Me Needing Help, Part CXIV

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

How does one form the passive voice of a verb (I'm guessing the terms here), such as основан (also guessing the spelling). For that matter, is it ever absolutely necessary to use passive voice? I.e. Здание было построен. Is there any way around that?

When one is responding to the question "Зачем" and "Почему," do you start with "Чтобы" and "Потому что" respectively?

And mooore fun with 38 Попугаев:

Words: Заросль, сложиться, оставь, зовите, велел, прислушиваться, поскроей

Phrases: "Откуда ни возьмись появляясь перед друзьями, "Что же они всё ни измеряют и не измеряют?" "Его дёргают за хвост," "Ничего себе," "Чего это вы щекочетесь," "Такой у тебя и рост," "Ух ты," "А в попугаях-то я гораздо длиннее."

Спасибо вам!

Comments

[desperate-beat.livejournal.com]

Здание было построенО

[paul-s.livejournal.com]

It's a past passive participle I believe (short form - they behave like adjectives in declension). I'm sorry but I can't type in cyrillic to help you but those are quite easy so you won't be confused once someone tells you. They mean 'which was [formed]'. There are four types of participle - present/past active and present/past passive so you might want to read up on all of them. Sorry I can't be more helpful at the minute.

[oryx_and_crake]

Заросль - usually in plural, заросли - thick growth


сложиться - to jackknife, to bend in two


оставь - leave (as in "leave me alone" - "оставь меня в покое")

зовите - call

велел - ordered, same as "приказал"

прислушиваться - to listen carefully

поскроей - must be поскорей, faster

"Откуда ни возьмись появляясь перед друзьями, - suddenly appearing as if from thin air
"Что же они всё ни измеряют и не измеряют?" - why don't they start measuring at last, what takes them so long?
"Его дёргают за хвост," - pull his tail
"Ничего себе," - wow
"Чего это вы щекочетесь," - why do you tickle me
"Такой у тебя и рост," - and this will be your height (length)
"Ух ты," - wow
"А в попугаях-то я гораздо длиннее." - when measured in parrots, I am much, much longer

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

"...Сказали мы с Петром Иванычем..." (Н.В.Гоголь)

:))

[mooose.livejournal.com]

we just went over these again in class... at least the French pedagogy stresses rules over everything else... sigh

You need to have a perfective verb to form the past passive participle (PPP) according to the grammars I've seen, although I was just told some imperfective verbs have a PPP.

1) -ать verbs
take off the -ть and add -н (m) / -на (f) / -но (n) / -ны (pl)

2) -ить verbs and -ти verbs
Using the 1st person conjugation, take off the -у or -ю and add -ен or -ён (I have no rule for the latter part...)

would love to give examples, but i gotta run...

clarification...

[mooose.livejournal.com]

oh, when I said -ить verbs, I meant all "Type 2" verbs (that's what my prof here in France calls them) like купить and which also include verbs like посмотреть

For all other verbs, which have stems that differ from the infinitive, and that may end in -ыть (eg. закрыть), -нуть (eg. тронуть), -ять (eg. занять), -еть (eg. одеть) or the perferctives of single-syllable -ить verbs (eg. выпить), you simply drop the soft sign to get the short form PPP in the masculine.

eg. занять -> занят / занята / занято / заняты

Note: начать falls into this final category too

These are just the short forms... and I have some rules on where to put the stress, but there're too many of them and I prefer just picking up the stress from listening to native speakers.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>1. Здание было построен. 2. Is there any way around that?
1. Здание было построено (здание is neutral). Здание было построено, вокзал был построен, дорога была построена.
2. No.

>3. When one is responding to the question "Зачем" and "Почему," do you start with "Чтобы" and "Потому что" respectively?
Yes. You may substitute "Чтобы" with "Затем, чтобы...".

>4. Words: Заросль, сложиться, оставь, зовите, велел, прислушиваться, поскроей

Заросль is a colloquial (non-existent in "educated" speech) singular form of заросли, owergrowth or thicket.
Сложиться - 1. to form itself. 2. To fold oneself (in two etc.)
Оставь - leave! (imperative form)
Зовите - call! (imperative form, plural)
Велел - has ordered; has told
Прислушиваться - imp. from прислушаться - listen to smth. attentively.
Поскроей - maybe, поскорей? Then this means "as soon as possible."

>5. Phrases: "Откуда ни возьмись появляясь перед друзьями, "Что же они всё ни измеряют и не измеряют?" "Его дёргают за хвост," "Ничего себе," "Чего это вы щекочетесь," "Такой у тебя и рост," "Ух ты," "А в попугаях-то я гораздо длиннее."

Appearing in front of friends as if from nowhere...,
Why aren't they measuring? (a colloquial repetitive form that "amplifies" the meaning),
They pull him by the tail,
Ничего себе! is a set expression - roughly "can't believe this!"
Why are you tickling me? (a very, very colloquial form!)
This is exactly what your height (length, in this case) is like
Ух ты! - another set expression, an exclamation that symbolizes a great surpise, like "wow!" or "oh boy!"
And [being measured] in parrots I'm much longer!

[madrumos.livejournal.com]

2. i disagree, there is another way. "здание было построено" roughly equals "здание построили". this is another type of passive expression in russian, besides the aforementioned past passive participle. note that passive constructions, particularly of this indefinite plural past type, are much more common and useable in Russian than in English

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

What does adding the "-то" to "попугаях" change it into? Is it some sort of emphasis or what?

And the way they use "за" here is to say "by?"

[azazellodroog.livejournal.com]

1. yes, it is a kind of emphasis, meaning the hero was measured in something else before it was measured in parrots. and it is quite important for him to be longer (; so he says "а в попугаях-то я гораздо длиннее". "а" in front of the sentence here is also a very strong emphasis that compares the two measurements.

2. and yes again. "дёргать за кого-то за что-то" - to pull somebody by something.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

BTW this ЗА does not require a mandatory BY, it's just easier to explain it this way. Тянуть за хвост is pull smb. by the tail or simply pull somebody's tail; взять за руку is to take somebody's hand etc.

[azazellodroog.livejournal.com]

agreed, but in russian i would have never said "я дёрнул(а) её/его хвост" (i pulled his tail), i would say "я дёрнул(а) её/его ЗА хвост" instead. always.

it is a complicated issue, to be honest.. and i am ready to discuss it further, if you want..

for now, as for the hand, i would certainly say "я взял(а) её/его руку", but that would create a completely different situation. i shall explain:

i would say "я взял(а) её/его ЗА руку, и мы пошли домой вместе" meaning "i took her/him BY the hand and we walked home together".

but i would say "я взял(а) её/его руку, чтобы предсказать её/его будущее" meaning "i took her/his hand to foretell her/his future"

not sure if both native russian & english speakers can spot the difference, so i am open to your comments..

cheers!

[azazellodroog.livejournal.com]

"сложиться" - can also be equal to english "may happen", if used with "может так" or "так может" in front (you may skip "так" though), for instance:

может ("так" here) сложиться (or "так" here), что завтра все мы будем безмерно счастливы.
it may happen that tomorrow all of us shall be happy infinitely.

"поскорее" - quicker or somewhat quicker. note, that "скорее" means "hurry" or "be quick".

"ничего себе" - blimey!

"его дёргают за хвост" - he is being pulled by his tail

cheers!