(no subject)

[xswt-cherryx.livejournal.com]

okay... well I think I missed the explination for this in my russian class... so I suppose Ill ask the question here.

so, the formal version(s) of 'your' are ваш ваша ваше ваши
so why is it that when asking someones name they change ваш to вас, in 'как вас завут?'

if there is no clear reason why (like a lot of english words) and it's just a rare occurance ill take it lol but if there is a 'rule' here that im missing -thats all im looking for.

Comments

[kali-kali.livejournal.com]

Вы (and its declensions such as вас) are pronouns, like "you".

Ваш, ваша, etc. are possessives, like "your book".

[mashysya.livejournal.com]

"вас" is form of word "Вы" (polite adress to unfamiliar person) - as i know.
"Ваше" - we talk about thing, or person. "your thing" - "ваша вещь"

[oryx_and_crake]

because there is no correlation whatsoever between the English phrase "what is your name?" and Russian "как Вас зовут?" The literal translation for the former would be "как ваше имя?" and for the latter, "what do they call you?"

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. And this teaches us one more time that word-for-word translation does not work. At all.

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

<machine-translation-style>To me 17 years!</machine-translation-style>

[nymphatacita.livejournal.com]

Forgive the lack of Cyrillic, I'm still figuring out my new mac. What I couldn't copy-paste, I had to do phonetically.



The verb is in third person ("what do they call you?" not "what's your name?") as evidenced by the "ut" ending.

Vi (in any form) isn't third person, it's second. Therefore, it cannot be the subject of the verb, and therefore is not nominative.

(ваш, ваша, ваше, & ваши are all adjectives... but they're in the nominative anyway, just like Vi.)

вас is accusative... just like the "menya" you'd use in "Menya zavut xswt_cherryx."

[kamerasutra.livejournal.com]

Go into international under system preferences and you can add russian to your input menu. Then you can select to have input options at the top of the screen at all times.

[nymphatacita.livejournal.com]

I did that, I just didn't realize that's what the stupid american flag on the top of my screen was for. *facepalm* Thanks!

[unique-clone.livejournal.com]

Typing in cyrillic on a Mac
http://aatseel.org/fonts/maccyrillic.html

[xswt-cherryx.livejournal.com]

i think i just realized something!! haha i soo get it...
как вас завут is like 'how are you called' so there is nothing to do with 'your'!! duh... i feel stupid now lol

[katrushkita.livejournal.com]

literally it is "How do they call you?"

[vargtimmen.livejournal.com]

You got it. "What is your name?" phrased that way is actually kind of rare to find in other languages. In Spanish you usually ask "How do you call yourself?". In French, "How do you name yourself?". And in Chinese you ask "You honorably surnamed (what)?", to which one would reply "I miserably surnamed [Wang, Li, &c.]".

[anafignikvapshe.livejournal.com]

зОвут.

[apollotiger.livejournal.com]

Also, just as a note, Ваш is both your (singular, formal) and your (plural). The second could be construed as “y’all’s”.

[padruka1988.livejournal.com]

Don't feel stupid, deary. You'll get it. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_dengerous_/]

If it answers the qiestion кого, чего? you say вас. This is called родительный падеж. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%B6

[bayukov.livejournal.com]

your grammar is very poor, pal :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_dengerous_/]

Mine?..

[bayukov.livejournal.com]

who's esle if you think that 'вас' in 'как вас зовут' is родительный падеж? : )))

[http://users.livejournal.com/_dengerous_/]

А какой?

[zhirafov-nyet.livejournal.com]

It's the винительный падеж, not the родительный.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_dengerous_/]

OK. Grammar sucks I never was that strong in it :) But the question кого was correct (& answer as well except case part)

[bayukov.livejournal.com]

No Russian, please :) Accusive, of course.

[bayukov.livejournal.com]

yes, it is just misunderstanding :)
every word has 6 cases (some repeat others sometimes, though).
and 'вас' is the accusative case of 'вы'. Everything is very simple :)

is there anybody who needs my help?

[egregoreproject.livejournal.com]

i can pay attension really))
let's do a little x-change: i'm russian, and I got my blog on MyOpera in english. So you could probably look for my mistakes, and I - for yours;)
http://my.opera.com/michael_aka_emilien