34 Comments
Сегодня ночью. :) Pretty long compared to English, but it's usually what I see in translations.
…or «Сегодня вечером», if by “Tonight” you mean “This evening” (Today in the evening).
I agree - "this night" might be a direct literal translation, but I can't see any circumstances where I would use that phrase. "Tonight" seems to make more sense.
Okay, although I guess in that case, I would probably use "that night" rather than "this night." But this course seems to accept "this" and "that" interchangeably.
it's not possible to distinguish here if it's 'это ночь' or 'эта ночь' это ночь - means 'that time which is now is night' эта ночь - means 'this particular night' so both answers should be accepted
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The distinction (in English) between "tonight" and "this night" is vanishingly slim, and the cases where one would say "this night" and not have it sound very stilted are hard to imagine.
I agree 100%. The only example I can think of is the Judas Priest song "You've Got Another Thing Coming" where a line is "Well listen this night there'll be some action spent!"
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Thanks for illustrating my point. I just don't get why "tonight" isn't accepted as an answer.
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Good call. I just ran to my Oxford English Dictionary entry on "night" and learned that English night, Spanish noche, Latin nox, German nacht, and Russian ночь all come from the same ancient word. See the OED or the Wiktionary entries for night and ночь.
(In reply to intrader): Well, not exactly, though I was also surprised at the similarity. The Spanish equivalent term "noche" has two syllables and is pronounced ['nɔtʃɛ]. In other words, you say "notch" and add an "e" sound as in "chess".
Can't it mean "it is night"?
Что это? (Who is it?) Это Иван. (It is Ivan.)
If you want to say "this is" you always use the neuter format "это". Your example already shows it pretty well: Ivan himself is male, not neuter.
"that" is a completely different pronoun: та ночь. You might be confusing them both with "это" (I did this all the time), but that's a different word, too. It wasn't clear from DuoLingo, but after much frustration I did my own research and began to understand the difference between это and этот/тот :-)
Can't it be "that night"?
I use a 'normal' keyboard. So when I have to type 'noch'' I don't know what I have to use. I always get 'almost correct'. Can somebody help me? Thank you
I would look up a tutorial to set up a russian keyboard on your device, it's a lot easier than you think. Also learning to type in russian is important if you ever want to talk to people online. I am getting close to being to type just as efficient in russian just from duolingo.
look up "russian phonetic keyboard" -- it's organized according to the English sounds (more or less), so if you can type proficiently in English, it is easy to do the same in Russian. Otherwise you have to re-learn where all the letters are!
It's not that hard to relearn. I would learn to type in the actual russian keyboard. They are organized the way they are for a reason. That's the most efficient way to type in Russian once you get the hang of it. I can type like 45-50WPM now in Russian after a month. (Still bad compared to my 80 in English, but whatever)
Is there any difference between ночи from "спокойной ночи" and ночь as it is used here?
I always get confused about when to use это or эта please help, if anybody can explain me in spanish much better. Thanks
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I also struggle with это and эта, so I tried to figure it out for myself. Please, can somebody help us out here?
From my notes:
ЭТО vs ЭТА
Это means "This is" or "It is"
Этот means "This" but never "the, a or an" and is used with a masculine noun or adjective
Эта means "This" but never "the, a or an" and is used with a feminine noun or adjective
Эти means "These" but never "the, a or an" and is used with plural noun
Examples
Что это? What is this? ¿Que es esto?
Это кот It's a cat Este es un gato
Это кот This is a cat Este es un gato
Этот кот красивый This cat is beautiful Este gato es hermoso
Кот красивый The cat is beautiful El gato es hermoso
Кошка красивая The cat is beautiful El gato es hermoso
Красивый кот A beautiful cat Un hermoso gato
Красивая кошка A beautiful cat Un hermoso gato
Эта кошка красивая This cat is beautiful Este gato es hermoso
Эти кошки прекрасны These cats are beautiful Estos gatos son hermosos
Кошка на полу The cat is on the floor El gato está en el piso
Это красивый кот This is a beautiful cat Este es un hermoso gato
Это красивая кошка This is a beautiful cat Este es un hermoso gato
Эта кошка чёрная This cat is black Este gato es ❤❤❤❤❤
Это чёрная кошка This is a black cat Es un gato ❤❤❤❤❤
На полу кошка. There is a cat on the floor. Hay un gato en el piso.
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этот: masculino: этот телефон; эта: feminino: эта лампа; это: neutro: это письмо; эти: plural: эти телефоны, эти лампы, эти письмa
Estos son en el caso nominativo. Por supuesto, hay cambios en los otros casos: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram%C3%A1tica_del_ruso#Pronombres_Demostrativos
"It is night" should be accepted? Afterall, это means "it is" as well. Why was is rejected?
