"Yes, he eats here."
Translation:Да, он здесь ест.
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It shifts the emphasis a bit. «Да, он здесь ест» makes an emphasis on «ест», it means «ест» is the new information (i.e. the listener knows that he does something here, and you want to tell the exact action he does). With «Да, он ест здесь» you shift emphasis to «здесь», i.e. the listener knows that he eats somewhere and you want to tell that he eats here (and not in the other place).
Please note that this is not a strict rule, because you can also show emphasis by intonation, not only by word order.
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I notice pronounciation is a lot easier when you say здесь ест vs. ест здесь. Could that be another reason for switching their orders?
No, definitely no. :D
When people say that something happens in Russian to make pronounciation easier, it's usually because the real reason was forgotten. ^^'
Есть is the only form of the verb быть used at present, but it is more used with existence sense.
У меня есть is something like "at me there is" = I have. Есть яблоко на столе = there is an apple on the table.
This form is also used like this: Бог был, есть и будет вовек. = God was, is and will be forever. When you want to say that someone simply is, since you don't use быть in the present tense, example: Он мужчина = he is a man.
I hope this helps you.
Yes, "У меня есть.." is more literally "By me there exists.." however one uses this phrase to express possession of something (to have). When you say "У меня есть яблоко" you aren't so much trying to express the proximity of an apple to you like "Nearby me there exists an apple" but really "I have an apple". Thank you though!
In a general declarative sentence, new information usually comes after known information. I think it is the same as in English. Example: This is a tree. The tree has leaves. The leaves are green. Green is a color.
You can stress important information with intonation regardless of word order:
Он здесь ест. He is the one who eats here.
Он здесь ест. He eats here, not there.
Он здесь ест. He eats here, he sleeps anywhere else.
There is an old Russian joke (or rather one of its many variations):
Stirlitz has a private word with a German officer: "Herr Müller, would you like to work for the Soviet intelligence? We pay well."
Müller: "What are you talking about?! Of course not!"
Stirlitz: "Oh, in that case, do you happen to have something against a headache?"
Stirlitz was smart enough to know that people tend to remember only the last sentence of a conversation.
So you can change the word order to put the accent on something. It is not a rule, but you usually put the important things closer to the end:
Он здесь ест. He eats here. This place is not intended for eating.
Он ест здесь. He eats here. He sleeps over there.
Здесь ест он. He is the one who eats here. Go find your own place to eat.
However, you may make yourself sound like Yoda if you mess with the word order without caution, trying to put the important part in the end in every case.
Pronouns are being left out if the meaning is clear from the context or the verb ending. For example, "ем" (am eating), "иду" (am going), "сделаю" (will do), etc. can be understood only as "я ем", "я иду", etc., because of the verb form. The same goes with "ты" (ешь), "мы" (едим), or "они" (едят). On the other hand "ест", "идёт", "сделает" have the same form for "он" (he), "она" (she), "оно" (it), so you cannot just drop it without adding some ambiguity.
Finally, in general, you leave the pronoun out only in simple sentences, i.e.
Иду. I am coming.
Думаешь? Do you think so?
Though, you may want to omit "я" or "мне" when you add some politeness to your speaking. There is a saying "я — последняя буква в алфавите", meaning that it is not good to be egocentric and use "я" often in your speech (at least colloquially). I.e. "(я) думаю, это не так" (I think, it is wrong) or "(мне) кажется, нам направо" (I think, we should turn right).
On the other hand, mentioning "я" makes your words more weighty. So it is usually present in the statements like "Правильно, я считаю" (It is right, I think (sure)).
Pronouns are being left out if the meaning is clear from the context or the verb ending.
The part about the context is certainly true, but I'd disagree with the part about the verb ending.
In dialogue you can say «Вчера ходили в зоопарк, видели коалу» 'We went to the zoo yesterday, saw a koala' because the context of dialogue makes it clear that you're talking about yourselves. The endings don't make it clear (it can be вы ходили or они ходили), but the endings don't really matter if the context exists.
On the other hand, when the context doesn't make it clear, you can't drop the pronoun. «Она понимает, что я это знаю» sounds unnatural withour «я», because the previous sentence was in a different context (it was about 'her' and now we're talking about 'me'). It doesn't matter that «знаю» can only be used with «я», it's not a reason to drop «я» here. The context is different, so the pronoun is required.
I believe it's 100% about the context, and almost never about the verb form.
«Да, вот он ест» means something like 'Yes, here/look, he is eating'. «Да, вот он есть» would mean something like 'Yes, here he is'.
«Вот» doesn't really refer to a place where the action takes place, it's a way to get the listener's attention to some place. I wouldn't really use it in this sentence.
Also, «вот» usually comes closer to the beginning of the sentence. «Да, он вот ест» is a sentence I'd probably never say.
я ем - i am eating
он ест - he is eating
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C#Russian
is it possible to speak sentences slowly in Duolingo like several other languages? I miss this in Russian