callum - русский

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callum
callum - русский

Postby callum » 2017-01-20, 11:55

I've seen other people make their own threads to document their learning, so I thought I'd join in and do the same. :) Although I tried learning Russian at the start of 2016, after only a few weeks I'd managed to convince myself that it was Impossibly Hard and completely gave up. But, I decided to give it another shot this year, starting from scratch, and I'm determined to not talk myself out of it this time. :mrgreen:

At the moment, the only resources I'm using are Duolingo and Wiktionary - as they're free - and once I've wrapped my head around the basics I'll invest in a textbook or two, and maybe a full reference grammar.

I'm still getting the hang of cases (when to use them as well as their declensions... in the singular, I haven't started learning any plural patterns yet) and word order, but I can feel myself improving a little bit every day, which is pretty motivating.

I've tried to write a simple piece of text, inspired by the last Duolingo skill I completed ("Family") - would anyone mind looking it over, answering some of my questions about it, and correcting any mistakes? :D

У меня есть очень маленькая семья. У меня есть мама. Мою маму1 зовут Дж-. Её нравится слушать кантри музыку и смотреть криминальные драмы. Я живу с ней.

У нас дома есть кошка и собаки. Наша кошка —2 черная и белая. Её зовут М-. Две из наших собак — коричневые3, а одна из наших собак4 — белая.

У меня тоже есть брат и дядя. Моего брата зовут Л-, а моего дядю зовут Д-. Они не живут дома ни со мной, ни с мамой5. Но они живут на моём городе6. Мой брат — помолвленный, и он живет с его невестой. Его невесту зовут М-. Мой дядя живет с его двумя собаками.

Мой брат любит7 древнеегипетскую и валлийскую историю, а мой дядя любит онлайн игры и рок музыку.

смотреть - to look; to watch
криминальный - criminal (adj.)
коричневый - brown
помолвленный - engaged
невеста - fiancée
египетский - Egyptian
древнеегипетский - Ancient Egyptian
валлийский - Welsh


1 Can I leave out the possessive here?
2 Does anyone know how to type — ? I use the standard Russian Windows keyboard and I can only find - . :?
3 Confession #1: I used Google Translate to try and figure out how to say "one/two/(etc.) of my/our/(etc.)". Confession #2: I have no idea what case the adjectives are supposed to be in. :?
4 Can I use пёс if I'm specifically referring to a male dog, or would собака be used anyway?
5 "He doesn't live at home with me or (my) mum". But Russian uses double negatives a lot, so... ??? This one confused me, I really have no idea how I'm supposed to write it.
6 How would I say "in the same city as me"? Something like: На такой/таком же городе, как я?
7 Is there a difference between нравиться and любить?

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Re: callum - русский

Postby voron » 2017-01-21, 12:29

Good job, callum, your text is very nice and readable.

Some corrections:
У меня есть очень маленькая семья.

У меня очень маленькая семья.

There is a set of rules when it is obligatory to omit "есть" in existential sentences. I don't remember them all, you'd better consult a book. Here I think the rule is that if the subject is modified with an adjective then есть should be omitted, but I'm not quite sure.

У меня тоже есть брат и дядя

У меня также есть брат и дядя.

The rule of choosing between также and тоже is quite complicated and you'd better look it up in a book too.
A short explanation:
- также is similar to English also in that it can take pretty much arbitrary position in a sentence, so it's easier to use, but in many sentences it sounds more bookish and not what a native speaker would normally say in a spoken language
- тоже is more colloquial but its position in a sentence follows a rule that it necessarily comes after the topic (i.e. new information in a sentence).
E.g.
У Маши есть собака. У меня тоже есть собака. (У меня is new information here contrasting with "У Маши" in the previous sentence). You cannot move тоже anywhere else here.

In your sentence above since there is no contrasting information, также is the only choice and it sounds neutral.

Они не живут дома ни со мной, ни с мамой

From this sentence I'm concluding that you and your mum live separately (since you negate these two statements separately), is that what you mean? If you two live together, then it's more natural to say:
Они не живут вместе со мной и моей мамой.

Но они живут на моём городе

в моём городе
(на = on, в = in)

Мой брат — помолвленный, и он живет с его невестой

Мой брат помолвлен*, и он живёт со своей** невестой
*In nominal sentences like this the short form of adjectives and adjectival participles is preferred as a predicate. Also AFAIR the dash is only used when both the subject and the predicate are nouns (e.g. Москва — столица России), so don't overuse it (for some reason learners overuse it a lot, perhaps to substitute the missing verb)
**You know this pronoun right? If his/her/its refers to the subject, then you should use this special pronoun "свой".

Мой дядя живет с его двумя собаками.

Мой дядя живёт со своими двумя собаками.

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Re: callum - русский

Postby voron » 2017-01-21, 12:47

Now to your questions.
callum wrote:1 Can I leave out the possessive here?

Yes. Both sentences sound fine.

2 Does anyone know how to type — ? I use the standard Russian Windows keyboard and I can only find - . :?

Oh it's indeed a pain. In Microsoft Word you can type Ctrl + (- on numeric keyboard), but it doesn't work in other editors. The only fail-safe way I know is Alt + (0151 on numeric keyboard).

3 Confession #1: I used Google Translate to try and figure out how to say "one/two/(etc.) of my/our/(etc.)". Confession #2: I have no idea what case the adjectives are supposed to be in. :?

Your sentences are good. Not sure why you had doubts about the case of the adjectives.

4 Can I use пёс if I'm specifically referring to a male dog, or would собака be used anyway?

Собака is neutral and used regardless of the actual sex of the dog.

5 "He doesn't live at home with me or (my) mum". But Russian uses double negatives a lot, so... ??? This one confused me, I really have no idea how I'm supposed to write it.

I guess I answered this in the previous post.

6 How would I say "in the same city as me"? Something like: На такой/таком же городе, как я?

в том же городе, что и я
You can also say: в одном городе со мной (I guess that's how Arabs say it, too)

7 Is there a difference between нравиться and любить?

Нравиться is "to like", любить is "to love" (i.e. a stronger emotion).
Just like it English, you can use "to love" both with things and with people.

callum

Re: callum - русский

Postby callum » 2017-01-24, 11:27

Спасибо for all the corrections! Your posts have been very helpful. :D I never even knew there was an alternative to тоже. I've heard of свой, but I haven't learned it yet - it's definitely on the top of my to-do list, though.

voron wrote:From this sentence I'm concluding that you and your mum live separately (since you negate these two statements separately), is that what you mean? If you two live together, then it's more natural to say:
Они не живут вместе со мной и моей мамой.


Ah, I meant to use your version - it seems I even confused myself when writing the English. :shock:

I'll spend today learning how to use свой, learning about short-form adjectives (no idea what they're supposed to be :D), and I'll start on the past tense - it's so boring only knowing the present. :mrgreen:

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Re: callum - русский

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-02-25, 19:30

callum wrote:At the moment, the only resources I'm using are Duolingo and Wiktionary

I have Russian on Duolingo but haven't done anything with it yet. I meant to take the diagnostic test first but never even did that. :lol: It's the same story with Turkish and now Swahili.


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