и or а?

[silentreverie.livejournal.com]

Here's a slightly stupid, but still rather important question, as it is a widely used word: how do you say 'and' in Russian? According to my dictionary there are two options: и and а. I was wondering, are they interchangeable? Or are there certain situations in which you can only use one and not the other? Thanks in advance for any hints/tips/advice!

Comments

[xnrrn.livejournal.com]

И is for situations that use inclusive and. Example: Заяц и сова - враги. (Hare and owl are enemies).
А is for the and-or, or and whatnot situations. Example: Заяц травоядный, а сова - хищник. (Hare is herbivore, owl is a predator. I.e. а is used is also used in cases when and/or is omited/not present in english, but is thought of.)

[silentreverie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see! Thanks!

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

Both "а" and "и" are often translated into English as "and", but they have very different meanings. It's a matter of English using one word to cover more than one concept.

The word "а" is contrastive -- in other words, you use it when you're drawing a contrast between two clauses.

For example, the cliche "не имей сто рублей, а имей сто друзей" ( "don't have a hundred rubles, have a hundred friends"), "а" is used to draw a contrast between the two imperatives.

This can also be used in sentences that don't use imperatives, such as ... oh, Using Russian gives this example: "Они остались, а мы ушли" ("They stayed, and we went home").

The word "и", on the other hand, isn't contrastive -- it's inclusive, and is used in things like lists or when you're drawing parallels.

The best way to get used to using these two conjunctions correctly is, in my opinion, to look at lots of examples. This is the type of thing that's easy to do once you get a feel for it.

[silentreverie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information, it's very helpful!

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

И is more used I believe, and is just like English and. a is used sometimes like ¨but¨, and can be used as and and but I think. Not too sure, but that was what I heard.

[silentreverie.livejournal.com]

thanks!

[shellesie.livejournal.com]

There is one more translation of "and", which, however, is used not so often. It is "да". (Not in meaning "yes") It is used in old-russian (folk-russian) speech, in proverbs etc. F.e. - Иван да Марья (а flower called "cow-wheat", i guess) - this means something like "John & Mary" :)

[silentreverie.livejournal.com]

I see... I just love it when things keep getting more complicated all the time. :) But since you mentioned it's not used often, I'll just forget about it for now. :) Thanks for the info!

[yers.livejournal.com]

In *modern* colloquial Russian (which relies heavily on idioms and connotations), «да» in the sense of "and" implies exhaustivity: "just this and that", "this and that and nothing else". For example: "Всего-то развлечений, что кино да интернет" ("movies and the internet, that's all there is for entertainment"). Or, "Ира да Маша пришли, остальным не до танцев было." ("Ira and Masha came along, the rest couldn't be bothered about dancing"). You won't need any of this until you find yourself in a Russian-speaking environment, this is just to illustrate how subtle Russian can be about clauses, particles and other minor parts of speech.

[silentreverie.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting... I wonder why my dictionary doesn't list it. Well, it's not a very extensive dictionary, so that's probably why. :) Thanks for the info!