something more formal than как дела

[drevo-obezyani.livejournal.com]

Hi! I'm new to this community (well, sort-of new - I've been skulking around reading the entries for a while) and, as may be expected, I have a question (okay, two) about Russian which I'm hoping the people here will be able to answer.

I know there's another way to say "How are you?" than just "Как дела?" but I can't remember what it is. All I really remember is thinking, "Hm, I've never heard that before." when it was first taught to me, and I don't think I've heard it since, either... but I know как дела is very informal and I don't want to use it in a letter to a teacher.

My second question is how would you say "Maybe I can tutor the other people in my class"? Something like "Можно я буду учить другые студенты в классе" maybe, but it doesn't sound quite right to me. (I've somehow gotten stuck in a Russian I class at college, even though I've been studying for three years, so despite my grammatical incompetence I'm sure I can help someone.)

Comments

[schreibikus.livejournal.com]

how are you = "ну чё как?"

[happy-accidents.livejournal.com]

Don't listen to him :)
Ну чё как is very informal.
Try как вы поживаете.

[schreibikus.livejournal.com]

hey wassup
"как вы поживаете" its suit for my grandma! 8)

lets try teach modern russian

[happy-accidents.livejournal.com]

She said she wanted something more formal, though.
Ну чё hardly meets that requirement :-p

[gera.livejournal.com]

"как вы поживаете" its suit for my grandma! 8)

Then you should buy a new suit for your grandma.

The question was: something more formal than как дела.

[schreibikus.livejournal.com]

think positive!

бххх ххх

[schreibikus.livejournal.com]

ну че как по моему нормально.

как правильно сказать "подходит для моей бубушки"?

[happy-accidents.livejournal.com]

"It's suited for [talking to] my grandmother."

[gera.livejournal.com]

ну че как по моему нормально.

For teenagers on the street it is. Not for formal purposes.

как правильно сказать "подходит для моей бубушки"?

"this is how you would talk to my grandma"

[unique-clone.livejournal.com]

you know, i've never posted in this community (mainly because I don't have the proper privileges to do so), but just reading it everyday has brought me much insight into how horrible my grammar actually was. Keep up the good work, you all are very friendly.

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

Answering the second question: it's sth like "Можно я буду учить другИХ студентОВ класса (if you mean your group) or в классе (if you mean: in the classroom)" or "Можно мне помогать другим студентам класса?"

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

And btw, I've never seen any questions like "как поживаете?" or "как дела" in formal letters.

[mekkababble.livejournal.com]

Would 'как вы' work? Maybe I'm doing it in error, but my betters don't seem to mind if I ask that way...

[schwarzer-tod.livejournal.com]

lol

[drevo-obezyani.livejournal.com]

спасибо :)

[drevo-obezyani.livejournal.com]

спасибо болшое

[drevo-obezyani.livejournal.com]

It's not really a "formal" letter - just a letter to one of my teachers, whom I usually adress using "вы" - and usually if I were writing to one of my English-speaking teachers, I would ask "How are you?" - or is just that letter-writing etiquette is different in Russia?

[drevo-obezyani.livejournal.com]

that's not what I was thinking of, but it works. спасибо :)

[oryx_and_crake]

You could ask "Как у Вас дела?" or "Как Ваши дела?" or "Как Вы поживаете?" or "Что у Вас нового?"

[yms.livejournal.com]

"Как вы?" is a short form of "как вы себя чувствуете" or "как вы поживаете" and is much less formal. It's used when you ask this question not for the first time (maybe asked yesterday and before yesterday), so there is no need to repeat the end of the phrase. It's often said with "ну": "Ну как вы?"

The situation when you say "ты" to the person you ask this short question is much more common. "(Ну) как ты?" It sounds warmer than "как дела?".

Thus, the situation when you can say "как вы?" is restricted by these conditions:
- you say this person вы;
- but your relations are warm enough;
- you ask this question reqularly, so you need the short form.

[solito.livejournal.com]

Oh really? "May be I can" is translated "Можно я буду"? I always thought it is "Может быть я смогу"...

[dair-spb.livejournal.com]

Well, main difference here as I understand that "how are you?" is just formal greeting most of all. With the same formal answer "Thank you, I'm fine".

Here we don't have same rule. We use just "Здравствуйте" (literally "be healthy" but today means "Greetings" or something alike, very polite and quite formal) or "Привет!" ("Hello!") for informal pals' talk.

We ask "Как дела?" or "Как поживаете?" (I suppose second is calqued from English "How are you?" just to have a good translation :-)) in case we are really interested how is he/she. And we want to know if he/she has problems, difficulties and so on.

If you really mean this (you really want to know), you can ask "Как [твои/Ваши] дела?" (lit. "how's [your] businesses? (or "deeds")) or "Как поживаешь(-ете)?" (How's your living?). BTW, quite informal "Как дела?" can be "politize" with "Ваши" between — "Как Ваши дела?" and it looks polite and formal.

But for first word in letter, I recommend you just "Здравствуйте" (formal) or "Привет" (informal).

Good luck! ;-)

[vitafil.livejournal.com]

a list:
как дела?
как жена? как дети?
как жизнь? - проистекает, помаленьку, понемногу
как обстановка?
как сам?
есть че? ))

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

Может быть я смогу помогать другим? Doesn't seem logical to me.

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

You misspelled: болЬшое. ;)

[danvolodar.livejournal.com]

Well, "как вы", "как дела" etc in Russian are not just greetings, these phrases are used if you really want to know, what is your interlocutor doing.

[solito.livejournal.com]

Может быть я смогу (=мне хватит знаний, чтобы) помочь в изучении чего-либо другим студентам в нашей группе/классе

[drevo-obezyani.livejournal.com]

Oops, thanks for the correction. :) Dang those мягкие знаки...
I almost mispelled спасибо as спосиба, too. This is my punishment for not studying enough.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

>lets try teach modern russian

Most people here really mean the questions they ask, so I personally see no point to make fun of them.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Again, the original poster was asking about MORE formal question, not LESS formal. There is some difference, you see.