Russian Dates

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Dear Community,

I have a question concerning correct writing of a date in Russian. Here's the example:

1. Виктор начал работать 28 мая в 2005-ом году.
2. Виктор начал работать 28 мая 2005-ого года.

Which one of the above two is correct and why is the other one wrong?

Thank you in advance for your kind input.

ФБ

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

The first one is wrong just because it is - you don't use dates this way. However you can change it:

Виктор начал работать в 2005 году, 28 мая. This is correct.

The second is almost right except for -ого. Don't use it. It is extremely bad style and wrong. If you absolutely have to (I am at a loss though to name situations when it is really needed, but they may exist), write "28-го", not "28-ого".

[eksel.livejournal.com]

I would say you can use even the first one... but only if you are writing a novel and trying to put an emphasise on the date, particularly, the year when this person had started to work.

in normal life it sounds a bit eccentric ;)

so.. use the second one

[atranotte.livejournal.com]

The second one is correct, it sounds better in Russian.

[onlyfreedigits.livejournal.com]

Everything, that oryx_and_crake said is correct.

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

OK. Thanks. This is a sample test question, including the "28-ого". I guess it's just one of those Russian for foreigners things where good etiquette is secondary :-)

Anyway, thanks again for the input. You're the greatest!

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

So when saying something happened on a specific date, everything is in genitive, but when saying something happened in a given month or year, you use prepositional?

[oryx_and_crake]

Something like that, yes.
28 мая will still be in genitive no matter how you put it.
But in "это случилось в мае, 28 числа" and "это случилось в 2005 году, 28 мая" you use prepositional for "in May", "in 2005".

[la-dy-ashley.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's etiquette, they just wanted the students to see the case ending. It's all right for educational purposes:)

By the way it's possible to сome up with a context quite suitable for the first variant:

Новые сотрудники приезжали туда каждый год в один и тот же день. Виктор начал работать 28 мая в 2005-том году, Анна - в 2006-том, Игорь - в этом.

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Indeed, the reference to "etiquette" was a tongue-in-cheek remark. Sorry you didn't get that. :)

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

In 1st sentence, either the day+month or the year is OK, but not both, at least not in that order. You see, both specify time and are OK on their own (given the cases you used), but both are imprecise. If one clarifies the other, then its logical to work out in the order of providing more detalization. That is, 28-го мая is too ambiguous (unless the current year is implied and hence the year is ommitted) and while it could precede в 2005-ом году, it can't, it would be too odd. Therefore, it must be the other way around. Just like we tell the time (hours first, minutes next): в 2005-ом году, 28-го мая. Yeah, I know, there are some other examples where things aren't really logically organized (e.g. the way Americans write the full date: mm-dd-yyyy and not dd-mm-yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd :).

In 2nd sentence, 28-го мая effectively works as an adjective to the year (just as in белого парохода) and it therefore precedes 2005-го года as it would be the case with most (if not all) adjectives. That would be my attempt to explain the correctness of this sentense compared to the other one given their differences.

[scolar.livejournal.com]

The second one is correct. Also you don't have to use endings like "-ого" in the dates when month or any case of the noun "год" follows the numeral immediately. Consider "Виктор начал работать 28 мая 2005 года" instead of "Виктор начал работать 28-го мая 2005-го года".

There is one more rule: if the numeral ends with a consonant, you should use "-го" instead of "-ого" (e.g. "2005-й", "2005-го", "2005-му" are correct, while "2005-ый", "2005-ого", "2005-ому" are incorrect).

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Everything you said makes good sense to me and seems quite logical. It's just that, sometimes, the challenge is to grasp the logic of how Russians think and that is where the fun begins.:)

I think the logic applied here, i.e. "28-го мая effectively works as an adjective to the year", is the key, in this case.

[freiburg234.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'll try to keep this in mind.