- Forum >
- Topic: Russian >
- "Is my mom at his place?"
"Is my mom at his place?"
Translation:Моя мама у него?
127 Comments
У is used to describe location. У стены - "by the wall". Possession is indicated in Russian by saying the item is located "by someone", у него - literally "by him", but also used to mean "in his possession". Being at his house can also be described as being "by him".
Есть is used when the existence of an item is in question.. "У него есть дом?" - "does he have a house?" We want to know if his house exists or not, use есть. If asking about a characteristic of an item that is known to exist, then есть is omitted. "У него дом большой?" - "Does he have a big house/is his house big?" We know he has a house, we want to know if it's big or not. Есть is omitted. In this sentence, Mom's existence is not in question. You know that you have a Mom, you're wanting to know where she is.
So the answer is 'yes'. Sweet! Thank you for the explanation!
I realise that, for someone who grew up with the language, my question might be counterintuitive, but to me, I have learned the combination of those three words together, first. So to me, that is one puzzle or lego piece. I just wanted to verify that I can detach the last part of that lego piece, in essence, and it still be a valid piece of a puzzle that I can apply to other places without the piece, effectively, being broken/or ending up kaput.
Great explanation. The Irish language has a preposition "ag" that works in the same way as the Russian "у". The direct translation is usually "at" as in "Tá Seán ag an gcluiche" = "Sean is at the match". But it is also the main way to express possession since there is no verb "to have". So "Tá liathróid ag Seán" = "Sean has a ball". In both examples "Tá" is the verb "is", corresponding of course to "есть", thus making the similarity very close.
187
Literally translated word by word I think it would be "Is my mom by him" which is easy for German speakers like me, because in German you also say "Is she by him" meaning "at his place".
1666
Your grammar seems to be correct, so maybe it's because a "place" is not necessarily a "house/home". All homes are places, but not all places at homes.
It could also be that your sentence is not in the database. I'd report it and see what happens. I get the occasional email telling me that one of my suggested translations has been accepted and entered into the database, although that seems to be limited to the Spanish course right ow.
I entered "моя мама - у него положу?" and it was also wrong. I'm not exactly sure about the grammar, but basically what I did was just literally adding the "place", it was in the hovertips! I don't know if that's the right word, but I couldn't know beforehand ('положить' actually seems to be the verb... "place" as in "set", "lay" etc... which is starting to make my sentence sound even more super humorous)
There "phrases" seem to be particularly problematic since they come completely out of the blue. You get it wrong, and then learn "oh, you just leave that word out completely, because... it just happens to be so". And I still don't know what would be the literal correct translation for "at his place". I'm still wishing for multiple translations to be listed to reduce the constant guesswork!
102
"Положить" is, as you've mentioned, a VERB that means "TO place, set, lay" and has no relation to the English "place" as in "location."
"моя мама - у него положу" to me sounds like you are directing this message at your mother saying "my dear mother: at his place, (I) will lay/place/set..... _" and you never finished the sentence (lay down what?). Although the grammar wouldn't fly even in that sense, but at least the meaning would be there because the sentence as you have it makes no sense to my ears.
As far as I know, Russian doesn't have an exact translation of "at... his... PLACE." You don't need the word "place" in Russian to convey this meaning here. The meaning of "at his place" is there in the sense of "у него". It's like saying "I'm at his," which I know sounds like a cut-off sentence in English, but it conveys exactly what it needs to in Russian. It reminds me of "chez lui" in French, or "bei him" in German, although there may be other ways of saying it in those languages, as I'm not a native speaker.
"Место" means "place" in Russian, but the sentence no longer makes sense if "место" is added to "у него" so make sure to leave it out.
Russian was my first language.
They are not necessarily using the word 'his' for mom. Consider the two sentences: "My grandfather lives over there. My mom is at his place". Also, there is no word for "place" in this example. It is simply used, because a lot of English speakers complained about the literal translation being bad English. The literal translation is "My mom is at him". The English meaning you can gather from this is: "at his place". "My mom is with him" would also make sense.
I mean really, any studios person who is doing a duolingo course, would also have a google translate window open, and every time they come across a new phrase, put the words into google translate, one at a time. Then, using the ability to perceive other paradigms, an ability that anyone of reasonable intelligence has, one would be able to make sense of how a speaker of another language builds their perception from that language.
I don't see anyone else asking this so I guess I will. I put "Мои мама у него?" but was ticked wrong because I used "Мои" instead of "Моя", but I thought this was referring to myself? Is it because mother is feminine that I should use the feminine version of "My"? Thanks for any answers, hopefully I'm just missing something.
839
Yes, it is.
Mama is feminine, so you have to use моя. If it was papa, you would have to use мой. Not sure about the rest, I also just have started learning russian.
102
"у" - means more of "at" while "в" - means more of "in" or "inside"
Although you can't accurately translate these meanings across languages so you just have to memorize them, unfortunately. For example, in English we say, "I'm at the concert," while in Russian, it's more of, "I'm on the concert." But there are typically rules or guidelines for prepositions in each language that help guide you so pay attention to them and they'll help.
1666
It's an idiom. "У [possessor] есть [thing possessed]" literally means "By/near [the possessor] is/exits [thing possessed]", which is interpreted idiomatically to mean "[the possessor] has the [thing possessed]".
has nothing to do with free or not.
desktop: branah.com virtual keyboard, duokeyboard extension (for chrome) or just installing/switching to a russian cyrillic keymap directly from the os are three options. The first one is the easiest to start with IMO.
mobile: switching between keymaps should be trivial. check the settings and look for whatever has to do with the text input mode, probably all you need to do is install the cyrillic keymap.
There are obviously a lot of comments about this particular sentence. These explanations left in here are truly helpful, and thank you for that. However.. doesn't it feels just "crazy" that regardless the lack of grammatical knowledge at this stage, the sentence might be set up to make us fail?.. and that's the point that bothers me about this. Thank y'all and good luck.
322
I put моя мама есть у него which was marked wrong. Is the есть optional or what's wrong here?
I have the feeling, the sentence doesn't work well in english. In German you can say "bei ihm" and that implies being with that person but not necessary at his place/home, just like it seems to be in Russian. So the english sentence implied to me that i need to add a word for "place" which qas wrong...
1666
One thing that confused me: его is both the genitive and possessive form of он. Does the exercise sentence mean (literally) "My mom is by him" or "My mom is by his [place]", where "place" (e.g., месте) is understood but elided?
1084
No. You have to redo your answer instead of expecting the rules of the language to adapt to what you deem best.
Why is "лошадь" not used at the end? If you've got an answer, try not to speak like an English teacher, lol. Layman's terms please. It means "place" according to the hint... thingy. (No idea what they're called. xD )
I'm just learning for the fun of it. I'm also curious about whether or not this app is accurate and effective. It just seems strange that there's a word for "place," but a sentence with "place" in there doesn't include it.
I'm gonna go text my friend about this, he's extremely fluent in English and Russian.