Question about грамм vs граммов

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

What is the usage difference between сто грамм and сто граммов?

Is it the difference between spoken and written Russian, how 'correct' you want to sound, or what? The book I'm using gives both сто грамм and сто граммов as examples, but isn't very clear on the difference.

Comments

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Сто граммов is a more bookish, older form, while сто грамм was regarded in the 1920s-1930s as a more colloquial form. Now they are pretty much interreplaceable.

[llz.livejournal.com]

*interchangeable

[orie.livejournal.com]

It's how 'correct' you want to sound.

Actually, most Russian people don't know which is correct. As for me, I would consult a dictionary, as in many other cases of Genitive Plural :)

(And the dictionary says, both forms are ok: ГРАММ, -а; мн. род. граммов и грамм; - http://www.gramota.ru/slovari/dic/?word=%E3%F0%E0%EC%EC&all=x )

[racoonbear.livejournal.com]

I'm Russian, but I cannot choose between "у меня в шкафу лежат 20 пар носок" and "у меня в шкафу лежат 20 пар носков".
And I don't care much, actually )

[arashi-opera.livejournal.com]

"Носков" is correct. You say "20 пар чулок" but "20 пар носков".

[pzrk.livejournal.com]

First is the short spoken form of the second. Also, "сто грамм" has special meaning of a 100 ml alcohol portion.
Example: "Да он с самого утра сто грамм принял" (or even "с утра остогра́ммился")

[alon_68]

Most measure units have lost the ending "-ов" in the 20th century. It's now the rule to say 5 миллиампер, 100 киловатт, 220 вольт. Re. "грамм" the current situation is less definite - "сто граммов" not regarded as incorrect but anyone hardly says that. "Сто/двести/триста грамм" is preferable everywhere except for, possibly, the official documents. You should consider also that "сто грамм" has the meaning of "a drink of vodka" and it would be very strange to say "сто граммов" in such context.

[zhp.livejournal.com]

measure units have lost the ending - oh really? so do you say "38 метр" now?

[alon_68]

I said "most" :)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Nobody did say "127 вольтов" either, even in 19th century. Anyway, it's not a general rule, but rather a general trend that you describe.

[mithrilian.livejournal.com]

Whatever a native speaker says (not writes. Spelling is a different matter entirely) is correct. The difference is how other speakers would perceive him socially. People say "it's incorrect to say "я одел носки" instead of "я надел носки", for example, but it's not incorrect. It's simply the choice between a cultured and uncultured speech that might betray or conceal the speaker's social origins and educational background.

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know, which is why I put 'correct' in quote marks. Of course, that there is no objective standard of correctness for grammar doesn't mean speakers recognize this; people often choose usages they think are more 'correct' even though it's really a question of what is more socially appropriate/beneficial.

[rina-grant.livejournal.com]

Yes, and sometimes the more academic version is less appropriate socially. Граммов indeed sounds bookish and even pedantic.

[rina-grant.livejournal.com]

Excellent explanation! +1

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Right. For English speakers, a good example may be a young prosecutor in Tom Wolfe's "The Bonfire of the Vanities": being a cultured and educated young man, he had to struggle to break his educated self when he started to work with rough-and-tough guys in NYC prosecutor's office -- he HAD to start saying "he don't" when speaking with his colleagues :)