(no subject)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

How does the word подсказать work? I've heard it used frequently on the street when people ask strangers questions "Which bus goes to stop X" for instance. "Вы не подскажете..."

The dictionary says it means "to suggest", but it seems like it might also mean something similar to "Вы не знаете..." или "Вы не скажете..." as in, do you know, or will you tell me? Or are people actually saying "Will you suggest to me..." in this situation?

Comments

[redtigra.livejournal.com]

In general, подсказать = to give a clue.

But "Вы не подскажете" is an expression, and you're right about meaning - it' equal to "Вы не скажете..."

[eilide.livejournal.com]

It's a polite way of asking the same question like "Вы не скажете?".

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

ok thank you

[rqrmarine.livejournal.com]

it's an idiom

[bekesha.livejournal.com]

in this context literally the difference between "подсказать" and "сказать" is to "give a hint" and "to tell"

people used to say so because quite often the one who is asked may not know a complete/full answer, but even a hint is quite helpful

"Вы не подскажете..." = "would you mind giving me a hint ... "; that implies that the one who is asked does not have to know an answer; so this is why it's considered to be a more polite way of saying the same - because it's less likely to confuse people :-)

but in reality nobody really cares, which means that you wouldn’t be considered as less polite if you use "Вы не скажете..."

[evermore-spb.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Personally for me подскажете is not the more polite form - it's just semantically wrong but very common so people got a habit to say so. Some friends of mine can even answer не подскажу or в школе подскажут ('you'll get the hint at school') because really подсказывать has a negative meaning 'to help your fellows at class without teacher noticing'.

[firebottle.livejournal.com]

подсказать == to give a hint
"Вы не подскажете, как %s" == "Can you give me a hint, how %s"

[prorok-samuil.livejournal.com]

It means "could you help me to find"

[spiritrc.livejournal.com]

It's nice to meet a fellow C-programmer here, but I doubt that non-IT people will find your printf-style syntax easy to understand. :)