Single Letter Words
Jun. 18th, 2004 12:56 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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learn_russianHello,
Russian has an interesting use of single letter words that number at 8 and they are: o, k, v, c, ya, i, y, a – and have meanings as follows: o – about eg o kom? k – to eg k komu? v – in/at eg v kom? c – with eg – c kem? ya – I am – I – and - whilst the letters y and a have no meaning but are used in speech, like y kogo – whose - but the ‘y’ bit absolutely has no meaning just like the ‘a’ as in a gde? – where - so it seems the last two are used in Russian providing almost like an introduction to the word – either way I think these two single letter meaningless words are quiet an interesting thing esp as they do not have the same function as the English use of ‘a’ and ‘the’.
And here’s a ridiculous sentence making use of all these 8 sigle letter words:
-O kom vi govrili kogda ya prishol k nimu v tri chasa nochi i y kogo vi sprashivali ‘A gde on hodit?’
Russian has an interesting use of single letter words that number at 8 and they are: o, k, v, c, ya, i, y, a – and have meanings as follows: o – about eg o kom? k – to eg k komu? v – in/at eg v kom? c – with eg – c kem? ya – I am – I – and - whilst the letters y and a have no meaning but are used in speech, like y kogo – whose - but the ‘y’ bit absolutely has no meaning just like the ‘a’ as in a gde? – where - so it seems the last two are used in Russian providing almost like an introduction to the word – either way I think these two single letter meaningless words are quiet an interesting thing esp as they do not have the same function as the English use of ‘a’ and ‘the’.
And here’s a ridiculous sentence making use of all these 8 sigle letter words:
-O kom vi govrili kogda ya prishol k nimu v tri chasa nochi i y kogo vi sprashivali ‘A gde on hodit?’
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 05:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 05:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-22 06:51 am (UTC)Or maybe "Whom were you talking about".
no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 06:20 am (UTC)As to "a" - it's a conjunction. In sentences it is used for opposition: "Ya poidu, a ty ostan'sya zdes'" (I shall go and you stay here - it can be translated as "and" or "but"). Some times it is used to brighten you speech with some expression.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-19 02:57 am (UTC)There are more of them. Another "a" is an interjection, as are "e", "y", "o", "yo", "ye", and "u".
no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 06:22 am (UTC)That's wrong. "У кого моя книга" is strictly "At who's is my book", but it's being understood as "Who has my book". In the past that would be "У кого была моя книга".
no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 06:47 am (UTC)Wrong.
У (u) is a preposition which means "by", "near", "at".
А is also a preposition which means "and", "but".
Do not mistake it for the exclamation "A!" which is roughly the same as "ah!" or "ouch!" in English.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 06:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 06:53 am (UTC)О ком вы говорили, когда я пришёл к нему в три часа ночи, и у кого вы спрашивали: "А где он ходит?".
Quite a nonsense though :)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 07:02 am (UTC)Ya b voditeli poshel -- pust' menya nauchat.
(Я б в водители пошёл -- пусть меня научат).
no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 07:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 07:36 am (UTC)- Вам бы в больницу б. Вам бы там бы полегчало б.
(You'd better go to the hospital. You'd be better there.)
The dog was nodding, which made Chekhov's guests laugh.
BTW Chekhov is NOT ONLY the Enterprise staff officer from Star Trek :)))
no subject
Date: 2004-06-18 11:32 am (UTC)