(no subject)

[xswt-cherryx.livejournal.com]

how would you say: he is the brother, of the sister of my friend.

Он брат, сестри, моей подруги. ?

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

брат сестрЫ моей подруги
and you don't need any commas

[misterobnoxious.livejournal.com]

you also don't need the comma in English

[scolar.livejournal.com]

I understand that such situation is possible: A is half-brother of B, B is half-sister of C, and A and C do not have common parents. But did you mean that? Russian "брат сестры моей подруги" will be a correct translation, but may cause questions, whether they are half-brothers/sisters, cousins etc.

[eilide.livejournal.com]

...is he is the brother of the sister of your friend, isn't he also the brother
of your friend?

:-)

[bakedgoods10.livejournal.com]

I was just going to say that. It makes for a lot simpler sentence and idea.

Re: :-)

[eilide.livejournal.com]

In this case it would me more appropriate to say Он брат моей подруги without mentioning all their family tree

[xswt-cherryx.livejournal.com]

oh... my mistake
he is the brother of my friends friend... I dont know why I used sister, half asleep I suppose. =)

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Also please note that chain-linking of genitives is frown upon in Russian on stylistic ground. It's allowed only in officialese and/or technical texts.

[belaja-belka.livejournal.com]

It can be funny, like "Стипендия ученика помощника водителя электропоезда метрополитена"?

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Surely. But it's still bad style. So it's better to be careful.

[spiritrc.livejournal.com]

I wonder how would you propose to rephrase "Стипендия ученика помощника водителя электропоезда метрополитена" to get rid of chained genitives and make it of better style?

[khathi.livejournal.com]

As I said before, in officialese, which this phrase obviously is, this style is tolerated. ;)