"This is not Tom, but my dad."
Translation:Это не Том, а мой папа.
190 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Something that happened a couple questions ago was I got counted wrong for saying papa instead of dad for the translation of папа. What if you added papa in English as an option?
That would be a weird version of English, I guess. Unlike in English, папа is an everyday word in Russian.
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I got a wrong answer for putting in mama somewhere. I think both should be accepted. It's rare relative to mommy and daddy, but lots of people in America do use mama and papa and I wouldn't consider it weird at all.
I think papa is used more often for a grandfather actually in the US but anyone would recognize it to mean father. Daddy or dad would be most common, for sure. I do hear mama all the time though, especially here in the southern states.
now that you mention it (now being a mont ago) is папа the only way to refer to someones dad or is there a more formal way like father? it sounds like the way a child would talk.
The formal one is отец. Our course has it a bit later. I think папа will be much more common in spoken speech: отец и мать are even more formal than English mother and father.
It isn't that weird really. I here that often in my circles. (native speaker American English)
That's the thing you can't write Russian in English letters. You might as well try to write arabic with these. Totally different. Foarte diferit. (That was Romanian)
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I'd like to know if I can translate the word ''but'' as ''а''? Because as I already knew that the way as you say that in Russian is ''но.''
Well, in sentences like "This is not a cabbage, it's a potato" you can only use а.
If you use и here, it makes no sense. If you use но, you sound like a prophet teaching young'uns eternal wisdom. For example, this is what is used in «Слова́ не ма́льчика, но му́жа» ("The words not these of a boy, but of a man"). Needless to say, we do not have one sentence in the course where it is remotely justified.
- note also the use of муж for a "man" in my example, which is clearly archaic
In my understanding, "a" always translated to me as "and". "but" it totally new to me and I would always use "и"
a highlights a contrast. And or Whereas or But are valid English translations dep
Dad = папа Father = отец, папа Grandfather = дедушка Mum = мама Mother = мать, мама Grandmother = бабушка
Would someone explain why the following was considered incorrect: "Это не том, но мой папа." I used "но" in place of "а." Until now, I'd never seen а being used this way. Are а and но equivalent?
А and но are not equivalent. Such use if «но» is now quite old-fashioned and associated with bookish words of wisdom (cf. «Слова не мальчика, но мужа»~"Words not of a boy but of a man grown").
Sentences like "A is not X, it's Y" normally use only а. There is no real choice of a conjunction here.
But isn't Papa feminine since it ends in "a"? After all, grandfather is feminine.
I thought the same thing Donald, if it ends in 'а' it's femenine. Obviously we're missing something here.
Папа is an irregular noun. You would be correct in thinking that it should be feminine because it ends in a, but since папа represents a male, it is masculine. A general rule of thumb is that if the noun represents a male or female person, it is the respective gender regardless of its ending.
Theres an exception for "papa" even thought it ends in A, its weird, i know
The translation for but is но. I asked a native Russian speaker and he said that your translation literally means "This is not Tom and Tom is my father.
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Having no cyrilic keyboard I can not complete this section. The program will not allow me to skip out of the section.
это не том, но мой папа was not accepte, I haven't used the course for a long time, but as far as I remembered но fits better in this phrase right?
Just write with English letters, instead of doing 'это' you would write eto. That is what i did before i got a Russian keyboard. You can download google Gboard and it had almost all languages. I hope this helps
Go to the settings icon in Duolingo, above the keyboard. Install Russian keyboard. Then you swipe on the space bar to switch between Eng & Rus keyboards.
If you have an iPhone you go into settings, look for general then go under that then find keyboard settings and then you can choose what language you want you keyboard.... if you are using a laptop then your out of luck
What is the difference between нет and не ? What rules can I apply for when to use not or no.
Because in Spanish, we say "no" to mean not, and in English, we use not. Are there any rules that let me know when to use нет or не
Нет is "no", a negative answer. It's also used to say that somebody doesn't have something or something isn't somewhere or doesn't exist (like, "don't have" or "there isn't").
У меня нет радио. - I don't have a radio.
Не negates whatever comes after it, like "not".
Это не папа. - This is not dad.
Папа не там. - Dad is not there.
I do not get a russian keyboard to use to type, and my keyboard is english, cannot do any of these since I lack the russian characters, thank you.
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Yes, because it's an online app and there are plenty of virtual Russian keyboards online. You can even install one on your phone or computer. :)
I don't have a Russian keyboard but it keeps asking me to type the Russian translation, when I literally cannot. So therefore I am actually unable to complete the lessons.
Just install a Russian keyboard. It's not hard to do. On a mobile phone look for keyboard/input settings in the settings screen.
On Windows, languages and keyboards can be installed from Control panel → "Language" or "Add a language" (the exact path depends on your version).
More information here: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/11449014 or on the forum: https://forum.duolingo.com/topic/920
why is это required in the sentence? in other words, why is simply не том, а мой папа incorrect?
"Ето не Том, а мои папа", can someone tell me if there's something wring about this sentence, -.-
мои is the plural form of мой. so you would say мои папы if you had more than one dad. мой папа for just one
I just started learning as well, but my impression is that нет is as in "no.", when you are stating it, for example, in an answer to a question—«Это Том?», «Нет.»—, whereas не would be for negating something, perhaps akin to the English "not" as in "this is not Tom": «Это Том?», «Нет, это не Том».
моя describes feminine nouns and мой is for masculine. ex. моя рувашка or моя мама. мой компютер or мой папа
unlike in english, russian seperates nouns into masciline, feminine and neutral or male, female and neutral.. мой is used for masculine and моя for feminine (моё for neutral but that's not in these lessons). for example if you were to say my radio, it would be мой, and if you were to say my pizza it would be моя.
I HAVE A PROBLEM . TOM IS A MAN . ITS SEEM CORRECT BUT IN THIS TRANSLATE I USE ЭТОТ . DUOLINGO SAY ME ITS A MISTAKE . CAN YOU HELP ME ?
This is late and you probably already figured this out, but in case other people are confused -
Этот is a demonstrative pronoun and you would use it if you were saying this not Tom, as in "this particular "not Tom'"". Another example would be "этот кот", as in "this particular cat" (which is not a full sentence).
Это is just "this is", like "this is not Tom". Another example would be "это кот", as in "this is a cat" (which is a full sentence).
What is the difference between 'моя' and 'мой'? Do they not have the same meaning? I keep getting them mixed up
The form depends on the noun you attach it to. In the Nominative these would be мой(masc.), моя (fem.), моё(neut.), and мои (pl.). There is no grammatical gender distinction for nouns in plural.
I think it's illustrating an example of an informal word.
Папа is dad, which is informal - if you were to address your dad in Russian, you would call him папа. Отец is father, which is formal. If you were to talk to a relatively new person/stranger, about their father, you would use отец.
If it were saying "but my father" (which is <sub>socially</sub> weird to say in Russian), then you would use отец.
Does that make sense?
I am not so sure about the use of не and мой, when do you have to use не instead of нет and мой instead of моя?
Нет and не closely correspond to the English "no" and "not". You use не to negate things (" is not", "did not swim", "not cool"). Нет gets used as a standalone word at the start of a sentence ("No, I was at home") and also as a "zero quantity" ("There is no bread"):
- Я не дома ~ I am not at home.
- Она не ты ~ She is not you.
- Морис не бегает. ~ Maurice does not run.
- Нет, всё хорошо. ~ No, everything's fine.
- Дома нет кофе. ~ There is no coffee at home.
We also use нет as follows in parallel structures:
- Ирина программист, а я нет. ~ Irina is a programmer and I am not.
- Я бегаю, а ты — нет. ~ I run and you do not.
Мой behaves like an adjective. Its form agrees with the case and gender (number) of what you attach it to. So it is the first row for now.
I tried Том нет это а папа мой, why is that wrong? is it just the word order?
No, that's just wrong. Phrased that way it makes as much sense as "Tom no this but dad mine".
Would saying "Не это Том" be grammatically incorrect or a funny way to say it? From what I've gathered, word order in Russian isn't that important but when I put it that way duolingo marked it wrong and wanted Это first
The word order is important in Russian, just not the way it's important in English. "Не" always directly precedes the word it negates. So if you put it right before "это" you would negate "this" instead of "Том". I.e. the result would be "Tom is not this, [Tom is something else]". Which does, admittedly, sound pretty weird.
That makes sense. So I gather that the placement of the noun isn't too important because of the case system, but with modifiers like "He" and "Это" it is because the placement changes the logic of the modifiers, kind of like in English
Pretty much, though we usually change the word order to focus on something and aid comprehension.
не negates what you attach it too, which is different from English, where "not" is primarily something you use to modify a verb. In Russian, "Я спрашивал не об этом" is OK. In English "I asked you not about that" is odd ("That's not what I asked you about" is a much more typical way to express that idead).
I am familiar with russian language having studied it for a few years in moscow i cant understand why "a" is used for "and " and still "but"..am i mistaken what hapoen to "и" and "но"
Can you please put this type of question farther on? I still don't know the letters... Maybe add in an optional side course to learn the alphabet and the sounds?
I wrote нет instead of не and it was wrong, but it both means 'not' in russian so i dont see how its wrong
Not exactly. нет = no, не = not. You may use "нет" as a one-word negative answer (Do you like him? No!). But when it comes to the whole sentence you should use "не". So provided the sentence was: "No, this is not Tom, but my dad." the Russian version would be: "Нет, это не Том, а мой папа."
Yeah i had figured it out later, thanks alot was a stupid mistake on my part haha :)
Mostly "and", when putting together clauses about different things.
Sometimes "but" or nothing at all (when "correcting"). It is just the closest thing English has:
- Это Том, а не Тим = This is Tom, not Tim.
- Это не Тим, а Том = This is not Tim, this is Tom (somehow, English cannot just switch the order here)
- Я ем банан, а ты — абрикос. = I am eating a banana, and you an apricot.
- Я ем банан, а ты нет. = I am eating a banana and you are not.
- Мария спит, а я работаю = Maria is sleeping and I am working.
So, is "a" a translation for both "and" and "but" in Russian? I thought it was just "and"?
Sometimes? It is more like but not is a passable translation for а не in this situation.
Note that it becomes weird if you swap the order: Это Том, а не мой папа is best translated as "This is Tom, not my dad"—without any "but".
Why does the sentence use "мой" instead of "моя"? Not used to masculine/feminine nouns, or when they're meant to apply.
Hi I was wondering why they use "a" and not "зато" in this sentence. Can anyone explain the difference between both please. Thank you!
It depends on your OS. Generally, it should be in your Settings (Control panel), in particular your language settings.
You can find them in Time & Language → Language on Windows 10 or in Clock, Language, and Region → Keyboards and Languages → Change Keyboards on Windows 7. As soon as you have more than one language installed, Windows will display a language bar in the tray, to the left of your clock. You can access the settings there if you need any changes in the future.
I answered this question without a capital or comma, and it marked it as wrong (I wrote " это не том а мой папа "). Is this an issue, or are those parts necessary?
Hm. That should have worked. Duolingo ignores punctuation and capitalisation.
if someone said this to me would i know it was 'but' not 'and' just because of the context?? i thought 'а' was 'and'?
and means и , but means но. Why did you get me wrong? You did not list these words as an option!
"ь" doesn't have a sound. It only serves to make the previous consonant palatalised and it can't be placed after a vowel. So "моь" is essentially impossible.
if i want to say "it is not tom, but his father", it could be Это не Том, а свой папа"?
No, it can only be "Это не Том, а его папа". "Свой" is a specific possessive pronoun that always means "belonging to the subject of this clause". The subject of the second clause it "Dad", not "he" so you can't use "свой" here.
"Только" means "just", "only" ("This is not Tom, just my dad"), so that would be a bit different sentence.
If I say "это не том, а это мой папа", is it still correct in Russian?
For me it sounds like there are two people and you point to the first one saying "this is not Tom" and then you point to the other saying "and this is my father". If you were were talking about the same man (who is not Tom but your father), that would be an incredibly clumsy way to express that.
Please include multiple choices for people without a Russian keyboard, Japanese , Chinese , Korean, Arabic, all allow users to select without having a keyboard for that language.
Почему не принимает: "Это не Том, но мой отец"? Как для носителя значения слова "отец" и "папа" абсолютно равносильны.
Fluent Russian speaker here. "но это мой папа" sounds more natural than the suggested translation here.
I'm a native Russian speaker and I disagree. It's not more natural, just a different meaning. "Это не Том, но это мой папа" means something like "This is not Tom, but this is my Dad", as if before we expected Tom to be the speaker's father, and now they tell us that this person is indeed their father but his name is not Tom.
The suggested translation "Это не Том, а мой папа" means that we knew all along that Tom and the father are different people, and the speaker informs us which one of them the person in question is.
I see everyone writing about papa and mama, and here I am wondering why is it "Это" instead of "Эта"
I didn't understand one thing, why didn't we use "но" for "but"? I might be trying to make an exact translation from English but still need an explanation
Oops, is there are way of adding a keyboard interface, for the language that you're learning, without having to change through your keyboard settings? Especially for the answers that require a typed answer.
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On phone and computer you need install an additional Russian keyboard in the keyboard settings first. Then you can easily switch between the keyboards without needing to navigate through your keyboard settings.
Папа ends in "a" so why isn't it considered feminine? I counted "моя" wrong.
It's an exception. Дедушка (grandfather) and дядя (uncle) are masculine too.
Or you can say that "but" is occasionally used for "а" :). It is a bit odd that these two sentences are not symmetrical in English:
- This is Bob, not Alice.
- This is not Alice, but Bob / This is not Alice, this is Bob (you cannot just say "this is not Alice, Bob")
Native speakers usually pick the correct way to connect sentences automatically. In Russian all of the following use а (contrastive "and"):
- This is Alice, (and) not Bob.
- This is not Alice, but Bob.
- Alice is a programmer and Bob is a writer.
- Alice lives here and Bob lives there.
- Alice is working and Bob is sleeping
- Alice is working and Bob isn't.
Which of the languages is odd depends on which you are more accustomed to, but it seems like "but" is a possible translation in some structures.
What the difference of "мой, моя, моё" I don't understand. Please somebody help me
Because this is the letter " П = Pi" of the Greek alphabet and it has the sound of "p"
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Because it sounds not correctly on Russian. "but" in this sentence need to be translated as "а". Это не Том, а мой папа.
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Hallo Sebastian. Ich hoffe, du hast den Text in kyrillischen Buchstaben eingegeben :-) . Deine Umschreibung in lateinische Buchstaben sieht etwas "seltsam" aus. - In meinem Handy verwende ich eine umschaltbare Display-Tastatur, am Computer benutze ich eine Onlinetastatur Kyrillisch und dann Copy/Paste.
https://mykeyboard.org/de/russisch/ Beste Grüße, Günter.
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The difference between the two words не and нет is not so very complicated. "Не" means "not" and "Нет" means "No". So if you want to say "No, I do not answer him." the translation is "Нет, я ему не отвичаю." (No, I him not answer.). (ему = 3.case/dative case of "он"). When Duolingo writes english "I have not a car." the russian translation normally is "У меня - нет машина." The literal translation "At me (is) no car." (меня = 2.case/ genitive case of "я". This genitive case always is used after the preposition "У" (At). If you want to give more impression, that "you do not have.." you can also translate it to "У меня не есть машина." with the literal english meaning "At me not is (a) car." ("есть" in present tense only infinitive form, no conjugation.) Last remark, if you want express that you have absolutely no car, you could say "I do not possess a car." with the translation " Я не умею машину." (машину = 4.case/accusative case of "машина". I hope, I could help you and it was not too much of information.
It is "У меня нет машины". Also, we do not really use "не есть" in statements of existence or having (it is always нет).
Regarding point 4, you probably meant "Я не имею машины". The verb уметь means "to knopw how to", "to be able to".
how does "a" mean both "and" as well as "but". doesn't make sense to me. "take all the red and green apples." "take all the apples but the green ones." if "a" means both and and but how do you know what the hell someone is saying? Makes no sense whatsoever and this site falls short by not explaining it.
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"а" is a bit weak "but", kind of in the middle of meaning "and" and "but". The strong "but" is "но". The word which has the meaning "and" without any constrast meaning "but" is "и". Examples: Dad and mom go to the theater. - Папа и мама идут в театр. --- Dad works in a factory and/but mom works in an office. - Папа работает на фабрике а мама работает в офисе. --- I want to play soccer, but Mom does not allow it. - Я хочу играть в футбол, но мама этого не позволяет. -- I hope, I could help you a bit.
It was wrong when I placed "моя" for "мой". Can someone please tell me why? I used моя because I'm female.
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The genus of the pronoun "мой" or "моя" follows of the word "папа" which is male, because dad is a male person dispite the "а" at the end of "папа".
Mine wont let me type in russian, so i can never get this type of question right
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If you use a computer, you should open an online russian letter keyboard. So you can write in the keyboard window the answer in russian and the insert it with copy and past to the correct duolingo question. A possible site for this keybord is for example "https://mykeyboard.org/en/russian/". If you use a smart phone, try to get a english/russian keyboard from your smart phone manufactorer or from google play. My sams*ng german/russian keyboard changes between the different letters by wiping over the blank bar.
I really need there to be tips on this lesson. I don't know the Russian alphabet do i don't know what sounds these make. And i dont know what the difference between мой /моя. How can I know? Is it gender?
There are tips. They are available on the web version. If you study from the app you still can access the tips via your mobile browser.
https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ru/Alphabet-1/tips-and-notes
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I’ve tried five times to make my answer look exactly like what was given as correct, but it keeps marking me wrong.
I don’t have a Russian keyboard, so I either use a capital E or a 3 for Eto, or 3to. I don’t know what else to do.
If you have an Android device you may want to give the Gboard app a try. It has all the languages I've been interested in learning and many more for free. They don't take up much space so I have 14 downloaded. It comes with spell check and word suggestions which you can turn off in the settings. Toggling between languages is as easy as holding down the space bar and selecting from the list you downloaded. To download more languages you would enter your device settings for keyboards and languages. Be careful not to hit "use as default"
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There are some hints above in this thread conscerning how to use a switchable keyboard on a cellphone or an online keyboard when working on a computer. I think you will find a solution for your problem. :-)
Could one say "Это не Том, Это мой папа"?
Anyway, this construction is quite strange to me. It seems to say "This is not Tom, and my dad."
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Yes of course the sentence "Это не Том, это мой папа." has nearly the same meaning. But the "а" in russian is every time a bit a combination of "and" and "but", so you decide how to translate into english. So it is normally translated as "but" if there is a contrast between the words correlated with the word "а".
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Both words have the english meaning "my", but in the russian language there are three grammatical genders. "мой" is used for male, "моя" is used for female and "моё" is used for neutral grammatical gender words, of course every time following the grammar cases (1.case nominative, 2.case genitive, 3.case dative, 4.case accusative, 5.case instrumental, 6.case prepositonal). -- Good luck in learning! :-)
The formal words for mother and father are мать and отец; they are more formal than "mother" and "father".
in the app they said "but=или" but when I wrote it they said its wrong, and the correct was "а" isn't the same?
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"Илй" means "or", not "but" -- "а" is a mixture of "and" and "but", while "но" is a strong, sharp "but". I hope I could help a bit.
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Russian culture is quite new to me. Russians seem not to mind the difference of meaning between "and" and "but". What a tough people. My elder brother was killed from hunger in a prisoner camp in Siberia. No food and forced labor: Forced labor but no food.
On the contrary, we have three conjunctions ("и", "а" and "но") for your two ("and", "but"). So Russian is actually more nuanced in that regard than English. The "а" takes some of the properties of "and" and "but" that are not covered by "и" and "но" respectively.
Why my answer is wrong as they are showing the picture of a girl ... So i used a feminine word for ' my ' so it should be corrected ... Cause its the only word thats different from their answer .... I think they should check their answers before telling us its wring ....
Cant Не & Это switch places and still mean the same thing because it counted it as wrong and now its kind of confusing
"А" takes some properties of both "and" and "but" that are not covered by "и" and "но" respectively.
"А" is specifically the kind of "and" you use in "And you?" questions and for juxtaposition:
- Я дома. А ты? = I am at home. And you?
- Я дома, а она на работе. = I am at home and she is at work.
- Он инженер, а я программист. = He is an engineer and I am a programmer.
- Я программист, а не актёр. = I am a programmer, not an actor.
- Я не актёр, а программист. = I am not an actor but a programmer. (note how English just switched to "but" when you swapped the order).
- Она учитель, а я нет. = She is a teacher and I am not.
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Моя is the female pronoun form, Мой is the male pronoun form. Examples: Моя мама. My Mom. - Мой папа. My dad.
