translation and the use of что-то and что-нибудь

[nominals.livejournal.com]

A few questions:

1. What does this mean?
Что у вас поют на Новый год?

2. Can you use что-нибудь in place of что-то here? If no, why not.
Ты играешь что-то очень знакомое.

Comments

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

1. What do they sing at your place on a New Year's day? Or perhaps: What do your people thing…?

2. No. Что-то is “something unknown”, что-нибудь is “something arbitrary”. Sometimes they're interchangeable, but not here.

[ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com]

"What do your people sing" of course.

что-нибудь, Что-то

[nominals.livejournal.com]

Oh that's helpful. Thank you.

[brocster.livejournal.com]

Что у вас поют на Новый год? -- What do you sing (at your home or in your family or country) for New Year's?


Ты играешь что-то очень знакомое. -- You're playing something very familiar.



Nope. The basic deal with -то and -нибудь is that both express indefiniteness, but with -то you are limited to a (given) set of posibilities, whereas there is usually no such limitation on -нибудь.

In your example sentence above, the melody (or song) is familiar, but you can't quite place it. For that reason, you can use что-то to indicate that it's something familiar, you're just not sure (yet) what song it is. Using что-нибудь isn't possible here because, even though you aren't sure exactly which song the individual is playing, you know that it is some definite song. In other words, the set of possible songs here is quite limited -- you can only "choose" from the one song currently being played.

If, however, you asked the individual to "play something," then you could use что-нибудь, because the set of possible songs from which the person can choose is, for all intents and purposes, limitless: Cыгрaй что-нибудь, пожaлуйстa.


Let's look at another example. If you tell me that you're studying Russian, I can ask you, "Have you ever been anywhere in Russia?" Because there are no specific limitations on the possible places you could have visited in Russia (although I guess, logically, there are only so many cities, towns, etc.), I would ask you:

Вы где-нибудь были в России?

Now let's say that you had visited some city in Russia... but it was a looooong time ago, and you can't remember the name of the city to save your life. In that case, the set of possible places you visited is indeed limited -- it's the one city where you spent some time. But since you can't remember its name, you can just reply:

Дa, я где-то был(a), но не помню точно где.


So, essentially, you use -нибудь for situations where there are no predetermined limits (e.g., Did you buy anything at the mall? [I have no idea whether you did or not, so the possibilities are unlimited.]; Please buy me something [I don't care what it is] when you're in Paris.) and -то for instances where the number of possibilities is, indeed, limited... but you either don't want to specify exactly what, or you simply can't remember (e.g., I bought you something for your birthday [but I won't tell you what it is -- it's a surprise]; I put that book down somewhere [in one specific place], but I can't remember where.).


Hope that helps!

- Andrew

[nominals.livejournal.com]

That's totally helpful, especially with the examples. Thank you thank you.

[brocster.livejournal.com]

Не стоит блaгодaрности!

Don't mention it (lit., "It's not worth gratitude").

- Andrew : )

[capitan-blood.livejournal.com]

"Что у вас поют на Новый год?" - It's not correct.

It's correct: "Что у вас пьют на Новый год?"

[boou.livejournal.com]

:)))))
Not more correct, but more useful.

[ex-eugzol340.livejournal.com]

Ha, LOL =)
Both are correct but with different meaning =)

[iampycak.livejournal.com]

Водку пьют. А то что поют, потом уже не помнят. =)

[oryx_and_crake]

I have to remind that this community's working language is English and the purpose of this community is to help people learn Russian. Please no chat and off-topic discussions.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I have a question myself, but since I can't post yet, I was wondering if you know the rest of the participles. I used ,"Russian - a self teaching guide". Poor Kaitlyn Szsechpaska never finished participles. She taught me only present and past active participles.

[nominals.livejournal.com]

I wish I could help. I've only been studying for 3 months or so and haven't learned that yet. Why can't you post? I thought that once you joined the community you were given posting privileges. Maybe you can try contacting oryx_and_crake or wolk_off so that you can post.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Well, basically any member can post. One has to go to the community userinfo (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=learn_russian) and actually join the community, though. If one simply bookmarks the community and reads it, but doesn't join, of course it's impossible to post.

[kragoth.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've been learning for 5 months...whoa, it seems longer. I do what I normally do to post something in a community, but it didn't have the little pencil button in the community description page. I'll check it out again, and if it's not there, I'll message Oryx_and_crake.