- Forum >
- Topic: Russian >
- "Что он ест?"
26 Comments
If you are a fellow native Polish speaker prepare to fight your natural instinct to translate ест as "jest" ("is") a lot .. gah!
I don't even speak Polish and I keep assuming it means 'is' because of French and Latin.
At least in French the T isn't pronounced.. in Polish these words are exactly the same pronunciation and it keeps catching me out!
In czech we use "jest" in old books also like "is" - so I have same problem :-)
YES! I went to the comment section specifically to find this comment and agree with it. :D
Help me please, in Russian, how can I know when the phrase is in simple present or present continuous ?
There is only one present tense in Russian, so you can only rely on the context to choose the right meaning.
For example "Что он ест?" can mean "What is he eating?" and "What does he eat?" with the same probability :)
One tense!. ah I am so happy to know this. I was thinking that I will find hard time to distinguish between tenses.
This is my first and only laungage, and I find it funny that brat ( sorry, I can't type it in russian) means brother. It's sort of amusing
Why does the ch sound like sh :S Russian is weird. The final "o" i.e это sounds like "a"
Stress. When 'о' isn't stressed (, it sounds like "a", exacly. Take "молоко" (milk) for example, it has three 'о' but it is pronounced /malako/, because the last syllable "ко" is stressed. From what I know, you basically need to memorize where each word has its stress. :(
Are the verbs "to exist" and "to eat" related in Russian or did they somehow become homophones? How did it end up like this?
Why does the Ч in Что sound like "sh" rather than "ch"? Or is this simply me mishearing the TTS audio?
Does any one know if there is masculine and feminine word differences and if there is how to differenciate?
In Russian, there are three grammatical genders. (This is while words are being read in Nominative form.)
Masculine which ends in a consonant or with 'й.'
Feminine which ends in either 'а' or 'я.'
Neuter which ends in 'о' or 'е.'
There are few exceptions, but mainly because of physical gender.
Папа (Dad) - Ends in 'а' but is masculine.
Дядя (Uncle) - Ends in 'я' but is masculine.
Дедушка (Grandfather) - Ends in 'а' but is masculine.
Мужчина (Man) - Ends in 'а' but is masculine.
Кофе (Coffee) - Ends in 'е' but is masculine.
Source: http://www.russianlessons.net/grammar/nouns_gender.php
How do we know if the phrase means ”what does he eat?" or "what is he eating?"
Not a native (actually very beginner), but I'd imagine since there's only one present tense, they would specify with adverbs such as "what is he eating 'right now'" or "what does he 'usually' eat". Otherwise, it's probably just context from the scenario.
What does he eat?
I would think is the same, but maybe a subtle difference for me to catch... And is marked wrong
You are confusing me: "What he eats" is not the same as to "What he is eating" ?
In Russian, instead of "Что он ест?" ("What does he eat?") how is "What is he eating?" translate?
My answer "what does he eat" is correct in proper English; why was it flagged red as incorrect?
How are we meant to know which ест/есть it is without text. Also is it really pronounced "sh-tO" or would it be closer to "ch-tO"?
