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FYI: In a certain context, this question may refer not only to a female person, but also to anything called with a feminine noun. For example:
- Ваня, где твоя тарелка? / Vanya, where is your plate?
- (pointing) Вон там, мам. / Over there, mom.
- Что она делает на кровати?! / Why on earth is it on the bed?!
Of course, the plate is not doing anything on the bed. It is just a way to emphasize surprise and/or indignation.
Good to know that it can refer to feminine words. The phrase actually could be translated literally "What is it doing on the bed?" for the same effect, as it is also said in English.
1105
What answer are you referring to? It really helps if you copy and paste your answer into your comment, so we know what you're talking about.
- 804
I think he meant using English it instead of she to represent something on the bed, to show it isn't necessarily a person.
It's very similar in Spanish, "¿Qué está haciendo [la cuchara] en la cama?", it has the same meaning. Like, it's not normal to find a spoon on a bed, isn't it? ;D
But we omit the "ella" for "la cuchara" (the spoon, feminine in Spanish) (or она in this case for some feminine noun).
Duolingo should really accept the "it" variant in English to make it less creepy. Or funny, I don't mind, it just feels a bit weird.
The 'it' would be more correct for neuter words like gold (Золото). Imagine how we refer to nouns such as ships or vehicles as a she, but applied to every noun, and for he, she, it :(
well, many inanimate nouns are female (книга, тарелка, ваза, etc) but they are not female in english. so in many contexts 'it' would be the correct english translation.
I don't know what she's doing on the bed and you can't prove anything god why is everyone looking at me like that who are you to judge and anyways don't you people know how to KNOCK
Um... dude... just tell them she's homeless and they'll leave you alone about it :)
No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality.
It is the 3rd declension of nouns: feminine grammatical gender + the "ь" (the soft sign) at the end.
- N - крова́ть - В комнате есть кровать - There is a bed in the room
- G. - крова́ти - У меня нет кровати - I don't have a bed
- D. - крова́ти - Подойди к кровати - Come up to the bed
- A. - крова́ть - Я вижу кровать - I see a bed
- I. - крова́тью - Кошка под кроватью - The cat is under the bed
- P. - (на) крова́ти - Что она делает на кровати? - What is she doing on the bed?
- 1105
One has to be aware that the Russian italic font is not like European fonts - which can be seen in RomanRussian's comment: when you use the Russian italic font, кровать becomes кровать. The в looks like an e, and the т looks like an m - кровать is just кровать in italics.
People should avoid using italic fonts with Cyrillic letters, for the sake of the beginners
On the contrary, I think that learning italic Cyrillic should be one of the very first things a beginner does. There is no way to avoid it — they're used everywhere: on websites, on roadsigns, in handwriting, etc.. If you aren't immediately exposed to it, it will just trip you up badly later on.
we've already learned a whole new alphabet. If you want to use it, teach it first, I just discovered recently that in cursive "D" looks like "g", during a lesson given by my colleague who's a bit oblivious to beginners' struggle. How the hell was I supposed to know? It only made her clarification of what she was trying to demonstrate more confusing. Just an example like that...
- 1105
Excellent suggestion, I think.
It took me two hours to figure that out the first time I wanted to use italics to emphasize a comment in the Russian module.
"European fonts" - Russian is also a European language, just like all the other European languages that use the Cyrillic script ;)
Someone could get offended, just saying. :)
I guess it would be more accurate to say Western European languages, which use a Latin based alphabet, opposed to Eastern European which use a Greek based alphabet (Cyrillic is based off of earlier Greek).
yes, I keep saying that I believe it's better to avoid cursive or italics when teaching beginners, we're confused enough as it is.
Yep. It equates exactly with the Spanish word "hacer." It just happens that Russia got the same root we use for "to do," whereas the Germans used a word equating to "to make" (I think "machen" serves a dual purpose too). What makes English unusual is that we managed to get a word related to "machen" AND one directly related to "делать."
Not only German and Spanish - the verbs "faire" in French and "fare" in Italian mean both "to do" and "to make" =)
German also has both variants: "machen" and "tun", though in usage machen far outweighs tun, and can confuse English speakers as machen is used for many instances where English would require "do".
Yes, it can mean both to do or to make. Russian speakers have a lot of trouble choosing whether to use the verb "do" or "make" for this reason.
One could wish that Duolingo didn't offer so many opportunities for juvenile japeries.
Yeah, "on the bed" and "in bed" mean a bit different things in both Russian and English and are translated as "на кровати" and "в кровати" respectively. Very often on = на and in = в.
- 1105
The object of the preposition на is in Prepositional case when на is used in connection with location. When на involves movement, the object is in Accusative case.
The Prepositional ending for (feminine) кровать is и, which is used here.
The Accusative ending is ь (unchanged), which is not used here.
My conclusion is that the movement which causes the case to change from Prepositional to Accusative is movement which is not on bed, but more like towards the bed.
- 317
This isn't as kinky as you think :))) Она doesn't strictly refer to a female, but to a feminine noun. It's easy for me to understand because I speak Romanian and French and this way it's easier for me to make an analogy. Coincidence or not, the noun "plate" is a feminine noun in Romanian too. For example: - Unde e farfuria? Где тарелка? Where's the plate? - Ea (farfuria) e pe pat. Она (тапрелка) на кровати. It (the plate) is on the bed. - Ce face ea (farfuria) pe pat? Что она (тарелка) делает на кровати? What is it (the plate) doing on the bed?
