is often separated from "сколько" rather than being placed ...
- 11.3k
4
votes
"Машина девушки" and "машина у девушки" - what's the difference?
I would assume that "девушка" in these sentences stands for someone's girlfriend though it could be some other girl.
машина девушки is most simple – "my girlfriend's car"
машина у девушки is usually ...
- 2,809
4
votes
Accepted
два тела, два села - where is the accent placed?
You are right, the numerals два (две), три, четы́ре, о́ба (о́бе), полтора́ (полторы́) are followed by nouns in the genetive singular which is те́ла and села́ - see the declension tables for те́ло and ...
- 16.7k
4
votes
About sugar, tea and raisins and their partitive case (сахару, ча́ю, изюму, кишмишу)
It's not in any way obsolete or outdated.
You use the partitive with a) mass nouns, and b) when you are talking about some unspecified or arbitrary quantity of the thing these nouns define.
I believe ...
- 56k
4
votes
Accepted
бежать + genitive
Бежать + gen. means "to avoid".
It's mentioned on Wiktionary, sense 9.
Я мрачен, дик, людей бегу, // Хотел бы иногда их видеть; // Но я не должен, не могу: // Боюсь друзей возненавидеть. П. ...
- 56k
3
votes
"Сейчас у меня есть мало время" or "Сейчас у меня есть мало времени"?
Сейчас у меня есть мало время is not correct. However, сейчас у меня есть время would be perfectly fine.
The fact is we use the Genitive with мало (as well as with немного):
У меня мало денег.
...
- 1,685
3
votes
Why use Genitive for "something" to say "принести/bring someone something"?
The genitive in this case comes from the omitted 'some quantity of...' which in Russian is typically expressed using an indefinite numeral like немного, несколько. Those numerals agree with a noun in ...
- 11.9k
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
...
- 38k
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 ...
- 2,373
3
votes
Accepted
Genitive case after quantity words
That's countable vs. uncountable. Use singular for uncountable objects, like много снега - a lot of snow, and plural for countable, like много снежков - many snowballs.
This is similar to much vs ...
- 4,339
3
votes
Как правильно родительном падеже: предтеч или предтечей?
Вы не зря сомневаетесь: слова первого склонения с основой на мягкий согласный часто колеблются в выборе окончания: свеч - свечей, доль - долей.
Нормативным, как правило, является только один из ...
- 16.7k
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 ...
- 38k
3
votes
Is it possible to write «я слушаю музыки» and what would be its meaning?
Падеж зависит от глагола "слушать " (что?) музыку.
What resource would let me know what case is required by what verb ? Where can I look this up and would such a resource also let me know ...
- 21.9k
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