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1. Забавный - приносящий радость (забаву - из устаревшего русского).
В настояее время, хоть оно и употребляется часто иронически, все же далеко не саркастически. "Забавный был случай", "забавный щенок", "забавная игра" - все это связано с доставлением радости по тому или иному случаю. В вашем смысле "забавно" - замена эмоционального ответа, как "nice".

2. два варианта, первый используется реже из-за литературности

3. Можно не использовать "тому" - это забавный (funny) случай, когда литературный (старый) оборот "хх лет тому назад" стал разговорным. Употребляют чаще взрослые люди и о сроках больше пяти лет.

4. это старый спор, в старом русском была эта форма и осталась в Украине (которая была частью России). В современном языке форма "скучать по вас" кажется вычурной, по этому обороту легко вычислить русскоговорящего украинца.

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Thank you for your contribution. However, I have to remind that the working language of this community is English. Thank you.

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BTW I know this user, so I'am sure that she knows Russian well and completely understood me. So, I'll be careful, to do not mix up her blog with the communiy entries.

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Yes, забавный can be used in that sense (funny) when referring to games, occurrences, pets, kids and friends. That's a pretty normal use of the word.

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школЬница
три неделИ - есть множественное число

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Спасибо! Но насколько я поняла, это не множественное число, а единственное число в родительном падеже.

Thanks! But as far as I understand, it's not plural, but genitive singular (feminine).

But really, who can tell? ;)

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Это ошибка. Визуально формы идентичны, однако простая логическая проверка поможет найти истину: поставьте другой падеж, например Предложный. Что будет: "о трех неделях" - если бы это было единственное число, то было бы "о трех неделИ".

В дальнейшем вы встретите еще одну особенность, часто формы совпадают в Родительном и Винительном падежах если речь о ком-то одушевленном. (я пишу названия падежей с большой буквы, только чтобы отделять от другого текста; надо писать с маленькой)

P.S. Вас учили проверять падежи вопросом? Это элементарно для русской школы, но не знаю как учат русскому иностранцев.

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Thank you for your contribution. However, I would love to remind that the working language in this community is English.

BTW it is pointless to "check the cases with questions" for a non-native speakers, because non-native speakers have not a slightest idea which verb requires which case, anyway. What seems natural to a native speaker, can be absolutely not helpful to a non-native whose language is different (especially to native speakers of English: their language had lost the case system centuries ago.)

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BTW, I was talking to a native English speaker the other day (a professional translator, at that) and I mentioned that Russian has 6 cases. She did not understand what I was talking about! She thought I meant tenses. How would you explain to a native English speaker what cases are?

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Well, I normally say that Russian nouns, adjectives etc. do change their endings according to grammatical dependencies inside the sentence, and this is what is called the case system. The next question normally is "does this system solely exists in Slavic languages," which I answer by "no, many other languages also have this system, and Russian is definitely not the worst - Ugro-Finnish languages have 12 or even 14 cases; Japanese has nine, of which three are different types of nominative, etc. Germanic languages also have case systems, of which German is the most elaborate; think about your native English and you'll find traces of case system even there, where it died out a long time ago - like in pronouns: I, my, mine, me..."

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Yep, the remnants of the case system are seen in the pronouns.

The remnants of the complex verb conjugation is only seen in verbs such as to be and to have.

The remnants of the subjunctive are only seen in phrases like "It is important that she be really happy" and "If she were happy, ..."

The noun genders are virtually nonexistent (except fiancé, fiancée, lion, lioness and sometimes people say she when they refer to a ship).

"There's" is now used universally for singular and plural nouns (in the US at least).

I wonder what's next to simplify.

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>I wonder what's next to simplify.

Well, you can always eliminate punctuation first, and then, after a generation or so, the letters, all of them - that'll be really convenient, nothing to care about.

:)

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joliecanard.livejournal.com

I think you mean "their" and "theirs"

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No, I mean "there's many cars". :)

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joliecanard.livejournal.com

Then I'm not sure I agree with you, and at the least, the usage of "there's" for plural is very colloquial and would only occur in rapid speech. It definitely sounds wrong in careful speech.

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I hear this a lot on television, radio and when talking to other people. At first it seemed awkward to me, but then I just got used to it. This is in Seattle.

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Just give her a book on Russian grammar. :)

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I' am sorry for my fault. I just forgot I'was reading the community, not my friends.

I had never been being teacher, that why I asked it. Thank you for historical information, it is intersting, that English ever had the case system.

My English is terrible, I think =(

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Don't worry, your English isn't that bad. :)

Yeah, so, English is in the Germanic family of languages... all the other Germanic languages have case systems, but when English and French came into intense contact (after the French conquered England in 1066), the mix of the two languages caused cases to disappear. :) (Roughly speaking.)

So, what is this about проверка вопросом? Даже если мне не поможет, интересно узнать. :)

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Each verb governs nouns in its specific way. E.g. проверить чем? вопросом, проверить что? падеж слова. But if you are a native English speaker you would not know which verb requires which cases anyway unless you are at a pretty advanced level already.

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ex-ex-zhuzh.livejournal.com

Тhis is a remnant of the old dual grammatical number that used to exist in the language 1000 years ago. It was used with things that come in pairs, and with the numeral two; later on, with three and four.

It coincides with genitive singular now, and viewed as such in some textbooks. But it's not really genitive, nor singular. It's a special unique form.

Many nouns that name things coming in pairs still have their old dual, instead of plural, endings: рога, глаза, берега, рукава.

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I am totally shocked.

They always told us it was genitive - they LIED!!

That is very interesting, though. I didn't know the language used to have dual number. Now I know why I should have taken Old Church Slavic when my university offered it. :)

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I would not put it that way. They did not lie - they just simplified the picture. The Russian taught at Russian schools is also simplified in many aspects. We never heard about dual grammatical number at school either. We never heard about two prepositional (e.g. в лесу/о лесе) and of many other things. And, on practical level, you are none the worse for that. If this form coincides with genitive (and it does: две чего? недели, нет чего? недели) - the fact that it is called a fancy name does not add anything to the picture. (BTW if you asked me I would also say it is genitive, just because I did not know otherwise.)

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True, true. :) It's just weird to hear that something you always thought was true isn't actually true.

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barbarisotschka.livejournal.com

Sometimes you can distinguish Dual and Genetive by the stressing. For example:

posle 'chasa (after an hour) Genetive

and

dva cha'sa (two hours)Dual

Well, I hope I don't mix anything up, but I remember that we had quite few examples of such cases (that was in a class on old church slavonic - it's really worth taking it!).

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kunaifusu.livejournal.com

1. You are right, забавно and similar words like потешно is archaic and nowadays it's only used ironically. Think of 'gay' in English, it's similar is not it?

2.Прочитать is similar to perfect continuous tense in English while прочесть is simple perfect. But many native speakers don't seem to know the difference and use just прочитать. I don't know if this is a norm now but if I said "Я прочитал новую книгу Пелевеина" among my peers they'd think I am drunk or bumped my head, прочитать in it's proper meaning is quite rare, I can think of few examples where it could be used like "Я прочитал вашу статью пока ждал свой вылет" or "Я прочитал мои стихи перед студентами во время перерыва" and later would not actually mean "to read" but "to declaim".

3.You have been told wrong, "тому назад" is archaic, it's very unusual to hear it nowadays it's something you find in fairy tales or epics.

4. Technically both are correct ( http://www.gramota.ru/spravka/buro/hot10/ ) , I'd say "вам" because it's consistent with nouns, I've never heard anyone say "по вас" personally.

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mukaltin.livejournal.com

1. It more like a "sweet" for me...
3. Waaa.... I have absolutely no idea why I should prefer one variant to another. Maybe "тому назад" sounds a tiny little bit old-fashioned, so you definately wont hear this on the boring financial news report. Well, "... тому назад" is a pretty good way to start a fairy tale with...
4. I've never met anyone who used "по вас" form, but I've heard that few years ago it was the only correct form. Some widely used incorrect forms (like "кофе" in the forms of neuter noun) usually get turned into the "also possible variant" by some Russian language regulating institute noone cares about. I guess the same happened to the "по вас / по вам" thingie, because the first form sounds too awkward for the average russian ear :)
Oh yeah, if you wanna strike as an ultimate defender of the russian language origins or as an old-fashioned native-to-St.Petersburg bore, you really need to use the "скучать по вас" form... just like the person from the first comment =_=

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This makes me really happy... I have an American friend who speaks Russian really, really well (much better than I do) and she's kind of a grammar nazi. The other day she went crazy about how she had heard a fairly well-educated woman (a Russian) saying "по вам" and it really drives her nuts when people have incorrect grammar like that. Actually I think she said it 'makes her want to claw her eyes out.' Eww.

I hate grammar nazis in English, but it seems even worse when a non-native speaker starts getting high-and-mighty about Russian! I think I will tell her the "ultimate defender of the russian language origins or as an old-fashioned native-to-St.Petersburg bore" bit. :)

Also, weirdly enough, they taught us that кофе is neuter in my American Russian textbook. I only learned it was masculine when I got to Russia. :)

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"Отдали вам" sounds horrible, like she were a slave and they gave her over to you to own. You can say поселили у вас.

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Also, frankly, I don't see why "забавно/fun". What's so funny about the situation that you have a houseguest? That was nice of them - очень мило с их стороны, but there is nothing laughable here. Am I missing something? Is there some inner joke?

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I have no idea. That's definitely what he said, though. I think it's just a quirk of his speech; he really uses забавно all the time. Maybe he meant "how fun for you!" because of all the work of having a houseguest (esp. for 3 weeks!)?

As for отдали, it's probably not what he said, I didn't write down the conversation. I had a feeling it wasn't the right word...

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Yup, it seems you miss the current meaning - "забавно" had almost completely changed its meaning over the course of the last twenty years -- almost to the extent of what happened to the word "gay" in English. It's now mostly used in the sense mentioned in the immortal Frank Zappa quotation - "jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny."

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over the course of the last twenty years
---
Well, I've been there for the most part of these twenty years, and I think I would notice...

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I think that "direct," older meaning remains only in descriptive situations, when people describe animals or babies (therefore it drifts towards "милый" -- BTW another word with "drifting" direct meaning: its secondary meanings totally prevail over its primary old meaning those days.)

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Speaking of милый – how would you translate it? What are these "secondary meanings" you mention, and what was the primary meaning?

It is one of those words that I feel I just can't use at all the way native speakers do.

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Basically, милый meant two things: 1. dear one, beautiful one (Maupassant's "Bel Ami" has been translated to Russian as "Милый друг") -- and it soon almost became a noun: "а вот здесь живёт моя милая" (here is where my dear one lives.) 2. cute. Over the course of years, the use of милый became more and more ironic OR very intimate; this contrast usage still exists -- one can pettingly call his/her loved one "милый" AND ironically say "какой милый" about a rude passer-by in the street. A famous quotation from the great Russian cartoon "Karlsson Who Lives On The Roof" (adaptation of the great Astrid Lindgren's children book, which, however, completely changed the nature of the main character) helps to understand this ironic usage a bit, as it influenced this usage: the evil Fröken Bock is, in the end, converted into Karlsson friend, and she stands by a window and frantically waves him goodbye, and says to The Kid's parents who burst into room, in that unforgettable voice of the late Faina Ranevskaya:
- Он улетел! Но обещал вернуться. Милый! Милый!
(He flew away! But he promised to come back. Dearest! Dearest!)

You should hear HOW she says that -- мммилый! мммилый! -- to get the idea of ironic usage of this word :)
If it makes you any curious, try to find it on the last minute of this cartoon (the link only works 4:00 AM to 10:00 AM Moscow time, which is 8 hours ahead of EST, for those outside Russia):
http://multiki.arjlover.net/info/karlson.vernulsya.avi.html

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