76 Comments
That was my first thought also, before I realized the reasonable context is "I cannot identify what kind of snake this is" :p
Heh, I thought it was a personal insult (i.e. some lying/not trustworthy person).
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My husband is Russian and yes, he does call such people snakes. I bet it's a cultural thing.
Well...the reason I asked is that I think Americans would say it too. Maybe it's frequent in Judeo-Christian cultures, given the association between serpents and lying...?
"Don't pretend like you don't know me, Eve," said the snake while staring into her soul.
Eve turned to Adam who was still waiting for an explanation. "It's true I tеll you! Я не знаю ету змею!"
Ah, didn't think of it this way!! I was thinking it was like a Jedi mind trick. "These are not the snakes you know..." [hand gesture]
Actually most assaults are by snakes that are well known to the victim.
Of course there are some cases of false accusations, particularly against famous snakes that someone may have seen on television.
Are there separate words for "knowing" factual knowledge versus familiarity with a person/city?
Yes, we have "быть знакомым с" that means "familiarity with" a person/city or even some object or concept.
- Я знаю этого человека - I know this person. (factual knowing)
- Я знаком с этим человеком - I am familiar with this person
- Мы не знакомы - We don't know each other
- Мне не знакомо это место - I don't know this place
Is there anything like, for example in Czech, vědět - to know a fact - vím, že je pravda (i know it's true) and znát - to be familiar with something - znám toho muže (I know that man). I also wanted to ask, slightly off topic, if subject personal pronouns are compulsory in Russian, or can they be dropped sometimes?
To answer your second question, it is only partially pro-drop. For example just saying "читал книгу" it isn't clear who is doing the action as it could be я, ты, мы, вы. For present tense verbs conjugate more specifically and it can be okay to drop then. Not familiar with Czech but in Polish verbs conjugate very specifically in past tense, for gender as well as number, so it is much more easy to understand what is meant without pronouns.
Thanks, I haven't got to the past tense yet. Czech like Polish is unambiguous in the past tense
Let's convert it to a normal English word order:
Это место незнакомо{@style=color:#8C1AFF} мне{@style=color:#00BD29} - This place is not familiar{@style=color:#8C1AFF} to me{@style=color:#00BD29}
Мне is the dative case.
So you have an idea of the dative case (for indirect objects):
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Я -> Мне = (to) me.
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Ты -> Тебе = (to) you.
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Он/Оно -> Ему = (to) him/it.
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Она -> Ей = (to) her.
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Мы -> Нам = (to) us.
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Вы -> Вам = (to) you.
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Они -> Им = (to) them.
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Actually, LucasSherluck, dative of она is ей, not её. (Sorry, I couldn't reply directly to you for some reason.)
I see you're learning Spanish, so is "Я знаю" like "Yo sé" and "Я знаком с" like "Yo conozco?"
"Pardon me Mr. Snake but I do believe we haven't yet been formally introduced."
*Нагайна (как "нагайка")
У меня есть Гарри Поттер и Дары Смерти на русском, и теперь свободно владею Гарри Поттера :p
Some personal names of English origin, beginning with the letter "h", in Russian start with a "г". Henry - Генри
Also English names starting with a "w", transform into a "в"
Dr. Watson - Ватсон.
Just an observation from a non-native speaker...
> Also English names starting with a "w", transform into a "в"
However the more recent trend is to transliterate "w" as "у", therefore Emma Watson is usually Эмма Уотсон, even though she has the same surname as the good doctor (who is still Ватсон due to tradition)
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thank, i didn't know that - i just translated Nagini :D but i'm glad that i was clear anyway :)
"Официальный перевод имени — явная отсылка к персонажу сказки Киплинга «Рики-тики-тави», где королевскую кобру звали «Нагайна». В действительности, ту кобру также звали «Нагини» (у Киплинга почти все имена животных — просто названия их вида на хинди), но именно транслитерация «Нагайна» прижилась в русской литературе. Таким образом, авторская ассоциация с Киплинговской «королевской коброй» в переводе полностью сохранена."
Source: http://ru.harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Нагайна
(apparently it wants to clip off that last word from the URL, so you'll have to copy and paste)
Yes, I may have a nerdy side :p
I was thinking exactly of Рики-Тики-Тави myself! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that story as a kid!
Yes, but generally it is used by women against women. And may have a form "змея подколодная" (the adjective comes after the noun here, a stable expression). Means a sneaky, despicable, evil person.
In Brazilian Portuguese as well: Ela é uma cobra venenosa. She is a poisonous snake.
Technically, cobra has the same meaning as in english, being "serpente" the correct translation for snake (and "víbora" for viper), but everybody here calls any kind of serpent "cobra" for some reason...
is snake used like slang for a clever or shifty guy? - no, but for an insidious woman
95 comments, and no one has answered this: why are we learning this phrase in level 1?
It stops making sense after что. You can, however, use «Я не знаю, что это за змея» (I do knot know what snake this is").
Why is змея in Accusative (змею) here and not in Genitive (as I assumed due to negation in the sentence)? Is it becauae the negation is not towards the object?
In modern Russian negating a direct object of a verb does not trigger the switch to the Genitive automatically.
It does, for some verbs and some objects, it is rare for some others. The Genitive (when it does not sound old-fashioned) may give negation a bit more strength or imply less specific objects, as an extension.
Some abstract objects (e.g. "importance") tend to use the Genitive of negation in a lot of common combinations (e.g. "не вижу смысла", "не обращал внимания"). Иметь always uses a Genitive object when negated.
In general, the use of the Genitive with negated verbs is a complicated topic that is only touched in this course briefly.
Thank you very much for this elaborate explenation. It helps me to know that.
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No, because эту can only be used as a demonstrative adjective, i.e., эту змею can ONLY mean "this snake" (accusative case). To say "I don't know this is a snake" you must say, "Я не знаю, что это змея." The comma and the word что (meaning "that") are obligatory in standard Russian (whereas in English the word "that" is not, and the comma isn't used at all). Also, the word это in this case is a demonstrative pronoun meaning "this," unlike the word эту which can only be used as a demonstrative adjective (also этот, эта, etc.). Это causes a lot of confusion, but if you understand the difference between a demonstrative pronoun and a demonstrative adjective, AND understand that the word это does double duty as both, it makes it a lot easier.
Conjugation of the verb "знать":
Я знаю
Ты знаешь
Он/она/оно знает
Мы знаем
Вы знаете
Они знают
