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- "I want a dog; I already have…
"I want a dog; I already have a cat."
Translation:Я хочу собаку, кошка у меня уже есть.
41 Comments
Why is "кошка" at the beginning of the second part of the sentence? I haven't seen word order like this before. Why would "у меня уже есть кошка" be wrong?
The example sentence emphasizes the speaker wants a dog because they already have a cat.
Your sentence is grammatically correct but doesnt flow the same way
The sentence you provided was correct when I put it, but it gave me another correct solution being: "Я хочу собаку, кошка у меня уже есть." August 11th 2019.
I'm going to guess this is because the newest information typically goes last.
I am not completely sure, however, in Russian, most of the time word order is based on the order of importance. In this sentence, it's importance that you say you want a dog because you already have a CAT. Cat is the word being emphasized. Thus, it goes first.
"есть" is a statement of existence. Which is an obligatory meaning in this particular sentence. Sometimes it depends on context, sometimes even forbidden:
- No «есть» when describing properties of your body parts (unless you have a few body parts that are not commonly found in humans). Eg, «У меня большой нос»(I have a large nose)
- No «есть» with illnesses / feeling unwell (У меня температура)
- When describing properties of something with adjectives, there is no «есть». Basically, if "I have a good X" = "My X is good", you do not need to specify its existence
With pets it is a hard choice because formally we must allow both interpretations sometimes:
- I have a cat (you may have thought I have no pets) = У меня кошка.
- "I have a cat" (in case you thought I have a dog or a turtle) = У меня кошка/кот.
- "I have a cat" (so that's why I bought cat food) = У меня кошка/кот. or, maybe "У меня есть кошка/кот"
Of course, these DO NOT mean the same. It is just that in English they are no different in the lack of any context.
Oh, that's very interesting, and thanks for such complete answer :) I was always confused with the use of есть!
Well, "есть" is a form of "быть" (to be), the only in use now. Its analogous to "is", which replaced all other forms. High brow academics (or wannabes) will also use "суть" (3rd person plural) when making profound statements (after all, "суть" is the word that means "essense")... usually incorrectly, but that is it.
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Shady, you should collect up all the notes you have provided us on Duo into a book and sell it on Amazon. I would absolutely buy it to have all this great info in one place and you'd get some compensation for all the time and effort you've spent helping us out. Maybe collaborate with Zirkel and Olga!
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This explanation is leaving me confused as to why this particular sentence does require есть after all.
Doesn't it exactly match all three "I have a cat." examples (existence of a pet that is, of all possible pet species, a dog, and the reason why the speaker wants a cat) and therefore, shouldn't require есть?
I wrote я хочу собаку кошка уже у меня есть and it was marked wrong because уже is in the wrong place. But, doesn't Russian not care about word order as long as you put the emphasized word first?
Not a native speaker, but from what I've learned so far, you can move уже and it would still be correct. However, I think Duolingo is teaching a specific word order that is most common in daily conversation, and adverbs like уже go before the verb that they modify in the word order Duolingo teaches.
Because you want the dog since there's already a cat by you (that's how you say you have something). To want something requires accusative but to have it no cause you don't really say you have it... You actually say is by you hence the nominative.
The subject takes a nominative form (who 'does' the verb); the object takes an accusative form.(to whom is the verb 'done') The dog is the object of the first phrase (while "I is the subject). The cat is the subject of the second phrase.
Are you sure you got everything else in the sentence correct? I just tried, "Я хочу собаку, кот у меня уже есть", and it was ok.
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It should be кот and not кота. Also it's more natural to place it at the beginning (кот у меня уже есть)
It is "у меня есть something", not "я есть something".
This Russian structure essentially expresses existence ("At me, there is a cat"). The preposition у requires the Genitive, not the base form. The formal subject of the sentence is the thing owned by you.
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Omg i got this on the first try, but is this how native speakers would say it?
Я хочу собаку, у меня есть уже кошка
Would you put уже at the end because that's the main reason why "I want a dog"? I have a cat ALREADY? what's a more usual structure?
