белка? белок? a.k.a. I hate the accusative.

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

My roommate is just learning Russian, so we talk back and forth simple sentences for fun. One of the words we like to use is "белка" (squirrel)... because they're cute, and we inevitably see them around, so they're easy to talk about. We would say "Я люблю белок". But I just looked it up in the Yandex which says that "белок" also means protein, egg-whites, etc. So would the sentence "Я люблю белок" be horribly ambiguous, or is "белка" irregular in accusative plural somehow?

Comments

[lemur-cat.livejournal.com]

I do not love egg-whites. 0_o

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

No, see, it would only be one egg-white...

(note to everyone else: It is funny becuause Lemur_cat, my aforementioned roommate, does not eat eggs)

[lemur-cat.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, you are correct. I cannot think of any situation in which I would say "I love the egg-white." Unless maybe there was something I really didn't want to eat, and whoever wanted me to eat it thought lacto-vegetarianism was not weird or annoying at all and thus excepted its containing egg-white as a good excuse for me not to eat it.

[irinta.livejournal.com]

I like squirrel = Я люблю бeлок.
I like egg-whites = Я люблю белок.

Those are two different words.
Singular:
белка = squirrel
белок = protein

Plurals are homographs - they are spelled alike but different in meaning and pronunciation:
бEлки = squirrels
белкИ = egg-whites

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Comprehensive.
I would also show stresses in singulars:
белка
белок

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

Thank you!
These stress-difference things always throw me off, which is counterintuitive because English is filled with a million examples of the same thing - I should be used to them by now!

[camomiletea.livejournal.com]

No, the sentence will be alright. "белок" as an Accusative of "белка" has an emphasis on the first syllable, while as egg-white, the emphasis is on the second syllable. So anyone cantell what you are talking about judging by your pronunciation.

[cema.livejournal.com]

No, it would be deliciously ambiguous! "белок" here could be the accusative of either белки the furry critters or the egg white or protein. When spoken, it could be "Я люблю Беллок", the last word being the accusative plural of the endearing form of Белла, a female name (a somewhat contrived but not an unlikely example).

When I was a child I used to get a kick of phrases like some food is good because it содержит белок, but I have long been past that, I'd like to think. :-)

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

Deliciously ambiguous when you know what you're doing; horribly ambiguous when you're doing your best not to sound dumb. *g*

[simonff.livejournal.com]

There was an old joke that an article titled "Как вывести белок из клетки" may be either a biological one meaning "How to get rid of proteins in the cells", or an zoological one meaning "How to make squirells leave a cage".