40 Comments
Since there are no articles in Russian, how would you know if this sentence is meaning "there is a village", or "there is the village"?
1553
It only accepts replies a certain number of levels deep, so this is in reply to both matanov and NerysGhemor. Yes, matanov: if, for example, you'd been searching for the village, and then saw it, you might say: "There is the village". As Nerys say, it just means a particular one, not just any one. I don't think there are many nouns it won't work with. Even something as generic as "the sea". Obviously, there's more than one sea in the world, but if you're travelling and you see it, you say: "There is the sea" (not "A sea").
Not sure why it won't let me reply to matanov but you can sometimes say "there is the..." In English to make it clear you have a specific one in mind. This is an example.
I doubt you will say 'Там деревня' for 'The village is there'. That should be 'Деревня там'
I agree, to me this sentence means something like "There is a village there"
Why isn't countryside accepted? And which is the difference between деревня and село?
According to the Wikipedia: "a rural area or countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities". In Russian it is called сельская местность.
Деревня and село are two kinds of human settlement located in rural area and have names. Деревня is the smallest kind of settlement, and in general, the difference between деревня and село is just in the size - село is bigger. But these terms are vague, and деревня may be bigger than село.
- 1233
In that case the English word hamlet would traditionally denote a деревня which is not a село
Weirdly, in the span of 3 minutes, I learned that a hamlet is a village without a church (English - I always just thought it was something smaller than a village) and a село is a village with (or that previously had) a church.
So, then, a деревня has never had a church?
Деревня = Hamlet
Село = Village
I think?
(In fairness, in the US at least, we rarely if ever use "hamlet" to describe anything but the play. Maybe to refer to a small hideaway that's more one isolated house than group of houses)
The difference had almost disappeared during the Soviet era. (You know, the Bolsheviks were not very religious)
You know, the Bolsheviks were not very religious
That's mildly put (yada yada Bolshevism became its own religion by a variant definition of same blah blah).
But the difference is still there/used today?
And I learned, in a few minutes, the word село in Russian (and its difference with деревня), the word hamlet in English (I thought it was only the name of a Shakespeare play) and the formal difference in my own language (French) between hameau and village :-)
- 1372
can someone let me know if I am just lacking the excercise or is there someone else who hears the я at the end pronounced as е?
Thanks in advance.
yeah the pronunciation is a bit off. forvo is really useful if you want to check pronunciation of anything - https://forvo.com/word/%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%BD%D1%8F/#ru
- 1553
Is that exactly the same meaning? Where is the emphasis: "village", or "there"? In other words, which question does it answer: "WHERE is the village?", or: "WHAT is there?" Maybe it's equally applicable to both.
I think it's equally applicable to both, depending on which word is stressed when speaking (?)
What case is used after "Там"? The nominative case is деревне, correct? Unless, of course деревня is a completely separate word and NOT a different case of деревне.
In fact "деревня" is the nominative and "деревне" is dative or prepositional case.
- 703
Деревня is the nominative form. You might use this form when using деревня as the subject of the sentence. Деревня там.
Деревне is the prepositional (and also dative) form. You might use this form when talking about being in (or going toward) the village. Я живу в деревне. Я иду к деревне.
