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- Topic: Russian >
- "Мама там."
176 Comments
334
Well, Hurray! This means Duolingo took three years to include the English English version.
334
Hahaha. Yes, I know people say British English. But they also speak English in Wales and Scotland, and I meant what they speak in England.
334
Hang on! Yes, they're all regional (aren't all languages/ dialects?) but they're not mistakes! But I agree it's better to spell it the standard way that's taught.
Come on! What's the benefit to include every possible existing variants, when it costs a lot of time to add them, and it's not the purpose of this course, I prefer they spend their time wisely to add Russian variants to allow me to learn them! They work for free, their time is not infinite or extensible. Just stick to the standard "mum" and "mom", what's the problem?
334
PERCE_NEIGE (what a lovely name) , I think you're absolutely right that it's the Russian variants people want to learn. This is not an English course. Have a lingot.
You're right. "Есть" meaning "to be" is generally used to establish the existence of something, and it's not really a true verb, because it doesn't have a conjugation (any longer). You can say something like "Там есть велосипед" to establish the fact that there's a bicycle somewhere.
In casual spoken Russian there is simply not a verb "to be" in the present tense. For the past and future tenses, as well as when you need the infinitive, you use быть. (E.g., может быть = maybe (or may be: Это может быть Том. = It may be Tom.))
Есть = "to eat" is not the same verb, but it's a real verb, since you can conjugate it into the different forms ("I eat," "you eat," "he eats," etc.).
A little remark: to be translates as быть am, are, is - as есть (very rare archaic form of "are" is суть) she/he will - она/он будет they will - они будут I will - я буду I(male)/he was - я/он был I(female)/she was - я была They/you were - они/Вы были Thou (this form remane in russian) wast - ты был (male) / ты была (female). These all are forms of the verb "to be" in russian.
306
I think I finally understand the Hollywood stereotype of a Russian person speaking English. All because is is omitted lol
114
To answer everyone. Let's consider a situation: Dad is next to a boy and mom is at the opposite side of the room.
The boy: "Dad is here and mom is (over) there", "Папа здесь, а мама там".
Other phrases:
"Here is mom" - "Вот мама". "Mom is here" - "Мама здесь" or "Мама тут".
"There is Mom" translates differently, depending on context:
"Look, there is mom over there!" - "Смотри, вон там мама!". "There is mom in the room" - "В комнате есть мама".
But:
"Mom is in the room" - "Мама в комнате".
I don't think it's that simple, because the level only relates to how often a person has studied, not how thoroughly or how far.
One could theoretically get to level 25 just by doing the introductory lesson again and again and again, in which case one would definitely not be functionally fluent.
It also doesn't take into account study outside of Duolingo; someone who has got to level 25 but has never spoken to a Russian person/used their Russian outside Duolingo is unlikely to be able to use the language in a way most would consider fluent.
On the other hand, someone who was already fluent in Russian could probably test out of large sections of the tree and complete it with a relatively low level, which would be a poor indication of their fluency.
2097
I am wonderng this for a while... Where is the " — " gone? When I first did this lesson it was there. In another comment I read that it is not a help for learners as someone guessed. It is the way it is written in Russian. Why has someone removed it? How am I supposed to learn it when it is not there? Does it show up later in the course?
114
What's wrong whith "Mom is there"? Dialogue: Where is Mom (Где мама?) Mom is there (Мама там). I'm a native Russian btw
In Russian we don't use "to be" verb normally (no one say "Мама есть там"), because of context we can get that mom is located there, but you can use it if you wanna say that mom has smth ("У мамы есть " - "Mom has ") or if, for example, animals are in some country but we may not to know about it ("В России есть медведи" - "There are bears in Russia")
514
I don't hear the M in там when spoken by the male speaker. It sounds like да. The female speaker on the other hand is very clear.
417
As a speaker of Brazilian Portuguese, I have the impression that he's nasalizing the first A in мама while he speaks. Well, in fact Russian has no nasal vowels, right? That serves as an initial tip for pt-br people who are learning Russian. ;)
Mama is the of mom all given same meaning plz more important that we understands right and don't give me wrong answers because one latter is wrong in English writing I'm learning Russian not English so is not nice that gives wrong answers because I have written mama not mom is boring like this. The application is amazing only this small thing stopped me
42
While I've now at least managed to 'learn' the Cyrillic alphabet, I'm lost as to how to proceed from here on. Do I learn the 'words' separately in English before tryna 'spell' them out in russian, or do I directly try to wire my brain to 'learn russian'? To Cyrllic or not to Cyrllic? If anyone out there can shed some light, I'll be indebted as currently, I believe I can identify with an alien that's crash-landed on a foreign land and the only way to make sense of anything lies in this app. (For the sake of which, I assume English in the app = native alien language) I don't intend to spam, but I'm gonna keep posting this comment in these threads till some saint fixes my (malfunctioning) translator or at least tells me how on [insert native planet] I can 'learn' Russian without resorting to violence or flat-out rote-learning. (Could never grasp that particular skill either in school) That is all. I'll be waiting in my smoking, broken space craft, possibly stringing together Cyrllic syllables and consonants to form (most definitely) pure nonsense. At least there's no Russian-speaker nearby to offend. Joy.
514
A "mummy" is a body that has been preserved for burial by embalming and wrapping in bandages in Egypt long ago. Using it to describe ones mother is insulting. "Mam" [which is closer to the Russian] is used in my country.