Using the instrumental in the past

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Frequently, I know that Russians put a predicate noun in the instrumental case - mostly for past tense, from what I can tell. I'm not really sure why they do this.

For example: What is the difference between, "Я был пилот." and "Я был пилотом." ?

Does this same structure exist for the future tense? Is it grammatically correct to say "Я буду пилотом."?

* * * * *

Next question - somewhat related:

How would a Russian convey the different connotation in the following English sentences?

"I am a pilot."  - as if I was asked what my occupation is.

"I am the pilot." - it may be obvious that I'm a pilot, but somebody may want to know if I am the pilot for a particular flight.

In English, we can easily convey these different meanings using the words "a" and "the." In situations where the context may not be obvious, I guess a Russian would have to use a few more words to avoid ambiguity - correct?

"Я служу пилотом."

"Я пилот для этого рейса."

Again, thanks!

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Comments

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Nope. "Я летчик для этого рейса" sounds really awkward and contrived, like some native English speaker wants to construct the phrase as Russian as possible, but fails. For example, modern spoken Russian doesn't use "для" here. And "лётчик" might be slightly more mainstream, but rarely used among pilots themselves -- they usually say "летун" as a slangish self-reference, or simply "пилот". There's subtle difference in that "лётчик" is used to denote profession in abstract sense, but "пилот" is more often used in "applied" form.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Exactly: пилот is a position while лётчик is the entire profession (лётчик can work as командир, второй пилот, штурман etc. etc.)