17
votes
Accepted
Calling a proper noun with "называть"
I understand where your confusion comes from: the verb seemingly agrees with the preceding noun which you mistook for the subject.
This sentence is actually of a special kind called неопределённо-...
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10
votes
Accepted
Often 2 variants of feminine instrumental...?
The -ою/-ею forms are older and sound archaic/poetic. -ой/-ей is the modern form, reflecting the same trend towards loss of semantically weak final vowels that turned -ти infinitives into -ть.
With ...
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7
votes
Often 2 variants of feminine instrumental...?
The usual ending of feminine adjectives in the instrumental is -ой or -ей.
Летом мы лакомились вкусной ягодой.
Вода была горячей-прегорячей.
Feminine adjectives can have the ending -ою,-ею in ...
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4
votes
Calling a proper noun with "называть"
It is the same as "they call it the White Olympics".
In addition to other answer I'd like to note that this form is always used with plural form of the verb называть. So it's easy to distinguish two ...
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3
votes
Calling a proper noun with "называть"
Sentences without subject with verbs in plural form accusative case are used in formal texts to describe sort of widespread common knowledge. Grammatically this implies an omitted subject like все / ...
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3
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Calling a proper noun with "называть"
I think you gave an answer to your own question while asking. You just wrote:
But it sounds like the 'winter games' are calling something the 'white Olympics'.
So you are quite right that зимние ...
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2
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Calling a proper noun with "называть"
Formally, that type of sentence is known as неопределённо-личные предложения ("indefinite person sentences") and are typical for Slavic languages.
However, for an English speaking person, it'll be ...
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2
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Calling a proper noun with "называть"
The use of the verb "называют" without a subject is extremely common, with the meaning of "they call..." or "some people call...". The inversion of the verb with the object is also common in this ...
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vote
Calling a proper noun with "называть"
it sounds like the 'winter games' are calling something the 'white Olympics'
Yes, it sounds like this until you read the next part and see that the case does not match. Then you go back and re-parse.
...
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Calling a proper noun with "называть"
It's strange that only the last phrase caused the question. The text has many similar grammatical constructions.
1) Олимпийские игры проводят один раз в 4 года = (Они) (!) проводят Олимпийские игры ...
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vote
Other nouns formed by prepending _само_ to an action
To mention a few:
гусли-самогуды
самострел
самопальный
самокат
самокрутка
самокритичность
самодурство
самомнение
самоволка
самоход
самоубийство
самодвижущийся
самореклама
самопрезентация
...
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