Revision? Explanation?

[paintmylover.livejournal.com]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if you all could take a look at this portion of a letter I am writing to a native Russian speaker. My boyfriend (a native) suggested that after у меня будет, I write "два русская преподавателя". He didn't specify that this would be in the genitive case, but being that I'm learning the language, that's what I naturally assumed. I do not understand why he would want to word it in such a way, though. I was taught that, after у меня, you use the nominative case. 

But explanations aside, I would really appreciate seeing a revision of these sentences so I can (hopefully) figure out where I went wrong:

Но, в следующом семестре, у меня будет две родные русские преподаватели. Они, надеюсь, будут преподавать мне промежуточный русский язык.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

I am sorry to say that your boyfriend is mistaken. "Два русская преподавателя" is wrong because the adjective does not agree with the noun, neither in case nor in plurality. (Русская is feminine, singular, nominative case, while you need masculine, plural, genitive, like the word преподавателя they have to agree with.) The correct version will be "два русских преподавателя". However this is not exactly what you wanted to say, because this means "two Russian professors"; however, "two Russian professors" is not the same as "two professors of Russian", because they could be teaching math, you know.

On the other hand, две родные русские преподаватели is even worse. What you actually want to say is:
"В следующем семестре у нас будут два преподавателя русского, носители языка. (Or: два преподавателя русского языка, у которых русский язык родной.) Я надеюсь, что они будут преподавать нам русский язык промежуточного уровня. (You cannot say промежуточный русский язык, it sounds bad.)

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. It is "в следующЕм семестре", and you do not need any commas in this sentence.

[dekarmi.livejournal.com]

Но в следующем сееместре у меня будет два русских преподавателя-носителя языка. Они, надеюсь, будут преподавать мне промежуточный русский язык. (русский язык промежуточного уровня?)

as for me, "промежуточный русский язык" means some sort of the Russian language not being truly Russian yet. Like a Russian-English mixture of Russian language students, for example :)

[oryx_and_crake]

русских преподавателя
--
I'd rather say два преподавателя русского, because a Russian professor and a professor of Russian are not necessarily the same.

[khathi.livejournal.com]

No, after "у меня" you should use not nominative, but genitive case. Second, "преподаватель" is masculine, so you couldn't say "две преподаватели", as it's in feminine. You should use masculine genitive plural here -- "у меня будет два преподавателя".

[paintmylover.livejournal.com]

Thanks for everyone's responses! But I'm still a little confused as to why after у меня you would use the genitive case. Wouldn't something like у меня есть собака be correct?

[khathi.livejournal.com]

In this case you use copula here -- "у меня есть собака". When there's no copula you use genitive.

[paintmylover.livejournal.com]

But what if you wanted to say у меня хорошая собака? Sorry for asking so many questions, I just want to set this straight for myself.

[miconazole.livejournal.com]

You're using genitive because nouns following a plural number should be in the genitive (genitive singular from 2-4, genitive plural for 5 or more). This is because of the lingering overgrown ghost of the dual number, one of the more annoying things about Russian. Just memorize this rule because there's not much else you can do.

[paintmylover.livejournal.com]

OHHHH! THANK YOU! I must've totally forgotten all my genitive singular/plural rules! Thank you!!!

[miconazole.livejournal.com]

... Seriously?

[paintmylover.livejournal.com]

Any thank you everyone for your helpful comments!

[paintmylover.livejournal.com]

*And

[oryx_and_crake]

Genitive here has nothing to do with у меня. It is required because of the number two. I have two. Two of what? Of teachers.

[oryx_and_crake]

I think you are somewhat mistaken.

[riegel.livejournal.com]

it's genitive because it's plural.

у меня будет (один) предодаватель (nom.)
у меня будет два преподавателя (gen.)
and it's the same with собака

[thevile.livejournal.com]

I guess u should sat у меня будУт два преподавателя

[thevile.livejournal.com]

say*

[alamar.livejournal.com]

"У меня будут два преподавателя" means that e.g. they'd come to a breakfast.

"У меня будет два преподавателя" means that they'll teach you in some overlapping period of time, but mostly independent of each other.

Those thin matters can vary from speaker to speaker, of course.

[orie.livejournal.com]

у меня есть собака
у меня две собаки
у меня три собаки
у меня четыре собаки
у меня пять собак
у меня шесть собак

it's the numeral that makes you use genitive

[khathi.livejournal.com]

Maybe, maybe.

[david-us.livejournal.com]

"два русских преподавателя"

I've always found this weird with the Russian language. The adjective is in the Genitive PLURAL whereas the noun is in the Genitive SINGULAR.

And yet, isn't "Много русских преподавaтелей" correct?

[oryx_and_crake]

It is. This thing (два часа but пять часов) has a fancy philological name but I cannot remember it at the moment.

[david-us.livejournal.com]

As odd as it seems, I understand how numbers following один/одна/одно/одни are in the nominative singular. But so are the adjectives.

Одна красивая девушка.

The adjective and noun agree in number & case.

Пять красивих девушек.

Again, the adjective and noun agree in number & case.

But ...

Две/Три/Четыре красивих девушки.

They agree in case but NOT in number.

[zwilling.livejournal.com]

I think you meant dual number (двойственное число).

[oryx_and_crake]

Yes, that's probably it. Thanks.

[oryx_and_crake]

To confuse you more, you can perfectly well say четыре красивые девушки. No kidding.