(no subject)

[bellezzarubata.livejournal.com]

I've totally blanked on this but is there a difference between вас and вам.  I assume it's case-related.

"Она поздравлают вас с Рождеством Христовым"

Comments

[tuda-i-obratno.livejournal.com]

Она поздравляЕТ вас с Рождеством Христовым.

[bellezzarubata.livejournal.com]

Thank you

[oryx_and_crake]

Please note it is Вас if you are talking politely to one person, and вас if addressing several people.

[ex-postinor.livejournal.com]

usually it's looking ridiculous when someone tries to show the importance using upper case

opinion

[oryx_and_crake]

I am sorry but I don't understand what you are trying to say. There are very clear-cut rules regarding usage of вы vs. Вы.

[bellezzarubata.livejournal.com]

I noticed that punctuation and capitalization is different than in English. Good to know that Вы is capitalized.

[oryx_and_crake]

Вы is capitalized
---
only in certain cases

[aston12.livejournal.com]

It is interesting. I did not knew russian is so difficult :)

[archaicos.livejournal.com]

Try teaching it and you'll see ;)

[russia-insider.livejournal.com]

If you meant "She wishes (lit. congratulates) you a Merry X-mas", then its "Она поздравляЕТ вас с Рождеством (Христовым)".

[un-malpaso.livejournal.com]

just in case it wasn't clear, the basic difference you asked about is one of case.
вас = accusative ("you" - object of the verb), вам = dative ("to you")

- different verbs take different cases in Russian though, so you can't always rely on a direct translation from English... just learn them one at a time.

so, Она поздравляет вас ...
but, for example,
Она дает вам подарок. "She gives a present to you"

[david-us.livejournal.com]

In addition, вас is also the genitive form of вы.

У вас есть словарь?

[yozhevich.livejournal.com]

You might also be thinking of the verb желать, which you will also use when you think of 'wish' in English. As russia_insider mentioned above, sometimes different situations require different verbs in Russian than you would expect in English, and verbs in Russian will govern different cases than what you might expect.

The verb поздравлять governs accusative case and the preposition с and instrumental for the holiday or special event, for example
Поздравляю Вас с Новым годом, с Рождеством.

The verb желать is used when you want to convey your particular wishes for the recipient. With желать, the recipient is in dative and whatever you wish them is in genitive, for example, Желаю вам (dative) здоровья 'health', счастья 'happiness' и успехов 'success'. (Note that success is a countable noun in Russian, so it can take plural as well).

Hope that helps! :)