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Some questions about Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 1 of 17 24 March 2011 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello!
Just a few things I'd like to know concerning sentence structure - for a small homework. Keep in mind that I'm following a course at university and that we haven't yet seen the perfective aspect - which means the verbs should stick to their imperfective aspect even it sounds strange. So... If I mean to say "on saturday morning I did..." would it be correct to say "в субботу утром, я делал..."? Then about adverbs, where would I fit them in my sentences? If I mean to say "and then I ate a little bit", would it be correct to say "а потом я ел мало" ? And if I mean to say "I read again", could it be "я читал ещё" ? Where are мало and ещё supposed to be in those sentences? And then a simple one : is каток a в or a на word? Я играл в хоккей в/на катоке, Thx! EDIT: Just in case... this thread is not about giving me the right answers so I have a better note without putting in the work. It's about me working on my homework and needing help with some specific problems. If and where I'm wrong, please correct me and explain - I'll work on it and I'll learn even more that way. Edited by FrostBlast on 24 March 2011 at 7:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tabmo Newbie Russian Federation Joined 5187 days ago 6 posts - 10 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 2 of 17 24 March 2011 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I will write down correct perfective versions of the verbs, use the imperfective ones if you have to in their place.
"в субботу утром, я сделал..." is correct. "а потом я ел мало" - You should use немного for "a little bit", not мало. The correct part of the sentence would be: "а потом я съел немного ..." As you can't move "a little bit" in English, you can't move it in Russian very freely. You can say "Я немного съел потом яблок" or "Немного я съел потом яблок" if you want to stress that it was really a little bit, not many. You should also stress the word немного by voice in this case. But for start keep немного after the verb. "I read again". If you mean "once again" - use "снова" or "еще раз". "Еще" in this case could be understood as if you read an additional part of something, because "еще" is "more", not "again". So "Я прочитал еще раз" or "Я прочитал снова" is the right way for perfective aspect. The same thing. You can move снова or еще раз to the start of the sentence and stress them by voice. But these words are more free and without the voice stressing it is nearly the same sentence. Я играл в хоккей на катке. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 3 of 17 24 March 2011 at 10:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Very helpful, thank you!
And yes, for this homework, I have to stick to the imperfective aspect - it might sound weird when you read it, but that's what our teacher asked. Anyway, I'd rather stick to the imperfective until my teacher has explained the perfective aspect more carefully to us (I believe I understand it, but I'd still rather wait). Anyway, vocabulary wise and structure wise, I'm already going beyond what was asked. I enjoy playing around with stuff that's a little bit further ahead down the path, but not so far as to get myself completely lost. Edited by FrostBlast on 24 March 2011 at 10:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 4 of 17 25 March 2011 at 12:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Okay, so I decided I'd give myself a bit of a challenge and make my text somewhat more complex. Now, I really went by instinct with the sentence structures, trying to figure out how to work it out with what little grammatical theory I've learned.
I'd like some expert eyes to tell me about anything that's wrong. I basically meant to make this into a melting pot of as many different notions among those I've seen up to now, so please pay no mind to whether it "sounds good" or not and concentrate only on the grammatical side. Again, keep in mind that I can only use the imperfective verb aspect. I realize perfective would make more sense - I'm just sticking to imperfective 'cause the teacher says to do it that way for now. So here it goes:
Edited by FrostBlast on 25 March 2011 at 1:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tabmo Newbie Russian Federation Joined 5187 days ago 6 posts - 10 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 5 of 17 25 March 2011 at 6:03am | IP Logged | ||
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Потом я ел, а я учал русский язык. - What did you mean by that? This is the only sentence with mistakes, try to to rewrite it.
Also, don't use commas after ночью etc. and don't use я often in the second part of the sentences. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 6 of 17 25 March 2011 at 2:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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I guess this sentence makes more sense if I spell the verb учить correctly. =)
Потом я ел, а я учил русский язык. And I'll keep that in mind about the pronouns and the comas. I guess I'll have to get used to the way punctuation works in Russian. Thanks a lot! Edited by FrostBlast on 25 March 2011 at 2:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tabmo Newbie Russian Federation Joined 5187 days ago 6 posts - 10 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 7 of 17 25 March 2011 at 4:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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If you want to say "Then I was eating and learning Russian" than it should be "Потом я ел и учил русский язык". Pay an attention to the functions of "а", because your sentence makes no sence. This construction however could be used, speaking about 2 different persons:
Потом я ел, а ты учил русский язык. Think of "а" as of "but"-thing not as of "and". "Мы с Машей" is better than "я и Маша" when speaking of persons sharing an activity. So...
It still sounds a bit weird, but grammatically it's ok. Also, when speaking of continuing activities in the past, imperfective is correct (I believe it is true for Romance languages also), so almost all your verbs fit well. Edited by tabmo on 25 March 2011 at 4:19pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 8 of 17 25 March 2011 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, I still have some trouble using и and а, even though I know the theory behind each (и implies the continuation of the same line of thought, a implies a small break in the line of thought, но implies what is pretty much a complete reversal/opposition in the line of thought - tell me if I got this right). It's just a matter of getting used to putting the right one at the right place.
What I really need now is to get a feel for how the ideas are expressed in Russian. Right now, all I can do is think of how I'd say it in French or English and then translate that into Russian - I don't know the language sufficiently well to start thinking in Russian directly. Often, that translation just won't work. But hey, I've only been studying Russian for 3 months and I've got plenty of time ahead of me! And you've been very helpful, thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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