(no subject)

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

Another one of my "when do you use one instead of the other" questions that I've got a ton of...

When would you say "когда-нибудь" instead of "иногда" to mean "sometimes"? What other words follow this same construction?

Also, what exactly does the suffix (if you could even call it that) -нибудь mean, and what other words use it and what do they mean?

I know, its a loaded question, but its been bugging the crap out of me and I don't have russian teacher or anything (yet) so I can't exactly ask them. Sorry/thanks!

Comments

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

"когда-нибудь" means "sometimes," while "иногда" means "from time to time."

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

there really isn't that big of a difference between the two of those in English though lol. Both of them essentially mean "occasionally...". Is there more of a difference between them, or are they interchangeable?

[ars-longa.livejournal.com]

In my understanding "иногда" meand "occasionally" and "когда-нибудь" means "some time in the future" when time isn't determined. For example: Я иногда покупаю книги в этом магазине vs Когда-нибудь я, возможно, начну покупать книги в этом магазине.

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

going out on a limb here... is the difference between them frequency? Like kogda-nibud' would mean something that you do sometimes and isn't that uncommon, while inogda is something that you do once in a while, not that often? This is an all out guess here lol.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Good guess though! I couldn't explain this better.

Sorry I cannot go into more detailed analysis right now, I'm still in the States and use somebody's computer that doesn't have anything but Latin keyboard driver installed, therefore I cannot type in Russian :(

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

Thats okay... I normally alternate between cyrillic and romanization based on how lazy I'm feeling lol. I'd be able to understand romanized russian just fine probably, assuming you are willing.

Was my guess accurate at all? Thanks very much!

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

God gave us http://www.translit.ru (http://www.translit.ru).

[philena.livejournal.com]

For sturctures of other words, as I understand it, -нибудь is a suffix meaning "any," in the sense of an unspecified any. It has a counterpart in -то, which means something closer to "some," in the sense of a specified "some." So if you come home and see a message left by your bedroom door, you would say to your roommate, "Кто-то позвонил?" You want to confirm that a specific someone called for you. But if you don't see the message on your door, you sould say, "Кто-нибудь позвонил?" In this case, you don't know if anyone did call, so the question is not whether a specific person called, but whether anyone at all called. I've seen it most often applied to кто and что, but I think they can be added on to any question words. So gде-то and где-нибудь would mean "somewhere" and "anywhere," and similarly with куда-то and куда-нибудь.


This "any" vs. "some" translation does not apply to negatives. -то and -нибудь play no part in sentences like "I don't see anyone."

If I'm wrong or off in any way, please tell me. I always just used them sort of intuitively, but my intuition has a rotten history of failing me at the most embarrassing times.

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

"когда-нибудь" + perfective verb == ~"someday", "eventually"
Ты когда-нибудь допишешь это письмо? Will you finish writing this letter someday?
Когда-нибудь я допишу это письмо. I will eventually finish writing this letter.

"когда-нибудь" + imperfective verb == "ever" (in questions),
Ты когда-нибудь делаешь домашние задания? Do you ever do your homework?
Иногда делаю. I do them sometimes.

I'd say that иногда requires imperfective as it doesn't denote a *single* moment/instance. You can use иногда with imperfective iterative(?): "Иногда он бывает зол."

Когда-нибудь usually requires perfective, except in questions like the second one (in which case the answer uses иногда), and may be a number of more obscure usages that I cannot provide good examples/explanations for. That's because когда-нибудь is a single, albeit indefinite moment.

Sorry it's a bit terse.

[yms.livejournal.com]

I'll try to explain it too. "Иногда" means "sometimes", while "когда-нибудь" means "some day". "Иногда" means something occurring from time to time in the continuous interval, but "когда-нибудь" means something that may possibly occur once and it's used only with perfective verbs in the future tense.

Generally, "-нибудь" is used mostly in interrogative phrases and is rougly "any-" (when it doesn't mean "every-"). But it may be used in affirmative too.
(sorry, I have no time to concentrate and think about the second case...)

[yms.livejournal.com]

oops, nbuwe explained it better, I forgot about "когда-нибудь" in questions...

[dyrbaglyz.livejournal.com]

Когда-нибудь usually refers to things which you never did, but going to do at some point.
Иногда - things which you do from time to time (rare).
Когда-нибудь - sometimes
Кто-нибудь - someone
Где-нибудь - somewhere
Что-нибудь - something
Куда-нибудь - "into somewhere"
and so on...