(no subject)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

Here are a few miscellaneous Russian language questions I've had recently: 

1. If someone uses an unfamiliar word, to clear up its meaning you can ask "Что это такое?" But if you want to re-use the word in your questions, does the "такое" change? For example "  
-Мы сидели на скамейке.
-Что это такое?  или Что ТАКАЯ скамейка?

2. Are the words здороваться and прощаться used the same way that they are used in English in the following sense: 
-We greet each other every morning by the supermarket - Мы здороваемся каждое утро возле супермаркета 
-We said goodbye and I went to the train station - Мы прощались и я пошёл на вокзал

3. I've heard a Russian slang word that means something like "a slob" or an uncultured person -- it sounds something like хрюща, but I can't find it in the dictionary. Could you tell me what this word is?

Thanks

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

1. No, it does not change when you talk about inanimate objects. However it does otherwise.
E.g.
Мы сидели на скамейке с Верой и Сашей.
Что такое скамейка?
Кто такая Вера?
Кто такой Саша?
Кто такие Вера и Саша?

2. Мы здороваемся каждое утро - correct
But мы прощались и я пошел is wrong because this was a one-time finished action; you need a perfective verb here, therefore "мы ПОпрощались, и я пошел на вокзал".

3. Хрюша, хрюшка is a diminutive for a pig, but not that rude and rather endearing. (It comes from хрю-хрю - that's what pigs say in Russian instead of oink-oink.)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

Perfect, thanks

[www-ary.livejournal.com]

1. - +
2. - +
3. - "свинья", "хам"

[pinky-the-cow.livejournal.com]

Or "Что такое Вера и Саша?"
As in the joke about "Слава Кпсс" not being a person :) . A foreigner is allowed not to know all the possible names, I think.

The answer could be like "Не "что", а "кто". Это мои друзья. Саша — коллега по работе, а Вера — его секретарша."


And regarding the second sentence. Isn't there a big chance of "Мы прощались, и я шёл на вокзал" being the [more] accurate translation?
There could be different contexts, after all. The important thing is to know what you are trying to relay.
So, the general recommendation would be not to put the several verbs into different forms of imperfective/perfective, when they, erm.. , have sort of equivalent properties... >_< (my English fails me with description, sorry).

[sam-newberry.livejournal.com]

1. The word 'такое' doesn't change.
-Мы сидели на скамейке.
-Что это такое?

2. Exactly. But in this given example you must say 'попрощались' instead of 'прощались'.

3. It is 'хрюша'. The word literally means 'litte cute pig'. This in not rude or offencive word really - it is often used by parents (when their little children behave badly) of friends.

P.S. Sorry for bad english :(

[zauberer.livejournal.com]

1. In this case the word "такое" depends on "что", and not on "скамейка", and that's why it doesn't change:

— Что такое 'скамейка'?

2. "Здороваться" and "прощаться" are used in pretty same way as their English analogs, as far as I can judge.

— Мы здороваемся каждое утро у супермаркета.
— Мы попрощались и я пошёл на вокзал. (Note the aspect!)

3. Sorry, can't recognize the word you're talking about. :( If I would to say "slob" I'd use "неряха" or "грубиян", "хам".

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

1. "такое" should not change in this case, "что такое ... ?" is not controlled by the word you are asking about. E.g. "что такое "скамейка"?", "что такое "паровоз"?", "что такое "бегать"?", "что такое "красный"?" etc.

2. Yes, except you should use perfective "попрощались" in your example.

3. Could be "хрюша" ("a piggie") but it's a cute word so it would be said only as a joke.

[brainless-dude.livejournal.com]

Лучше бы написал, что скамейка это предмет неживого мира, отсюда и третье лицо в вопросительных словах.

Пардон, у меня с переводом на английский туго ;о)

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

Sorry you don't make any sense even in Russian - how is third person and being an inanimate object related? How do question words change by person?

[brainless-dude.livejournal.com]

"третье лицо" dosn't mean third person, it's mean "it" "оно".

В русском языке все предметы мира делятся на живое и не живое, живое - это все животные, птицы насекомые и люди, а неживое - это предметы, растения, деревья.
Первое лицо и второе лицо - это половая принадлежность (sex). Первое - male, второе - female. Третье лицо не имеет половой принадлежности и может заменяться местоимением оно (it).

I wish you understand me ;-P

[oryx_and_crake]

Most of what you have written is wrong.

1. "Половая принадлежность" has nothing in common with "первое лицо", "второе лицо". "Первое лицо" (first person) is "я, мы". "второе лицо" - "ты, вы". "Третье лицо" (third person) - "он, она, оно, они".

2. "Оно" is "средний род" (neuter), "он" - masculine and "она" - feminine. All three are third-person pronouns.

3. English "it" does not have a direct correlation with Russian "оно" - e.g. скамейка is inanimate, this means it will be "it" in English, but in Russian it is still "она". Please note that animals and insects will be "it" in English even though they are alive.

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

You have confused person and gender categories. You are also mistaken about inanimate objects being of neuter gender to give you few examples - "река" is feminine and inanimate, "берег" - is masculine and inanimate, even more - animate objects can be of neuter gender too "ополчение" for instance is animate and neuter. Anyways, neither gender nor being inanimate relates to the "что такое" because it's a common phrase to ask about an unknown word, you still say "что такое "кошка"?" even though cat is an animate object.

[oryx_and_crake]

You also should not confuse sex and gender. Скамейка is not a sexual object but it has feminine gender. A doctor can be female but the word доктор is still masculine. And so on.

[la-dy-ashley.livejournal.com]

I guess brainless_dude means that что is always neutral (что такое скамейка, что такое ножницы etc.), whereas Кто can accord with verbs and adjectives in any person and number (Кто такой, кто такая, кто такие). And что is used with inanimate objects, while кто refers to animate ones.

[oryx_and_crake]

I am sorry but the working language of this community is English.

[bekesha.livejournal.com]

3. Most likely it was a Jlob, not a Slob, it's similar to redneck, but not exactly the same

Жлоб

[ex-moondev.livejournal.com]

A slob sounds like as "жлоб" and have analogous sense. I will be called uncultured man as a "жлоб" or a "гопник" (it`s very gently), but slovenly man will be named me a "неряха".

Re: Жлоб

[al-r.livejournal.com]

жлоб - I would understand as a greedy person, who doesn't wont to share :))
So I make a conclusion, that we, Russians, have problems in understnding each other as well :))

[icamel.livejournal.com]

Хрюша possibly a proper name of a kid tv-show character. You can see him here sitting on the film (http://spokoinoinochi.ru/)

[whitest-owl.livejournal.com]

As many posts already said you do not change 'такое' in a situation where you are not familiar with a word.
But... sometimes you do change it if you are not sure is the object animated or not:
- Я вчера запнулся о табуретку.
- Что такое или кто такая "табуретка"?

[kysuchka.livejournal.com]

1. Не надо изменять ТАКОЕ на ТАКАЯ.правильно-что это такое
2.Мы порощались и я пошел на вокзал

[oryx_and_crake]

Please note that the working language of this community is English. Thank you.