36 Comments
Why don't you use "human voice" instead of "windows robot voice"? It is really very hard to understand what it says.
it is hard to distinguish the soft sign of "ест" "est". making it difficult to understand the verb
I know what you mean, but I read that eventually after listening to the language enough you will be able to hear differences in soft and hard sounds. I suggest finding audio clips with words like "ест" and "есть" in them and try listening to the difference. I have the same problem too just be patient and you will hear the difference subconsciously in time.
It's soooo funny how "brother" sounds like "brat" in Russian! I have a brother, and believe me, he is a brat!
Мой is for singular masculine, моя is singular feminine, and мои is plural. Брат is singular masculine so it gets мой.
Мои is more like "mah-ee" (or "mah-yee"), мой is more like the Spanish "muy" (rhymes with "soy").
Is there a significant difference between й and и that I should be aware of?
They are different letters. й has more of a "y" sound and и an "ee" sound. Compare the words мой (my, singular, pronounced "moy") and мои (my, plural, pronounced "ma-ee").
hi, does anyone know how can i notice the difference between "is eating" and "he eats"?
In Russian, "is eating" and "eats" are going to be expressed by just the one present tense conjugation of the verb есть. In this sentence, because it is one яблоко, it almost has to be translated as "he is eating an apple" (theoretically "he eats apple" in general in English works but it sounds funny). If it were something like Он ест мясо, then it could be translated either as "he is eating (the) meat" or "he eats meat", and you'd just have to know from further context what the person has in mind specifically.
Please note that in this sentence specifically, it is talking about one apple (an apple), so the initial thought is "He is eating an apple". If it's plural (яблоки) then you would need additional context to know 100% which one to use in English.
As far as I know, етсь is the main form, "to eat", while "ест" is it's conjugation for он/она/оно, like "eats".
Russian doesn't require the use of an article in every context, so here it can be "an apple" or "the apple" and it would be correct either way. Apparently the moderation staff has corrected it thankfully.
Because яблоко is a single apple, and яблоки is multiple apples. Here, it's just яблоко (one apple).
Is there a reason why "My brother is eating an apple." isn't accepted? Is it some sort of case or tense that hasn't been covered yet for '-ing'?
"My brother is eating an apple" is the suggested default translation for the sentence, so either the system is glitching out (I've seen a lot of similar complaints recently from the various Russian sentences) or there was a typo in your answer.
For the second question, the single present tense conjugation of a verb in Russian covers the English idea of "does" and "is doing" (just like in German or Spanish).
Why can't this be "My brother has an apple". "У меня есть яблоко" means: "I have an apple." Can someone please explain?
My brother has an apple would be У моего брата есть яблоко. So, actually, the only word that matches is яблоко. Everything else is different.
Есть is an infinitive of the verbs "to eat", which is irregular in the present tense and has forms ем / ешь / ест/ едим/ едите/ едят. So есть can never appear in a sentence where someone "eats" or "ate" something. It can, however, appear as an infinitive attached to something (e.g., Мы хотим есть = lit. We want to eat )
The same word is also coincidentally the only surviving present form of "to be". It can an will apear in a sentence where something "exists".
