- Forum >
- Topic: Ukrainian >
- Ukrainian Pronouns
Ukrainian Pronouns
So I've just reached the part of the tree dealing with pronouns in the Dative and Accusative cases. There are no notes listed below these sections, and I'm wondering about the possible applications for these pronouns. I understand the concept of cases, and I'm not asking what the pronouns are in these cases. (For this discussion I'm going to do a homemade transliteration for Ukrainian because I can't get a keyboard.)Why would you use Me-ne in the phrase 'me-ne zvoot' or 'my name is' when you would use 'me-nee' in the phrase 'men-ee tray-ba' or 'I need'.
8 Comments
Just to help you, incase someone's having trouble understanding your question, because I'd also like to know the answer too. Why do we use Мене in the phrase Мене звуть or 'my name' when you we use Мені in the phrase Мені треба or 'I need'?
But I think the answer lies by first understanding the literal translation in english. For example, I know мені подобається which we translate to 'I like' really means 'It is pleasing to us.' So мені подобається піца means the pizza is doing something to us, and that's why піца does not turn to піцу.
I believe you could literally translate it as "to me the pizza is pleasing." instead of "I like pizza." This concept of expressing you like something is also the same in Russian.
I believe you're right. I was also basing my logic using Russian grammar, except its Мне нравится. But is мені подобається піца in the accusative or nominative case?
I believe that it is actually in the dative case. In the sentence, менi is the indirect object, because pleasing is the direct object.
Why does подобається not have a -ю ending if мені means "to me"? Also I don't fully understand what -ся is for, someone told me it meant "to be" or "currently doing". So Я граюся means I am playing?
You're confusing мені with я. If you look at подобається and remove the ся, you can see подобаєт which is the ending for he/she/it pronouns. If we had used the -ю, it would mean, to me I am pleasing the pizza, which makes no sense.
This is because pizza is the subject in "the pizza is pleasing to me." менi is the indirect object. The pizza is doing the action of pleasing you, therefore the conjugation is as for "it" (the pizza). The -ся is for reflective verbs. It is used when the subject of the sentence is taking the action of the verb or when you, someone, or something is doing the action to themselves. For example, the Russian verb "одевать" means to dress someone/something. However, if you add -ся at the end as in "одеваться" it means to dress one's self. You would not say "я граюся.", just "Я граю." which means "I play." I hope this helps)) Good luck!
