(no subject)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

Two questions:

1. How would you translate "I will be able to visit my family often" into Russian? It seems to me that this requires imperfective, but I've never used мочь as a future imperfective... is it possible to say "я буду мочь навещать..."? This буду мочь combination I've never seen before but it makes logical sense to me.


2. When you have a sentence that contains two words or phrases representing the same thing -- like "I read the book "Anna Karenina" or "This is a song by the group Nautilius Pompilius" where book = Anna Karenina and group = Nautilius Pompilius, does the first word or phrase absorb the declension or do both parts get declined? For instance, is it Я прочитал книгу Анну Каренину or Я прочитал книгу Анна Каренина? Это––песня группы Наутилиуса Помпилиуса or Это––песня группы Наутилиус Помпилиус?

Thanks much

Two of something

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Let's play a game!

I will make a list of words, in English, that convey the idea of two-of-something, or the state of two-ness, if you will. I would like to see a similar list like this in Russian. To the maxim extent possible, place the Russian word alongside the English word that comes closest to the same meaning, provided such an equivalent exists.

two
twice
double
second
duo
dual
bi- (as in biannual, bicycle, bilingual, binoculars, etc...)
couple
pair
twin
tandem

I can do the first one!

two - два  :)

The haunting of the "negative genitive"

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Just when I thought I was beginning to understand this ...

I know I seem to be obsessing on this issue, but it keeps rearing its ugly head. More and more I'm discovering that this construction frequently occurs in Russian.

From what I have learned here, the genitive form of the direct object is often used in negative sentences when that object is meant to be very general ...

For instance:

Я не получил ответ. (no genitive)
I did not receive the answer. (i.e. the specific answer I was hoping for.)

As opposed to ...

Я не получил ответа. (genitive)
I did not receive an answer. (any answer!)

Now I stumble across the following sentence in my studies:

Не ешьте этих яблок, они ещё зелёные.
Don't eat these apples, they're still green. (This is the book's translation)

To me, this seems fairly specific with regards to the "green apples." Not just any green apples, rather, these specific apples.

How would you translate the following sentences in Russian?

"Don't eat green apples, they'll make you sick."

"If you eat that green apple, you'll get sick."

Thanks!

(no subject)

[drivebyluna.livejournal.com]

How do you say "all the time"?

глагол: бывать

[david-us.livejournal.com]

I run across this verb quite frequently and it seems to have various translations in English.

I would like to see some example sentences, using this verb, to better determine how it is commonly used. Could you please provide some examples along with the English translation?  

If the verb has various meanings in Russian, could you try to include sentences that highlight those differences?

As always, thanks.

the eternal student?

[0-anglichanka-0.livejournal.com]

I was talking about the phenomenon of the 'eternal student' with some friends (i.e. those people who seem to be enrolled at university for the majority of their lives) and was wondering what the Russian expression would be - would 'пожизненная студентка' make sense?
 спасибка!