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- "I already have plans."
"I already have plans."
Translation:У меня уже есть планы.
46 Comments
Is "есть" necessary here? I wrote "У меня уже планы" and I was marked incorrect.
Yes, it is. Here, "есть" is quite important, because it proudly proclaims the existence of plans and lands "уже".
Though, in colloquial speech this could be saved by adding an object or day which you have plans for ("У меня планы на завтра" / "У меня на тебя большие планы"). Otherwise these "already plans" do not work together—and kind of suggest that what you say is not finished.
And is the order important? I mean, could the order of the words be different?
Maybe у меня есть уже планы, though it is a bit sketchy. Планы у меня уже есть would also work in a rather particular context where you either inform that you made/obtained plans (which was expected of you) or reply to a suggestion to make plans.
We accept it anyway; it is just not something you would normally say about your everyday "plans"—BUT you could say it about some official plans.
This structure just sounds as if you were being suggested "plans", and you said you already had them. It is OK for floor plans or work plans but fairly odd for your plans for the evening (people do not make your plans for you). Context matters.
662
I don't get it. There was an earlier exercise where Duolingo translated "we have plans" as "у нас планы." How is that different from this exercise?
One of the most typical ways of expressing possession in Russian is using У + Genitive + есть. У "converts" a person into a virtual "place", where certain objects can be found. Expressing possession through existence is, actually, rather common across the globe.
For real buildings and rooms we use в (e.g. "В комнате (есть) большой ковёр"~"There is a big rug in the room" / "The room has a big rug").
With the example of "в", I find it easier to think of it as: "В комнате (есть) болшой ковёр" "In the room, (there is) a big rug"
- 1416
How shall I know the difference when to use и and ы as ending in plural? Totally confusing...
Look up 'kgh' rule. It's too long to explain on the thread... Basically can't be used after к, г or х so и is used. Looking for the kgh rule will explain it better
- 719
Я means I. У literally means "by". You will see it starting sentences that translate the word "have", it doesn't mean "I" at all. E.g. a literal translation of this sentence is "By me there are already plans".
- 719
If you want to translate "I" directly then you'll also need a direct translation of "have". E.g. Я уже имею планы would likely be understood by Russians but I doubt they would use it in this context.
- 662
Я уже есть планы is nonsensical. It could be translated as "I already there are plans." (Ignore Google Translate, if you have been using it.) To indicate possession, Russians use the expression У меня есть. У cannot be directly translated, but у меня уже есть планы means something like "there are already plans with me." The preposition у requires the genitive case for its object (меня). In a literal translation, "me" would be мне and меня would be "mine", but Russian grammar is not altogether logical (for English speakers).
- 662
Another translation for У меня уже есть планы is "[The] plans are already in my possession." Here, the use of the genitive case is consistent with English.
"У" means something like "at." The words "у меня" together mean "I have" in the sense of possession (literally "at me"). This "у" is put in front of many words in the genitive to indicate possession like "у мальчика яблоко" ("the boy has an apple"), or "у меня немного денег" ("I have a little money.")
Where should I put уже in this sentence exactly? Isn't 'у уже меня есть планы' correct?
- 662
У меня is a phrase that cannot be broken up, so you can't insert уже in the middle. It can't really be translated into English; the grammars are too different. You can only learn how it's used.
I'm typing transliterations, and i keep getting dinged for not having the soft sign, but when i use the key for the soft sign from the transliteration table, it still comes up wrong. HELP!
- 662
I don't know what you mean by transliteration table or what computer and operating system you are using. If you would copy and paste the soft sign that is being rejected, someone might help you.
Hi Krlis--many thanks for the reply. when i first asked about how to answer questions in russian, i was sent a page and referenced a site that gave what you should use if you don't have a Cyrillic keyboard, (i'm on windows 10) most work (which helps when i'm traveling and using my phone) but the soft sign doesn't, which means it is impossible to get words like "est" correct. also, can't cut and paste on the phone--v/r--dr b
- 662
You're better off using a native keyboard; all modern computers and smartphones have them. There are many posts on the subject. There is a "sticky" in the Russian forum and there are many posts in the Дима - это дом conversation. I use Windows 10 too. If you have a touch screen computer, you can use the on screen keyboard - very convenient.
- 662
Плань is Russian for Plagne, a commune in France. I suppose that the plural would be Планьи, but that doesn't make much sense.
- 662
I think we are both wrong. Плань is a word of foreign origin, so it would not be declined. I fooled around with Google Translate, and apparently borrowed words don't have a plural form either. So the plural would be the same as the singular - Плань.
- 719
I'm still not sure I agree with you. From everything I've seen, foreign words decline unless the word ending contradicts its Russian gender. E.g. Вашингтон declines and has plural forms:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%B0%D1%88%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B3%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BD#Russian
And Париж also declines. There are no plural forms listed on Wiktionary but we would have to assume that's because a plural of a city is fairly meaningless. If there were a plural it would be straightforward to extrapolate the declension.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B6#Russian
- 662
I guess it's not as simple as I thought. Still такси and метро do not decline and have no plural. Also many proper nouns (see http://russianlearn.com/grammar/category/declension_of_proper_names). I'm just going to forget about it for the time being. It's much more complicated than anything I wanted to get into.
