"They are mother and father."
Translation:Они мама и папа.
28 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
So а means and and but, also и means and. So how do you know when to use а or и.
Russian "а" as a conjunction cannot be translated directly. Most often it means "but" (however "but" is translated more often as "но"), but sometimes it means "и" when it joins two sequent sentences in one: "я иду в магазин, а ты [идешь] домой" - "I'm going to a store and you're going home", "я вижу море, а дальше [я вижу] землю", in such cases it can be omitted or replaced with "и". You have to get used to this special conjunction.
Technically matb (mother) and otyets (father) is the correct. Mama and papa are essentially the loving terms of endearment of mom and dad, whereas matb (mother) and otyets (father) are the formal versions (i.e. anyone can be a father, but takes a special person ti be a dad). However, without context and inflection, both could be correct.
The English part doesn't say anything about the relationship with the mother and father, just that those people are a mother and father. That is, the person speaking doesn't say "They are my mother and father".
Given the vocabulary introduced so far, the English should be, "They are mom and dad." It is not idiomatic to translate "mother" as mom or "father" as dad. At the least, any combination of {мама, мать} and {папа, отец} ashould be marked right.
Not any combination. "Мама и папа" and "мать и отец" should be and are accepted. "Мама и отец" is not, just as you wouldn't mix "mom" and "father".
I wrote "oni mama i otets" [они мама и отец]. That is correct, but it was considered an error. I understand отец is more formal, но отец = папа. Я не понимаю почему это ошибка.
Yep, the sentence doesn't say "they are MY mother and father," just "they are mother and father." Whose parents are they? We don't know.
I'm asking this at a random question, but I still don't really get what the function is of the symbols "ь" and "ы".?
"ь" is the soft sign. It indicates the palatalization of the preceding consonant, i.e. a slight pronunciation difference that is hard to pick up on the duolingo audio.
"ы" is a vowel, closer to "i" in "ill," but not quite like anything in English. By comparison, "и" is more like "ee" in "meet."
243
Mother and father are the formal names for parents. In Russian there are too, and they are "мать" and "отец" not "мама" and "папа".
No, that would mean "they are both mother and father" as if each of them played both roles.