српашивать/спросить and задавать/задать

[nominals.livejournal.com]

My book says that the first verb, српашивать/спросить, means "to ask, to inquire of (someone) while задавать/задать means "to pose a question (to someone). I'm still confused.Can anyone explain the difference of these two verbs and provide examples??

Please help.

Comments

[maskodagama.livejournal.com]

СПРашивать - "спрашивать о", -об, -про...etc

задавать - "задавать вопрос о", -об, -про...etc
"задавать" only with "вопрос"

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

First of all, "задавать" means "to pose," not "to pose a question" - to say "to pose a question," you have to say "задавать/задать вопрос". This verb outside of "задавать вопрос" expression can also mean "to set" or even "to preset" (like in задавать условия - to set certain condition) or "to give" (задать корм скоту - to feed cattle). Note that "задавать" mostly works in expressions with an explanation what exactly is posed, set or given. Спрашивать/спросить does not require such explanation.
Я спросил его, куда он идет - I asked him where he was going to.
Я задал ему вопрос: куда он идет? - I asked him the [following] question: where was he going to?
The second construction sounds quite unnatural, anyway, in both Russian and English :)
Though "я задал ему много вопросов, на которые он не смог ответить" (I asked him many quesions that he wasn't able to answer) sounds perfectly OK.

Hope this helps.

more about "задавать"

[barilotti.livejournal.com]

There is also case in which "задавать" is used in a phraseologic combination:

"задать жару" (жАру, stress on the first syllabus, because it is a form of word "жар", not "жара"). ("задавать жару") . It usually means to beat someone's position strongly in a game/fight/discussion: "Он им задаст жару!"

[nominals.livejournal.com]

It does help quite a bit. Thank you for your fast response.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

To simplify things, let's conclude that спрашивать is "to ask" while задавать вопрос is "to ask a question" :)

P.S.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Because to say "to ask a question," you will exactly need "задать вопрос" construction - you cannot say "спрашивать вопрос" in Russian, because in Russian you can oly спросить somebody (requires accusative) or about something (requires prepositional,) not something :)
Я спросила его, и он ответил. (I asked him, and he answered.)
Я спросила у него, сколько у него книг. (I asked him, how many books he had.)
BUT:
Я задала ему много разных вопросов, и он на все [вопросы] ответил (I asked him many questions, and he answered all of them.)

[brocster.livejournal.com]

One more bit of information that might come in handy in the future when dealing with translating English "ask" into Russian:

The verb просить/попросить is used in the meaning of "to request", but we often just say "ask" in English. (If you can remember the noun просьбa "a request", that should help keep things straight.) So we have the following three possibilities for "ask":

1) Я его спросил, кудa идет. ("I asked him where he was going." -- "ask" in the meaning of "to question". Note that an actual question (e.g., кудa идет) will almost always follow the verb спросить.)

2) Я ему зaдaл довоьлно сложный вопрос. ("I asked him a rather complicated question." -- "ask" in the meaning of "to pose [a question]". Note that, as stated above, the verb зaдaть in this case will always be followed by the word вопрос.)

3) Я его попросил, чтобы мне зaвтрa позвонил в 8 чaсов утрa. ("I asked him to call me tomorrow at 8 a.m." -- "ask" in the meaning of "to request". Note that this type of sentence will usually have чтобы after the verb просить.)


Hope that helps!

- Andrew :^)

[nominals.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes. This is very helpful. Thank you!