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Две - two female (species, no matter numan or not)... двое - non female species (either both male or a male and a female), обе, оба - first: meaning "both female", second meaning "both male". Opposites: две подруги, обе в красных куртках... два брата, у обоих карие глаза and so on
When you want to say that both species were united with something, did something the same or whatever.

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wolfie-18.livejournal.com

Oh pardon me, I meant два not две. Since два and двое both refer to men, when do I know when to use which one?

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двое when they are doing something together, like Пришли двое мужчин; you can say пришли два мужчины as well, but when you say двое you imply that they were together.

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Not necessary... Вот идет пятеро парней, двое из них - в синих куртках. Not necessary together. Those five guys might be by themselves. I thought it`s the matter of cases. but then again: Вот идет пятеро парней, два из них - в синих куртках. No difference.

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Sorry, I cannot agree with you on that. Пятеро already implies that they are walking together, as a group. That's the whole point of собирательные числительные.

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Maybe you are right. I never gave it a deep thought.

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>you can say пришли два мужчины as well

No you can't, it's very colloquial and sounds absolutely illiterate.

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Yes, on second thought I agree with you. Двое, трое, четверо мужчин, а не два, три, четыре.
However, пять, шесть and so on мужчин sounds OK.

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I think it is also possible to say Пришло пять мужчин, из них два - в синих куртках.

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No I don't think so, as an editor I'm going to replace it - and not even два в синих куртках, I'm going to change the entire thing in order to make it sound better --

Пришли пятеро мужчин, из них двое - в синих куртках.

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Пришли пятеро мужчин has totally different meaning from пришли пять мужчин (ОК, I am ready to accede on пришлО). Hence, you will be quite wrong if you replace one with the other.

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>Пришли пятеро мужчин has totally different meaning from пришли пять мужчин
Not that it only has different meanings, it belongs to totally different styles, the latter being a quite rude colloquialism.

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I cannot agree. You make it sound as if пять мужчин is totally illegitimate, which it is not.

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It is not. But if you describe a group which walks in, you have to use "пятеро мужчин". If you, say, answer a question like "how many people were inside," it's possible to say something like "пять мужчин, шесть женщин". It's that context thing - some words' usage heavily depends on the context.

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What about За день пришло семь посетителей - пять мужчин и две женщины.

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This is precisely the example I give above. You don't regard those five males and two females as a group here, don't you?

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Of course I don't. That's the whole point of собирательные числительные vs. normal numerics (or whatever they call them).

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Now, you know the rule while I don't, but I just follow it by instinct while you seek for bypasses :)))))))))))

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Actually, I don't understand what exactly you are trying to prove :-)
And it's bedtime anyway, so, good night.

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I've tried to prove the rule that I followed by instinct, though I have long forgotten the rule itself (it's been twenty years since I've studied Russian Stylistics with Prof. Rosenthal himself.) Funny that you knew the rule, but tried to prove that one might not follow it :))

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You must be VERY old indeed :-)
Next time I should address you reverently as Grandpa :)))))

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you are welcome to do so :)))) In fact, I entered the Univestity in 1984, two years before Ditmar Ilyashevich's death, so I had a chance to drink from the Well of The Pure Russian Stylistics :)))))))))

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You can say "два мужика" though, as well as "двое мужиков". I think it has something to do with that -а ending in masculine gender, though I'm not sure I know a rule in this case. I just know that "два мужчины" is absolutely wrong :)

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yms.livejournal.com

двое - non female species (either both male or a male and a female)

from which we make conclusion that feminism has not yet come to Russian grammar ;)

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That`s a very interesting observation! I thought of it too, actually.

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gintaras.livejournal.com

Look:

Nominative case - Две собаки
Genitive case - Двух собак
Dative case - Двум собакам
Accusative case - Двое собак
Instrumental case - Двумя собаками
Prepositional case - (о) Двух собаках

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noser.livejournal.com

Двое собак????!

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You're wrong, accusative would be "двух собак" as well as genitive. "Двое собак" is impossible in any case, it doesn't even sound Russian.

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оба=both, обе is used only when you speak of two females
обе женщины (when you speak about two women)
оба мужчины (when they are both men)
оба, мужчина и женщина, были пожилые (both man and woman were elderly)

двое - two (when you speak of two human taken together), две is for two females only
две женщины - two women
двое мужчин - two men
Эти двое, мужчина и женщина, были пожилые (Those two, the man and the woman, were elderly)

Please note that две is used only when you speak of two something of female gender, e.g. две женщины, две книги, две машины
But you cannot say двое словарей, двое колес - only два словаря, два колеса

Творожный сырок is something like sweet cheesecake or "fromage frais" (however I am not sure whether the latter is not British only).

Творог со сметаной и сахаром is exactly that - I am not aware of it having any special name.

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freyja-freyja.livejournal.com

Творог со сметаной и сахаром - I don't know any specific English word for it either; but I'm a bit surprised it described as "layer of cottage cheese, a layer of sour cream and a layer of sugar". We just mix them, we don't eat it separately.

As for "пища" and "еда" - when we speak about our everyday meals we say "еда". "Пища" has more to do with sciense, with biology. We use it when we speak about, say, feeding animals, or when speak about human health. Like: Лекарственная пища. Or: Мясная пища вызывает артрит.

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I would say that "пища" was just more stylistically-neutral (read: scientific, official, etc.) while "еда" was rather colloquial. Therefore the diference is mostly stylistical. In an everyday conversation, you would say "в этом ресторане отличная постная еда" -- there's great Lenten food in this restaurant -- while you would write "в пост допустима в основном растительная пища" -- during the Lent time, mostly vegetable food is allowed -- in an essay on the Great Lent.

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Один раз
Два, три, четыре раза
Пять, шесть, семь ... десять, одиннадцать... двадцать раз
Двадцать один раз
Двадцать два, двадцать три, двадцать четыре раза
and so on

Увеличиться в два раза
but:
увеличиться в разЫ (i.e. в несколько раз)

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