Russian Speakers?

[chequita guevara]

This phrase should help you well in class.
Ya ni znayu.

[The Andy-Man]

Originally posted by Napoleon I
Well, the difference in the usage of 'is' and 'are' is more a question of semantics in my mind. There is a word that formally means is - est, but it is not used the same way. You could theoretically say "What is life" "Chto est zhizn" but it would sound awkward. Generally the state of being is implied rather than said, as in "On visokiy" "He tall" which means, of course, "he is tall". But, on mature reflection, that is a rather minute detail for a person who is just starting out Doubtlessly he is already or

#I am hardly - this is all very interesting, as well as incredibly useful.

Does anybody know which the 6 cases are?


And thanks again everyone!

[Namaste]

nominative, genitive, accusative, dative, prepositional, and instrumental

I was always surprised by Russian's lack of its usage as a helping verb. In other slavic languages, like Croatian for example, there is a verb "biti" which is conjugated out and fulfills the same function as "to be" in English.

It left me wondering how est was actually supposed to function. Thanks for giving me a better idea of that.

[The Andy-Man]

So would these be the right cases?

The Dog (nominative) hit the cat (accusative) with a stick (instrumental)

The ball (nominative) of the cat (genitive)

I am not sure about preostion and dative, as the uses of dative that i know are covered by the instrumental, and i think maybe by the prepostional case (in the inflective language i know a little bit of, dative of means/ manner would be 'with happiness' or 'happily' aswell as 'into the market')

[Namaste]

Yep, those are the correct cases.

The Prepositional case talks about in or on something, such as in the city "v gorode" or on the street "na ulitse" for example. Dative, on the other hand, is more about doing something to or for something else.

For example, the sentence "I am reading a magazine to my brother" would be, in Russian, "Ia chitayu zhurnal bratu." The -u at the end of brat (brother) indicates the dative case and describes what is being done to the brother.

[The Andy-Man]

i see, thats helped alot actually. the only thing i am worried about is that they will teach the language to us like they did french in school:

This is how we say 'Hello, I am Joe, there is a monkey under the table and my bedroom is green.'

and never touch apon the grammer (which in my opinion is essential before all else in ANY language)

[Napoleon I]

Actually, as far as I know, English has the remnants of three cases (mostly in pronouns): objective 'who', subjective 'whom', and possessive 'whose'. The problem is in everyday speech we tend not to use them at all

As far as dative is concerned, just think of it as the indirect object in English. It would mostly asnwer questions "To whom?" or "For what". There is actually a very useful trick for learning Russian cases, that I hope they teach you. We were taught in school that each case has a couple of questions that it answers, for example the nominative answers "Kto? Who? Chto? What?" You see a sentence "Man is walking in the street." and you ask "Who?" - the man, therefore it should be in the nominative.

And so on...

[The Andy-Man]

i understand most of the cases fine now i htink, thanks to all you. Its a shame about the english language, because it has lost pretty much all case (i think Genitive is the only clear one in use). Then again, each language to its own

Presumably, dative is purley for things which are acted upon then?

[Napoleon I]

Dative could be used for things acted upon, or things indirectly involved (either benefited or victimized) by the action. Basically, think of it as "To whom" "For whom" "For what" type of case.

Hope that helps

[Zevico]

Immortal Wombat: Prover Svoyu Zadnitsu===Check your ass....

[Chris Wilkinson]

I'm a second year uni student doing a degree in Russian. The first year was spent doing an intenstive course in the language and now I'm preparing for next year when I'll be living in Russia (Petrozavodsk then Volgograd).

[Aivo½so]

Wow, there are a lot of Russian speakers on this forum

I started studying Russian independently some months ago and I'm hoping to take some university courses when the next semester begins. I have Russian relatives and it would be nice to be able to communicate with them in Russian. That way I'll also easily get into a high position after the Russkies have conquered Finland.

Petrozavodsk is in the Karelian Republic near Finland and it seems the website of Petrozavodsk University (http://www.karelia.ru/psu/) actually is partially available in Finnish. I've never been to Petrozavodsk myself, though...

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
That way I'll also easily get into a high position after the Russkies have conquered Finland.

Very prudent! We'll appoint you the mayor of your town.

Petrozavodsk is in the Karelian Republic near Finland and it seems the website of Petrozavodsk University (http://www.karelia.ru/psu/) actually is partially available in Finnish. I've never been to Petrozavodsk myself, though...

You forgot to mention that it should rightfully belong to Finland.

[Serb]

The most exiting part of Russian language is Russian swearing. No other language has such insane combinations of insults. It's entire separate language, something that we call- "mat".