соврамши

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

- Поздравляю вас, гражданин, соврамши.
It is a phrase from Master and Margarita. How do you understand it? What does соврамши mean?
Thank you!

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

it's exactly like работавши from the previous discussion. It is a past participle or gerund or whatever you call it (I as a native speaker am not very good in scientific names for parts of my own language) from the verb соврать.

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

I have trouble keeping these straight as well. For anyone interested...

A gerund is a verb form that acts like a noun in a sentence:
Reading is my favorite hobby. ('Reading' is the gerund)

A participle is a verb form that acts as an adjective (describes a noun):
The discussion raised by your question is interesting. ('raised' is the participle)

A 'verbal adverb' is a verb form that acts as an adverb (thereby describing an action). I've also seen these called 'gerundives' or just simply lumped together under the aegis 'participles'. Anyone know what the proper name for them is? Here's an example...
The dog, having eaten his supper, meandered drunkenly through the alleyways. ('Having eaten' is the verbal adverb).

All three of these exist as distinct parts of speech in Russian, as others have already pointed out.

[grafinok.livejournal.com]

=соврав (means that you have just lied to a speaker).

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. An approximate English translation will be something like "Congratulations on having lied"

See, for example, a similar construction in Teffy's story:
"Да кабы мне эдакую бабеньку, да я бы каждый день нашла бы с чем поздравить. С добрым утром, бабенька! Да с хорошей погодой! Да с наступающим праздником! Да с черствыми именинами! Да счастливо откушамши!"
http://www.teffy.ru/collections/jumor1/poka.phtml

It's quite archaic though and not much used nowadays except maybe for this particular quotation from Bulgakov.

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

Thanks, it's instructive. I could not figure out whether it means "Congratulate you lying (I am lying)" or "Congratulations on your having lied." It's a nice quiz for Russian C, isn't it?

[oryx_and_crake]

Yes, but I think it would be cruel :-)

[whitest-owl.livejournal.com]

I think, more correct translation would be something like: "Congrtulations citizen, you've been caught on lie".

[atranotte.livejournal.com]

= you lied

[centralasian.livejournal.com]

The meaning of this expression is that you caught someone as a liar, and finger-point to this fact.

'врать' is to lie (more colloquial than 'лгать')
'соврать' is 'to have lied', and
'соврамши' is (and oryx_and_crake is right) a very archaic, old-Russian and I guess even more colloquial word descriving a person who has lied, or a verbal act which was revealed as a lie.

In case of Bulgakov, the sentence sounds particular ironic because of a mix, a collision of two different language 'worlds' - 'гражданин' belongs to a more official language tier, and 'соврамши' is from a more colloquial, 'lower' tier.

However, and exactly because of the next-to-cult status of the M&M by Bulgakov, this particular expression now lives its own life and used very actively (especially in the written texts).

If you are curious, you can try Google search (http://www.google.com/search?q=%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B2%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BC%D1%88%D0%B8&hl=en&pwst=1&start=20&sa=N) and discover a wide variety of the contemporary usage of this expression.

ps: Notice one interesting phenomena, namely a formation of a derivative construction "гражданин соврамши" (or often "господин соврамши"), due to the omitted comma. The accusation in this expression moves from the verbal act of lying to the person who lied (and is labeled as a liar.)

[marta-mb.livejournal.com]

It was most helpful, many thanks!

[e-tolstoon.livejournal.com]

Can also be read as "Гражданин соврамши", "just lied person", or smthing like this.

[oryx_and_crake]

No it cannot, соврамши is not соврам(в)ший