Golod/ Hunger

[barbarisotschka.livejournal.com]

Hi everybody!

I heard both "umeret ot goloda" and "umeret s golodu" (literal translation die from hunger). What is correct and if both are correct how do they differ in meaning or usage? And why is it golodU, anyway?
Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer!

Barbara

Comments

[unbemerkt-traum.livejournal.com]

"umeret ot goloda" - it's more..hm...serious. I mean u can say "я умираю с голоду" - and it means - u r very hungry now. And "умереть от голода" - means real death.

[diablo-chan.livejournal.com]

Well, frankly we use both for been very hungry. Yet "умираю с голоду" more often, that's true.

[yms.livejournal.com]

+1

[unbemerkt-traum.livejournal.com]

excuse me, i can make mistakes in english. I'm russian and just trying to help =) but i have no mistakes in russian, so...)))

[barbarisotschka.livejournal.com]

I know the so called Genetiv Partitivus, but I dont understand, why it is being used in this sentence (umeret s golodu). I thought that the partitive is used to express "parts, (small) quantities" of something. Like in your example - "some" tea. I think that the partitive is being used especially in contexts with words such as "mnogo" (a lot), "skolko" (how much), "malo" (less)...e.g. "mnogo narodu" (a lot of people).
In short this would mean "I am dying from a bit of hunger" --?!.
I hope that you got my point, t.e. understood what confuses me. :)

-- and thanks everbody for answering my question! I am really amazed by this community. I am really grateful that you take your time to help us foreigners with Russian!
Barbara

[barbarisotschka.livejournal.com]

wow, that's really interesting! I learned something new from your answer!
By Genetive Partitivus I mean the case which you called "second genetive".
Thanks and best regards
Barbara

[inoctiluci.livejournal.com]

I was taught in class that "c" in place of "от" is the coloquial version. You can replace "от" with "c" in a lot of phrases.

[crimeanelf.livejournal.com]

We have several obsolete cases. I would say, "умереть с голоду" is an example of one such case. "Стоять в снегу". Both are equally valid and equally used.

[oblomov-jerusal.livejournal.com]

"umeret' ot goloda" is standard Russian, "umeret' s golodu" is colloquialism. 'Golodu is a form of genetive, probably the same as appearing as partitive (as in 'kilogramm saharU). As commenters above noted, umirat' ot goloda/s golodu can be used colloquially in sense 'to be [very] hungry' (note that it requires imperfect umirat')

[zauberer.livejournal.com]

I don't think that it requires imperfect "умирать", consider "как бы мне не умереть тут у вас с голоду". Previous commenters are right, the form "от голода" is stylistically neutral and doesn't carry metaphorical sense, where "с голоду" is often used to convey figurative meaning.