"Do they have a bicycle?"
Translation:У них есть велосипед?
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I wrote the same, "У них велосипед" was taught to me in Rosetta Stone, I've reported it. If we are wrong, please explain us.
no it shouldn't because есть means have and without it this sentence doesn't mean anything
What do the "у ... естъ" parts of "у них естъ" translate to in English (if anything)? Does "них" also mean "they" outside of this context?
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Some languages (Russian included) show possession by saying that X is at/by/of/on Y to mean "Y owns/possesses/has X".
Here, у is a preposition that generally indicates proximity (so it can mean "with", "at", "on", "upon" etc.), них means "them" (prepositional form of the word "they"), and есть means "there is." Thus, this sentence could literally be translated "Upon them there is a bicycle", which just means "They have a bicycle."
Why the prepositional form, not the genitive? Is it because of the question format? Could "They have a bicycle" be translated as "У их есть велосипед"
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Edit: A better explanation (from what I previously wrote) is because "у них" is a prepositional phrase: the bike is "upon them," so to speak. "Their" is an adjective, strictly speaking, and possessive adjectives are not used in Russian, at least not in the same way they are in English.
I think that's a better reply than "That's just how Russian does it."
Is there a shorter word for велосипед, like how English has bike for bicycle?
Велик, вел, байк are used informally. But long word велосипед is still very popular too.
У них and они, what are the differences between both and in what situations do i use them properly?
Is the Russian word "велосипед" related to the English word "velocity" or is that just my brain finding an interesting way to remember the word (It's basically a cognate, but I was writing "велосиклед" for a bit there...couldn't figure out why I was wrong)
When bicycles were first invented "velocipede" was the generic term (including in English) for vehicles propelled by pedalling. It derives from the Latin for "speed" + Latin for "foot". As design settled on the 2-wheeled version (bicycle as opposed to the unicycle or the tricycle) English vernacular picked on specifying the wheel arrangement as the normal way of referring to your velocipede.
In short: yes, it directly relates to "velocity", from the same Latin word.
This thing marks you wrong for not knowinf how to spell russian words, in english
I'm not sure what device youre using, but, if youre using a computer you could just copy and paste using a russian keyboard site (which can be very annoying rip) or if youre on a phone, depending on the type of phone you can switch your keyboard in the settings (I use Samsung so idk if this works for iPhones or whatever) by going to keyboard/language and selecting Russian and swiping the space bar to switch between English and Russian. If you use a device like an iPad I assume its the same thing. Hope this helped, sorry if it didn't.
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You'll have to download the Russian language on your device. I have it on my phone and desktop computer. It's easy to download. Just make sure your now how to spell Русский, I believe it's how they'll have it.
WHY is "него" pronounced "нево"?? A Russian "г" is like an English "g", right? So why not него??
When a word ends in -ого or -его, the г turns into a в sound (a "v" sound).
