(no subject)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

 Again, over time I've accumulated several questions. I appreciate your help with any of them: 

1. In conversation, very often situations arise when someone asks a question and you want to answer "Well it depends on the [some thing -- person/car/situation/city]..." In the past I always said this in the following way:

-Там холодно?
-Ну, зависит от штата

But I noticed that Russians seem to express this more often with the phrase смотря на [thing]. Is this a more natural phrase to use? And can you use it in almost any situation? For instance
-Там холодно?
-Ну, смотря на штат..

-Тебе нравится русский рок?
-Смотря на группу

2. I've noticed that there are a few newer and probably slang ways to express displeasure with a situation. Кошмар is a fairly traditional way. There is also жуть and жесть. Are there any other popular variants like these? Are жуть and жесть the same?

3. What is the difference between "что-то" and "нечто"? Is it just that нечто is more literary?

4. In general is it always fairly safe to use кое-... instead of ...-то? For instance,  кое-как, кое-кто, кое-что instead of как-то, кто-то, что-то? Is it simply a more literary way of saying it? Or is there some other nuance in the meaning?

5. When are казалось and показалось used? Are they just a standard imperfective / perfective pair? What's the difference for instance between

Мне показалось, что ей понравился он. 
Мне казалось, что ей понравился он.

Comments

[captainhighwind.livejournal.com]

1. It's not смотря на, it's usually смотря что or смотря какой. For your example it will смотря какой штат or смотря в каком штате.

4. There is a difference. For example, кто-то is 'somebody'or 'someone', while кое-кто is 'certain someone'.

[uncle-gora.livejournal.com]

1. смотря на cannot be used as in your example, зависит is used correctly. If you really want to use смотря, then you would say
-Там холодно?
-Ну, это смотря в каком штате..
5. I'm not sure if you want to stress the fact that she liked him (as oppose to some other guy) or the fact of liking itself. If former is the case then the sentances are correct and would be translated approx:
Мне показалось, что ей понравился он. I think she likes him
Мне казалось, что ей понравился он. I thought she liked him.
if later is the case then the sentances would be
Мне показалось, что он ей понравился.
Мне казалось, что он ей понравился.

[uncle-gora.livejournal.com]

ignore #5, since I've misread the question.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

1. Strictly not recommended. Sign of deep illiteracy, next door to idiocy :)
2. You may add "мрак", "караул" and "атас полнейший" to this list :)
3. Generally speaking, yes.
4. There is a nuance -- koe-- adds a bit of flavor along the lines of "in fact we know WHICH ONE, but we won't mention it here."
5. Yes they are. "Once it seemed" vs "it kept seeming" :)

[andrey-bessonov.livejournal.com]

1. Sure "смотря в каком штате" is not so close to idiocy? :-)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

The question was about СМОТРЯ НА ШТАТ thing, not about СМОТРЯ В КАКОМ ШТАТЕ (which is 100 per cent legitimate.)

[andrey-bessonov.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's right.
I assumed the question was really about the legitimate variant because I'd never come across the idiotic variant :-)
Alas, I still lack experience...

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

Yes I just mixed this up. It should be "smotra kakoj / kakaya" ... I'd heard it a few times but never used it so I couldn't remember exactly the syntax. So is this completely legitimate? Would you say it's more conversational?

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

It is conversational, but not really colloquial (still stylistically neutral.)

[konstkaras.livejournal.com]

1. Смотря на штат is beyond grammatical norm (and hence less natural). More normative expressions are смотря какой штат, мотря какая группа.
2. Common expression of bad situation is a swear word and its euphemisms such as трындец, копец, пипец. Also , фигня, херня, хренотень are used. Other words are ужас, засада, подстава (literally betraying, but may mean any trouble), вилы, жопа. Жуть exprecces fear, scaring conditions; recently appearing жесть describes mostly high aggression, offense, destructive (or even not distructive) power.
3. Что-то has more accent on unknownness, нечто on existence without interest to conditions. Examples from ruscorpora.ru:

Не́что похо́жее бы́ло и в Нижегоро́дской о́бласти, где Кириенко с Немцовым име́ли разли́чные рычаги́ тогда́ для влия́ния на власть

Хотя́ есть и не́что совсе́м но́вое, неожи́данное да́же в э́том, са́мом бли́зком к ли́чности вели́кого арти́ста его геро́е.

Но он губерна́тор, ему́ на́до с кра́ем что́-то де́лать

Она́ гляди́т на него́ и что́-то перебира́ет запа́вшими гу́ба́ми, мя́млит, но слов не разобра́ть

First two examples mean "something likely" and "something new and unexpected", we don't care what.

[http://users.livejournal.com/neko_/]

2. "трындец", "копец", "пипец", "ахтунг", "труба" и "жесть" могут выражать как нечто плохое, так и восторг, удивление. то есть не совсем однозначная интонация получится.

"фигня", "херня", "хрень" почти всегда используются для обозначения любой вещи, предмета, факта, ситуации, без негативного оттенка (например, "с нами такая фигня сегодня случилась!" или "нет ли у тебя этой херни?"), а также в значении "ерунда" (например, "да фигня это всё!").
единственный случай, когда значение будет строго отрицательным - "что за фигня?!", "что за хрень?!".

"ужас", "караул", "засада", "лажа", "подстава", "жопа", "вилы" - вот это однозначный негатив.

[famulan.livejournal.com]

5. Казалось - it's continuous action; показалось - one-time action.

[scolar.livejournal.com]

1. "Смотря на" - completely wrong. In these cases you can use "смотря какой/какая".
2. "Жуть" is almost equal to "кошмар" and "ужас". "Жесть" is relatively new, and it's definitely a slang.
3. The same in most cases. However, "нечто" can be used to name the artificial/unknown object/subject which doesn't have word for.
4. "Кое" sometimes has negative meaning. Especially "кое-как".
5. "Казалось" means some prolonged action "I thought", "I was under impression". "Показалось" is a perfect word, it's used to express something just happened.

[http://users.livejournal.com/arter_sr13_/]

2. Жуть - one of 30 phrases of Ellochka in "12 chairs" from Ilf & Petrov. ^_____^

[kunaifusu.livejournal.com]

1. Зависит is awkward in conversation, I imagine because it contains "висит" and things that hang out are not usually pleasant. "Смотря (какой|что)" is indeed more natural, at least for me. I would use "зависит от" when answering if I wanted to hint that the question is somehow inappropriate (e.g. "Куда мне теперь идти? Зависит от того, куда ты хочешь попасть"). But in writing I'd rather use "зависит".

2. Too many to list them all, жесть is not the same.

3. There is a difference in the degree of one's knowledge, нечто is less definite than что-то, for example you can say "У меня для тебя что-то есть" as in "I have a surprise for you" but you cannot use нечто here unless you meant "I don't know wtf I've found, here I will show it to you"

4. Not really, кое- naturally expresses scarcity and -то expresses lack of knowledge. Other meanings can be derived from those like "кое-как" means "badly" as in "without much work".

5. Yes, perfective/imperfective.

[uncle-gora.livejournal.com]

>>Зависит is awkward in conversation, I imagine because it contains "висит" and things that hang out are not usually pleasant.
Huh?

[barbarisotschka.livejournal.com]

4)
in contrast to -to, koe- means something concretee.g.:
1. Koe-kto pozvonil tebe! (Someone called you). Means: I know who, but I don't want to tell you the name straight away.
2. Kto-to pozvonil tebe. (Someone called you.) Somebody called, but I forgot the name.

koe-kak has, as far as I understand (I'm a student of Russian myself), two meanings.
Ia koe-kak sdelala domashnee zadanie. (synonym would be "nebrezhno". I did my homework without concentration/care)
My koe-kak dobralis do doma (Somehow/with difficulties we found our way home).
Native speakers, please correct me if I am making this up!

[andrey-bessonov.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree.
I wrote nearly the same but forgot that кое-как can mean the same as как-то in sentences like "Мы кое-как добрались до дома" :-)

[andrey-bessonov.livejournal.com]

4. When you say кое-что & кое-кто you certainly know what or who it is; not necessarily so with что-то & кто-то.
E.g., I would say "Он показал мне кое-что очень интересное" but "Он мне показал что-то - я не понял, что именно".
Some people will use что-то in both cases. On the other hand you can't use кое-что in the second sentence.

Кое-как usually means 'not very well' & is not synonymous to как-то: "Он сделал свою работу кое-как".

Как-то means either 'I don't know how' or 'not properly because of the lack of means/time/...', e.g. "Как-то ему удалось перевязать раны" = He somehow managed to bandage his wounds (maybe with his shirt or something)

[icamel.livejournal.com]

2. Жесть here derived from жестокость, жестоко.

[http://users.livejournal.com/neko_/]

скорее "жесткий".

[quorax.livejournal.com]

1. One more example of using "смотря" in addition to mentioned above:

- Как вы собираетесь действовать?
- Смотря по обстоятельствам. (Depends on circumstances.)

2. "Жесть" is a way more slang if compared to "жуть". "Жуть" always meant somewhat awful and direct meaning of "жесть" is tin (material). "Жесть" is derived from "жёсткий" (as "rigid"), and its modern slang meaning is derived from "жёсткий" as "rude" or "harsh".

comment

[bhaga.livejournal.com]

1. Concerning Kino song

In view of the entire concept of that song, the last line means that the guy is some older than his girl, and he has not been to the cinema for some long while. The guy may be a heavy drinker and a hooligan as well, and his girl does not have any idea about who he really is cause she is so young and naïve.
So she wants some romantic way of spending time, and he wants to hang with his friends, have some vodka and so on.

They are supposed to part soon, but the song generates illusion of love.

2. Concerning

-Там холодно?
-Ну, зависит от штата

better say:
-Там холодно?
-Ну, смотря, где.

-Тебе нравится русский рок?
-Смотря на группу

better say:
-Тебе нравится русский рок?
-Смотря, что. / Смотря, какая группа.

This смотря is gerund, can be used with adverbs, and all cases with a proper preposition.

It means, “let me SEE first, before saying”.
жесть has the meaning of something between hard, rigid - and brutal/cruel. “Жесть” has a combined effect of “brutal” and “tough”.
The word жесть itself signifies stuff they make cans of, as you know.
“нечто” is indeed something originally used rather in books, treatises, theses. Often used with an adjective, нечто оригинальное, нечто новое. Нечто is of neuter gender.
But you may also encounter the expression “Это нечто!”, which means “it is something really special!” and it has rather an ironical and funny connotation.
4.
the difference between кое-кто and кто-то, for example, is as follow:
кое-кто implies the idea of knowing the person, or it is assumed that this кое-кто is somehow known, or heard of.

кто-то means generally an unknown person.

You can say:

кое-кто знает об этом.
Я кое-кого знаю. (accusative case)
Кто-то страшный. Кто-то красивый. Кто-то неизвестный. (can be used with adjective).
Кое-кто and кто-то are equally literary.

Мне показалось, что ей понравился он.
Мне казалось, что ей понравился он.
As you say, it is imperfective / perfective pair.

The difference is:

Мне показалось, что ей понравился он.

You got a one-time feeling about that fact.

Мне казалось, что ей понравился он.

You have remained in that feeling for a while.