(no subject)

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Just a small question about the slightly different hues of meaning in the following two sentences:

Я встретился с другом.
Я встретил друга.

The latter is more of a spontaneous, informal meeting, while the former has more of a "We planned this out, set the time, the place to meet, here we are/were" meaning, right?

As for the verb сказать, I keep on trying to say "What should I say to her?" or... "What I'm saying is that..." Well, for the first one I guess you can avoid the present tense by saying должен сказать, but as for the next one, is there anyway that I can use сказать as like, Я скажу and not have it be in the future tense?

And is the genetive plural for ухо = уш?

Comments

[ja-va.livejournal.com]

The first one is correct,
as for the second one: Instead of сказать you must use the verb говорить in this case, although "What I'm saying is that..." in the present tense can not be used in Russian in exact same form, it will sound awkward, the best way would be to avoid it, or, in case of a translation, to rephrase it somewhat. Other then that, "I'm saying" is "Я говорю".
Use of "должен/жна сказать" is , indeed, the only way to translate the "What should I say to her?", in fact, "should" is very often transtated as "должен/жна", and it is also one reason for a common mistake made by the russian people when they speak english,- overuse of the word "must", which is the exact translation of "должен/жна".

there is no word уш, plural of ухо will be уши, genitive is ушей.

[youmka.livejournal.com]

1 - right
2 What I'm saying is that - я говорю
я скажу is future
3 - ушей, the stress is on the second syllable

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

1. More or less. But "Я встретил его в аэропорту" normally implies "I took him from the airport", i.e. it's a planned meeting.

2. Я хочу сказать, что…

3. Ушей.

[melkiyshaman.livejournal.com]

If "What I'm saying is that" implies "I mean" then you can say "Что я пытаюсь сказать, это (то,) что.." or "Я говорю о том, что.."

[yms.livejournal.com]

"Что я пытаюсь сказать, это" sounds like bad translation from English :) In Russian we usually say "я пытаюсь сказать, что...",

[melkiyshaman.livejournal.com]

Да ну нафиг :)
когда что-то доказываешь, это вполне нормально звучит
for example "Что я пытаюсь сказать, это то, что (например) я уже 28 лет говорю на русском языке и мне фраза "что я пытаюсь сказать, (так) это" не кажется плохим переводом с английского" :-Р ;))

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

Re bad calque - seconded.

Also, I'd say "Я хочу сказать..." or "Я имею в виду..." are more common/natural in Russian. Arguably, phrases with "пытаться" (in the sense of "What I'm trying to say...") are all loans. I'd say "пытаться сказать" refers to failed act of communication (Я пытался сказать, но... ... он меня не слушал. ... мне не дали сказать.)

As for "What should I say to her?" - I don't think translating "should" with "должен" is appropriate in this context, as "должен" sounds too strong (~ "must" or "have to").

I'd say that such phrases with "should" are better rendered in Russian using impersonal(?) constructs with subject put in dative: "Что мне ей сказать?" "Что мне делать?" (What should I do?).

[oryx_and_crake]

The verb сказать, like other verbs that mean complete action - e.g. спрыгнуть, услышать, надеть, - does not have a present tense. If you think about it, you will see that it makes sense: a complete action either will be completed in future or has been already completed in the past, but it cannot "be in the state of continuous completion" in present.
If you want to speak about some action that is taking place in present, you will use говорить, спрыгивать, слышать, надевать respectively, or a combination of verbs like я хочу сказать, я пытаюсь сказать.