usage of pronouns?

[Derek & Rita 6]

Something that gets me - I talk to my wife about our daughter, and I ask "so how is she?" and she replies with "kto ona?"... is that a common thing where in russian you don't use a pronoun to refer to a third party you just talked about? I get this about half the time, and I don't understand why...

Any native russian speakers here care to elaborate?

Edited March 13, 2012 by Derek & Rita

[Dave&Roza 748]

Something that gets me - I talk to my wife about our daughter, and I ask "so how is she?" and she replies with "kto ona?"... is that a common thing where in russian you don't use a pronoun to refer to a third party you just talked about? I get this about half the time, and I don't understand why...

Any native russian speakers here care to elaborate?

Not a native Russian speaker, but I havve learned that OHA is for the female, OH is for the MALE and OHN is equivalent to THEY. It is like SHE, HE, THEY. The same for French. That was one of the hardest things I found when learning first French and then Russian is that the nouns themselves have gender and you need to know about it. My wife and I are watching the "Let's Get Married" show on Russian Channel One and they talk about the person' age. I asked her why it is goda sometimes it is let. You just know was her response.

Typically pronouns that end with an "a" are female that have no "a" are male and end in "n" or "x" are plural. So she is asking How is she? with Kak oha?.

Hope this is correct and helps as I am still learning Russian myself and hope to learn about this too.

Dave

Edited March 13, 2012 by Dave&Roza

[Slade&Natasha 7]

Something that gets me - I talk to my wife about our daughter, and I ask "so how is she?" and she replies with "kto ona?"... is that a common thing where in russian you don't use a pronoun to refer to a third party you just talked about? I get this about half the time, and I don't understand why...

Any native russian speakers here care to elaborate?

Perhaps you're mispronouncing it. Ona is pronounced "ah-NA", not "OH-na"

Certainly you can't go wrong if you just ask "Kak Katya? (or whatever your daughter's name is)"

[Slade&Natasha 7]

My wife and I are watching the "Let's Get Married" show on Russian Channel One and they talk about the person' age. I asked her why it is goda sometimes it is let. You just know was her response.

Good thing your wife isn't a Russian teacher.

Numbers ending in 1 (eg 21, 31, ..., 101, 1001, etc) end in "odin god"

Numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4 (eg 22, 43, 94, 102, 203, 304, etc) end in "dva goda", "tri goda", "chetyri goda"

Numbers ending in anything else are "let" (eg 5, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20, 100, 111, 200, etc), eg "sto let"

You probably noticed that numbers 11-14 are exceptions since (like English, French, German and many other languages), Russian has special words for those that don't end in the "odin", "dva", "tri" and "chetyri"

Also be aware that this rule applies to counting most things in Russian, not just years.

Edited March 13, 2012 by Slade&Natasha

[Dave&Roza 748]

Good thing your wife isn't a Russian teacher.

Numbers ending in 1 (eg 21, 31, ..., 101, 1001, etc) end in "odin god"

Numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4 (eg 22, 43, 94, 102, 203, 304, etc) end in "dva goda", "tri goda", "chetyri goda"

Numbers ending in anything else are "let" (eg 5, 10, 11, 14, 15, 19, 20, 100, 111, 200, etc), eg "sto let"

You probably noticed that numbers 11-14 are exceptions since (like English, French, German and many other languages), Russian has special words for those that don't end in the "odin", "dva", "tri" and "chetyri"

Also be aware that this rule applies to counting most things in Russian, not just years.

Thanks for that. She was able to explain to me it had to do with the ending sound being either hard or soft, but it did take awhile for her to be able to explain it to me so I could understand so either I am a dumb student or she is not a good teacher .

I have also noticed that the ending of nouns tend to be spelled differently with 1 then 2,3,4 and then 5,6,7,8,9. So I am always mispronouncing things. So yes I've noticed, but I stil have not gotten the hang of it.

Now if I could just get the MIL to slow down when she speaks to me.

Dave

Edited March 13, 2012 by Dave&Roza

[Slade&Natasha 7]

I have also noticed that the ending of nouns tend to be spelled differently with 1 then 2,3,4 and then 5,6,7,8,9. So I am always mispronouncing things. So yes I've noticed, but I stil have not gotten the hang of it.

1 [singular nominative]

2/3/4 [singular genitive]

5/6/7/8/9/10/11/../20/30/../100/../1000/.. [plural genitive]

and it follows the same if it's god/goda/let (year) or chas/chasa/chasov (hour) or most other nouns.

Now if I could just get the MIL to slow down when she speaks to me.

I hear ya there, buddy! Hopefully you're a better Russian student than I was!

[Derek & Rita 6]

Perhaps you're mispronouncing it. Ona is pronounced "ah-NA", not "OH-na"

Certainly you can't go wrong if you just ask "Kak Katya? (or whatever your daughter's name is)"

No, I am using the correct term. I've been talking Russian this whole time with her since we've met, and my russian has improved tremendously during these 20 months. She doesn't speak english, but she is trying to learn. I learned Russian just for her. I know the pronouns. I know how to say them. This particular instance happened during a text conversation, so I know that pronunciation had nothing to do with it. I just figured it was a cultural issue or something. Sure, I could use her name every time, but just wondered if there was something I wasn't understanding. It just baffles me that pronouns seem to confuse her as to whom I am speaking (or writing, as the case may be) about.

What I can't wait for is when she learns enough english that she starts translating some russian sentences into english, and she makes those mistakes. For example, I can see her saying "and fish and steak" instead of the correct "both fish and steak".

[Slade&Natasha 7]

No, I am using the correct term. I've been talking Russian this whole time with her since we've met, and my russian has improved tremendously during these 20 months. She doesn't speak english, but she is trying to learn. I learned Russian just for her. I know the pronouns. I know how to say them. This particular instance happened during a text conversation, so I know that pronunciation had nothing to do with it. I just figured it was a cultural issue or something. Sure, I could use her name every time, but just wondered if there was something I wasn't understanding. It just baffles me that pronouns seem to confuse her as to whom I am speaking (or writing, as the case may be) about.

What I can't wait for is when she learns enough english that she starts translating some russian sentences into english, and she makes those mistakes. For example, I can see her saying "and fish and steak" instead of the correct "both fish and steak".

I've got no clue as to why there's such confusion going on there. Being Russian myself..

Maybe it's a person-specific trait in lieu of a language quirk, because personally, I don't see why there's a recurring misunderstanding there from a language perspective. I understand the question 'как она?' just fine, but maybe you should try 'kak u neyo dela' instead, meaning 'how is she doing?' in order to avoid further confusion. (как у нее дела?)

~Natasha (previous reply was from Slade)

[Derek & Rita 6]

1 [singular nominative]

2/3/4 [singular genitive]

5/6/7/8/9/10/11/../20/30/../100/../1000/.. [plural genitive]

and it follows the same if it's god/goda/let (year) or chas/chasa/chasov (hour) or most other nouns.

I hear ya there, buddy! Hopefully you're a better Russian student than I was!

Oh, it's quite an unusual language, but after listening and speaking with russians for a while, the ending of words kind of becomes automatic, like ending a direct object with "y" (oo sound). I usually place those at the end of the sentence, that makes it easier. Phrasing something so it makes sense is more difficult. I have to keep my sentences short to avoid mixing in too many words or ideas which might change the endings, or be ambiguous.

I do enjoy when the languages seem to use the words the same ways as English does. For example, the word "right" has different meanings, but in Russian it's used similarly to english.

Right - as in "turn right" (naprava)

Right - as in "I have a right" (prava)

Right - as in "He's right." (prav)

I keep getting confused on the 13 / 30 - but that's something that even native English speakers sometimes have trouble with...

Ex: Did you say "thirty"? No, I said "thirtyn". (sic)

But quite a few times, I've been asked "kto ona?" when I've used a pronoun to talk about someone whom we were just talking about.

[Derek & Rita 6]

I've got no clue as to why there's such confusion going on there. Being Russian myself..

Maybe it's a person-specific trait in lieu of a language quirk, because personally, I don't see why there's a recurring misunderstanding there from a language perspective. I understand the question 'как она?' just fine, but maybe you should try 'kak u neyo dela' instead, meaning 'how is she doing?' in order to avoid further confusion. (как у нее дела?)

~Natasha (previous reply was from Slade)

Well, if you're a Russian and you're telling me that I'm using the pronoun correctly, then it must not be a language specific thing. Yea, I was just giving an example. My question was, how is she sleeping? kak u neeo spala? something like that... Thanks Slade and Natasha!

[Slade&Natasha 7]

Also, have you considered that it's the question word 'what' ie 'kak' that is the problem here.

Yep, exactly - 'what', 'kak' = not just 'how' or 'as' but also 'what'. Maybe she gets confused by your asking 'what she?', albeit again, that shouldn't be the case but it could be, I suppose.

[Derek & Rita 6]

Also, have you considered that it's the question word 'what' ie 'kak' that is the problem here.

Yep, exactly - 'what', 'kak' = not just 'how' or 'as' but also 'what'. Maybe she gets confused by your asking 'what she?', albeit again, that shouldn't be the case but it could be, I suppose.

I always thought Chto was "what"... anyway, how else should I say "How is she sleeping?"

[Slade&Natasha 7]

I always thought Chto was "what"... anyway, how else should I say "How is she sleeping?"

You're totally right on that.

I was a suffering a kid-bugging-induced hurry to post, I meant to continue and ask if you could be having a misunderstanding because she could be presuming you are asking 'kakaya ona' (what is she like?) or something of the sort, didn't mean to confuse you with the previous post, apologies!

[Slade&Natasha 7]

Well, if you're a Russian and you're telling me that I'm using the pronoun correctly, then it must not be a language specific thing. Yea, I was just giving an example. My question was, how is she sleeping? kak u neeo spala? something like that... Thanks Slade and Natasha!

You'd better ask 'kak ona spit' (how is she sleeping, generally speaking) or 'kak ona spala' (how did she sleep, specifically last night or something)

'kak u neeo spala' = 'how was hers sleeping', not grammatically correct but understandable.

Edited March 13, 2012 by Slade&Natasha

[Derek & Rita 6]

You're totally right on that.

I was a suffering a kid-bugging-induced hurry to post, I meant to continue and ask if you could be having a misunderstanding because she could be presuming you are asking 'kakaya ona' (what is she like?) or something of the sort, didn't mean to confuse you with the previous post, apologies!

Hmm, I always thought of Kakaya is kind of like "which one" or something like that.