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Him in Russian, cases again | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| moorea21 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5125 days ago 26 posts - 26 votes Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 8 12 December 2010 at 8:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi,
If someone asked me what the Russian words for 'he' and 'him' are, I'd say "он" and "его"... In what circumstances would one use "у него" instead? Is it just in situations where you'd be saying something like " I stay at his" meaning "I stay at his place" ? I think this is an accusative/ genitive thing, yes? Incidentally, are all animate nouns identical in their accusative and genitive forms? Or does this only apply to personal pronouns? Or am I in a muddle again? Thanks in advance! I know this is a n excellent forum for getting a lot of replies! Rich B 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RedKing'sDream Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5804 days ago 53 posts - 68 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Ukrainian | Message 2 of 8 12 December 2010 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey,
"Y" is simply a preposition which roughly means "by," "at" or "at the place of," both in a literal and abstract sense. It just so happens that this preposition requires the genitive case. "у него" would normally mean "He has" but there are many idiomatic uses of this construct. Asking when you would use "у него" instead of "он" "его" is like asking, "when do I use 'he has' instead of 'he?'" It depends on what you're trying to say. In one sense, there are many forms of "him" in Russian, since several of the different forms of the pronoun can only be translated as "him." As for your second question, all masculine singular animate nouns take the genitive form as their accusative form. All animate plural nouns take genitive for the accusative in the plural. Hope this helps. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| moorea21 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5125 days ago 26 posts - 26 votes Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 8 12 December 2010 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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It helps a lot actually. Thanks for taking the time.
Can I infer from your reply that animate feminine nouns don't necessarily take the same form in genitive and accusative cases? Thanks, Richard B 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| litovec Tetraglot Groupie Switzerland lingvometer.com Joined 5136 days ago 42 posts - 60 votes Speaks: German, Russian, French, English | Message 4 of 8 13 December 2010 at 11:48am | IP Logged | ||
Hi Richard, let's see it on the example of the feminine animated noun "she-wolf" - "волчица". Genitive: "волчицы" Acusative: "волчицу" So, as you see they differ. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| moorea21 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5125 days ago 26 posts - 26 votes Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 8 13 December 2010 at 2:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Okay, that's good to know!
thanks, Litovec 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1qaz2wsx Diglot Groupie Greece Joined 5378 days ago 98 posts - 124 votes Speaks: Greek*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Albanian | Message 6 of 8 13 December 2010 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can use у него to state possession.For example .Where is my pen? He has it.-где моя ручка?-у него.
You can also use у него with the verb спросить to ask.спраси у него or спраси его-ask him. And when talking about body parts у него is prefered rather than его.у него глаза голубые.His eyes are blue. Edited by 1qaz2wsx on 14 December 2010 at 7:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| RedKing'sDream Diglot Groupie United States Joined 5804 days ago 53 posts - 68 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Ukrainian | Message 7 of 8 14 December 2010 at 3:15am | IP Logged | ||
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Litovec, is right, although notice that I said "all animate" nouns use the genitive as the accusative in the PLURAL. This means applies, of course, to feminine nouns, but only in the plural.
Notice, that in some cases, "у него" could also mean "his," as in the following example, "У него отец просто гений!"-- "His father is simply a genius!" (Somewhat more literally, "The father by him is simply a genius!") You'll encounter many idiomatic uses of many grammatical constructs, so my advice would be not to necessarily insist on telling yourself there is one concrete translation without exceptions. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| moorea21 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5125 days ago 26 posts - 26 votes Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 8 21 December 2010 at 4:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi RedKing's,
I hope you can clarify this part of your post for me: "You'll encounter many idiomatic uses of many grammatical constructs, so my advice would be not to necessarily insist on telling yourself there is one concrete translation without exceptions. " Does this mean that there is often a choice of more than one correct ending for, say, a verb that would be equally suitable within a sentence? Or do you mean that it's common and (more or less) acceptable to find the incorrect ending being used by native speakers? This hinges on whether you mean idiomatic to that language, or to that particular speaker... I'm not sure precisely of the scope of the word idiomatic. Rich B 1 person has voted this message useful |
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