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- "This is not Tom, but my dad."
"This is not Tom, but my dad."
Translation:Это не Том, а мой папа.
193 Comments
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.
My children both call me Mama and often their father Papa, but I know we are minorities. :) I have hear Papa both for a grandfather and father, depending on the region in which I was living.
same except for me its reversed i grew up calling my parents mama and papa lmao
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)
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"
Dad = папа Father = отец, папа Grandfather = дедушка Mum = мама Mother = мать, мама Grandmother = бабушка
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
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.
Hey, I have nothing to say but this was my first complete sentence in russian that I could write
"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
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.
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.
ну вы вообще поводья попутали. " но мой папа" should be accepted. Требую удобной дословности для народа
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».
hi impossible mission whitout russian keyboard good night missione impossibile senza tastiera russa quando vi decidete a inserire nelle lezioni una tastiera dedicata? dovro abbandonare lo studio di molte lingue esotiche con sommo dispiacere sopratutto per voi.. mission impossible sans clavier russe
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 :)
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.
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
But = но! I made a mistake because of this. Now you must return the heart to me!
I was counted wrong for this because I answered in Cyrillic Russian instead of Russian with Roman characters. Why?
yes, i think. but since it says это не том then not.. a can mean and, and it can mean but, as i understood?
I believe the sentence you wrote would be translated to "This is Tom and this is my father.
why is это required in the sentence? in other words, why is simply не том, а мой папа incorrect?
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).
A couple of questions ago someone suggested 'а' CANNOT be translated as 'but'. That 'but' is 'он'. Now in this question it is being used as such. Please explain?
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?
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".
I got it wrong and it showed me the right won and i checked over it twice and it was the same. Question:"this is not Tom,but my dad"
This is not tom but my dad.. but is но the answer says this is not tom, and my dad
I typed, " это не Том, но мой папа". Please, is this wrong? Can't i use this in the sentence also, or is this word(но) for a different type of sentence? Thank you
Why does the sentence use "мой" instead of "моя"? Not used to masculine/feminine nouns, or when they're meant to apply.
"but my dad" is translating how "Но мой отец", Not "а мой отец". Right is translating "this is my dad" (Привет из Украины)
Hi I was wondering why they use "a" and not "зато" in this sentence. Can anyone explain the difference between both please. Thank you!
This looked hard so i asked for the answer and it wasnt that hard after all. (Its quite easy for me because my mum was soviet era so she knows russian)
I was told wrong for typing "nana" for "dad" When I first started the course I declined the keyboard for Russian, is this why? If so, how can I fix this?
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.
Im confused because it wants me to type in Russian but I only have a English keyboard
if someone said this to me would i know it was 'but' not 'and' just because of the context?? i thought 'а' was 'and'?
There is no Russian alphabet on my keyboard so every time I write the answer it shows wrong please do something about it
and means и , but means но. Why did you get me wrong? You did not list these words as an option!
i'm not sure but i think that when the last sentence is a "negative sentence", "a" means "but". you will probably realize it when you see more sentences like that.
"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.
I wouldnt mind if when we have to select the translation to play back in the translative sentence. Like a russian playback before answering... Maybe ? Just saying
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.
How am I supposed to type this? When I take Duolingo's Spanish lessons, it gives me a little list of non-English characters to choose from. (Like ñ or ¿)
This took me so long to do, first I forgot не, then I forgot мой then I forgot а.
Hi, how do you access Cyrillic characters with a French or US keyboard? Thanks in advance :-)
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
I dont know how to set my keyboard to russian so I always get these wrong.
In other sentences "а" is translated as "and". Here it is "but". Can someone explain? I'm just a beginner of 6 days.
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.
Папа ends in "a" so why isn't it considered feminine? I counted "моя" wrong.
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 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
