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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4712 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 7 25 May 2012 at 3:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hey all. So I am tracking my Russian progress in a Log, but figured I'd start this
thread so I could just bump it whenever I needed help understanding something. Well, that time has arrived: Lesson 11 in the new English-based Russian Assimil is a dialogue between two people about a film. The following is a sentence from it, along with its translation on the facing page. а мне он не нравится = Well, I don't like it. So, I am still a beginner, but is this correct? I guess I don't get why the "OH" is there since I am under the impression that OH means "he" or "him." Or does it have something to do with referring to previous sentences and one of those things being male? Any clarification on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Edited by ericblair on 25 May 2012 at 3:25am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4712 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 2 of 7 25 May 2012 at 6:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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Another question from the same lesson is about a response to why someone doesn't like a
film. не нравится и всё = I just don't. Now, I know the direct and literal translation from the Russian would be "Not like and all." I'm not really sure how to make the jump in my mind from that to "I just don't." Or is this like a colloquial type saying that I should just memorize it as it is and remember it as meaning that? Thanks :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5335 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 7 25 May 2012 at 7:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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In the first question the OH refers to the film and means it, not him as in a person. In your second question
I would probably translate it with " I don't like it, and that's it/ that's all." Good luck! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s0fist Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5047 days ago 260 posts - 445 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Sign Language, German, Spanish, French | Message 4 of 7 25 May 2012 at 7:11am | IP Logged | |||||
Он indeed means he/him, but the he/him is a Russian he/him. As I'm sure you know by this point in your studies, all nouns are categorized into a male/female/neuter gender. Assuming the discussion is about a movie, I'd suspect the Russian word being referenced is фильм which is male in Russian, hence the usage of он, which naturally becomes it in English. If the subject of your sentence didn't like a fork/вилка, it'd have been мне она не нравиться -- and in English still "it"
I'm assuming that the context for the discussion is that someone is being asked to answer a question: "Why don't you like the film." The English response "I just don't" conveys the sense that the respondent can't or won't explain exactly why they don't like it. The Russian "и всё" in the context of justifying your opinions carries with it the same sense as adding "just" brings to its English counterpart. So, I just don't like it, I simply don't want it, don't need it - is all, roughly corresponds to the не нравиться и всё, не хочу и всё, не нужно вот и всё. So there are no deep linguistic mysteries to these questions, just remember the context and remember to translate w.r.t. the meaning not the words alone, both of which should come naturally with more practice. Best of luck in your studies. Edit: whoops I guess I should be terser and faster, Cristin beat me to the punch and much more succinctly at that. Edited by s0fist on 25 May 2012 at 7:14am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericblair Senior Member United States Joined 4712 days ago 480 posts - 700 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 5 of 7 25 May 2012 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks so much to you, Cristin and s0fist. With regard to the first sentence, I was
definitely on the right track mentally. I was finding myself wanting it to be "oho" instead. But, the explanation does make sense! You are very right, s0fist, that I need to remember the context always. Thanks again for your aid. I am sure I'll return in the future for more! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| shmjay Newbie United States Joined 5363 days ago 12 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, German, Spanish | Message 6 of 7 13 June 2012 at 6:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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Think of мне нравится as being analogous to me gusta and literally meaning "pleases" with the thing doing the pleasing as the subject:
а мне он не нравится = Well, it doesn't please me. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 7 of 7 14 June 2012 at 1:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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You can refer to any noun in context by using the pronoun according to the gender of the
word (so that's why филм --> он, and not оно!) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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