"my cat"
Translation:моя кошка
64 Comments
Yes, but if you're referring to a male cat, then you should use "кот" and if you are referring to a female cat, then use "кошка".
Which of the two is used for general purposes, when you are not really looking to specify gender but just want to say it's a cat?
Like in Croatian we have "mačka" (кошка) and "mačak" (кот), but everyone mostly uses the feminine form for everyday uses, regardless of the cat's actual gender (unless they want to specify).
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Кошка is mostly used as the generic noun, according to some comments in this lesson.
And how do we know that i put kochka they wrong how can i know it s male or nah
That makes absolutely no sense how is someone going to know if it's male or female they are just talking about a cat so you should be able to use either word
That's right, and you cann use either word -- both мой кот and моя кошка are accepted.
Whichever word you pick, you have to use the correctly-gendered form of the possessive in front of it, of course.
In other languages (like my native language, Spanish) we do specify the gender almost everytime, so it has sense for me. It's just because you are not used to it
Its not that it doesn't make sense its that it doesn't tell us the gender of the cat in the question, so how are we supposed to know
You are not supposed to know. Both "мой кот" and "моя кошка" are accepted, so just choose the one you like and type it.
Did you use "мой" or "моя" with it? That's important, because while you are free to choose a word for a cat of either gender, once you've done it the possesive pronoun must agree with it.
Ps: I'd like to point out that "моя кошка" is the suggested answer, so it's obviously acceptable.
I think that's the first time in the Russian course that I see multiple answers being the right answer in "choose all the correct answers" question.
I was surprised and suspicious at the first glance.
If there is a microphone symbol at the bottom of your keyboard, right next to it is probably a button that says EN for English. Hold that button down and add Russian as a format.
If you have a smartphone, try the app. You can also change keyboards very easy! By the way, Im a Linux user aswell.
dude, use google for all your questions. Here's the online Russian keyboard that I've been using: http://russian.typeit.org/
As кашка is a feminine noun you should use моя. Мой кот as it is masculine.
Also, the word is "кошка", if you input "кашка", this is likely an additional reason why you got it wrong.
Technically, кот мой can be used as a form of address. Yet, the phrase is hardly ever used like that. The same phrase with the diminutive form - "котик мой" (sweetie) - is, though, used quite often as a form of endearment by some Russian women in talking to their beloved or to a child.
How do you know it was referring to a male or female cat then when it simply says "my cat"?
There is no way to know, and most of the time native speakers of English don’t care.
What is more common? Say кошка или кот? When you don't know the gender, or you just wanna point it's a cat?
Кошка is more common. Other animals that are female by default in the Russian culture include обезьяна (monkey or ape), горилла (gorilla), пантера (panther), лиса (fox), куница (marten), норка (minx), ласка (weasel), крыса (rat), мышь (mouse), лягушка (frog), жаба (toad), змея (snake), ящерица (lizard), черепаха (turtle or tortois) and every fish and bird whose name ends in -а. In Russian fairytales these animals are inevitably female.
I had clicked all the possible answer, but all of it is wrong. What should i do?
Hey,what is wrong?!İ am really so nervous now.İ choose moya koshka say wrong,then i choeese moy kat say it again!
If you think that learning the difference between мой and моя will enable you to translate the word "my" into Russian, I feel sorry for you. One of the worst nightmares of many Russian learners is having to memorize 12 word forms for "my/mine" (or any adjective likewise). If we use capital letters N, G, D, A, I and P to encode the so-called cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental and prepositional, respectively) and small letters m, n, f for masculine, neuter and feminine singular forms, respectively, and pl for plural forms, then the list will look as follows: мой (Nm), моя (Nf), моё (Nn), мои (Npl), моего (Gm/n), моему (Dm/n), моим (Im/n or Dpl), моём (Pm/n), моей (G/D/I/Pf), мою (Аf), моих (G/Ppl), моими (Ipl). Am/n/pl = Nm/n/pl for inanimate objects, and Am/n/pl= Gm/n/pl for animate ones.
I'm a native English speaker, but studied German, which has four cases, all of which are also in Russian. With that, your post is actually intriguing and insightful, not frightening.
In German though, the gender of a noun is very important to learn as a part of the word, but I haven't seen that indicated when Russian nouns are introduced here. Is there a way to tell based on the ending of the noun whether it is masc/fem/neut, or some other way?
A few notes to add to the rule of thumb so wonderfully formulated by mizinamo:
The nouns юноша and старшина are masculine.
The nouns воображала, прилипала, забияка, задавака, задира, пройдоха, пьяница, убийца and maybe a few other nouns with similar endings can be either masculine or feminine depending on the gender of the person they denote.
Кофе is masculine.
Nouns ending in -ишко or -ище are masculine if they are derived from shorter masculine nouns (e.g. дом - домишко, домище) and neuter otherwise.
All nouns derived from verbs by replacing -ть with -тель are masculine (e.g. читать - читатель, учить - учитель).
Most abstract and uncountable nouns ending in -ь are feminine (e.g. кровь, боль, соль, удаль, лень, утварь, молодежь, речь).
Most countable nouns ending in -ь are masculine (e.g. корабль, корень, дождь, день, гвоздь, конь), but there are quite a few that are feminine, especially among the monosyllable ones: трость, кровать, вещь, рысь.
All nouns ending in -сть with the exception of гость (a male guest) and тесть (a man's father-in-law) are feminine.
All nouns ending in -жь, -шь, -чь or -щь are feminine.
There is.
The rules of thumb are:
- Ends in consonant: masculine
- Ends in -a or -ya: feminine
- Ends in -o or -e: neuter
- Ends in soft sign: could be masculine or feminine, usually feminine
There are exceptions, of course (e.g. neuter nouns in -mya such as vremya or imya), but on the whole it's a good rule of thumb.
"Cat " can be translated as both "кот " and "кошка " since the English word doesn't specify the gender of the animal. "Кот " is a masculine noun and therefore the possessive pronoun мой must be used with it; whereas кошка is feminine, so you need to use моя. Using either one is correct here, as long as the possessive pronoun agrees in gender with the noun it modifies.
See the thread started by drakqe.
It can be either "моя кошка" or "мой кот".
What's not possible is "моя кот" or "мой кошка".
This is the first time I've seen кот. I didn't realise before that "cat" is gender specific in Russian.
No. In Russian, the initial к is pronounced before н, so the first syllable in книга sounds similar to “chni” in “technique”.
I thought мой is plural? I gather from here it is masculine to go with кот.
It’s мои which is plural — note the different last letter. Also, it’s two syllables rather than one (plural ma-ee versus masculine singular moy).
I thought кошка was a neutral form if you are unsure if the cat is male and кот is only if you know the cat is definitely male. Is this wrong?
The noun кошка has a feminine gender, but can be used not only for female cats, but also for cats of uncertain sex or as a generic name.
When there is no reference to male or female cat, shouldn't both Кошка and кот be correct?
When there is no reference to male or female cat, shouldn't both Кошка and кот be correct?
Sure, as long as you use the correctly-gendered form of the word "my" (the feminine form with кошка and the masculine form with кот).
Please read all of the existing comments; this has been explained a few times, with examples.
Remember the line "select ALL correct answers" (or something like that) in multiple-choice exercises.
Sometimes, two options are correct, and you have to select both of the correct ones before it will let you continue.
(Very rarely, all three are correct.)
So you can't just pick one at a time until you find the (single) right one. Or at least, not always.
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There are tips and notes for every lesson, but they are only visible in the web app. https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ru/Possessive-Modifiers-1
Tips and notes
POSSESSIVE ENEMY MINE
There isn't much to say about words like "my" or "your" in Russian.
his/her/their do not change: его́, её, их(and they don't get an initial Н after prepositions!)
my/your/our roughly follow an adjectival pattern, i.e. they copy the gender and the case of the noun they describe. Just like этот:
>>мой/твой/наш папа
>>моя́/твоя́/на́ша ма́ма
Unlike English, no distinction is made between my and mine, her and hers etc.
Pronunciation: in «его», as well as in adjective endings and "сегодня" the letter Г is pronounced В. It is a historical spelling.
GRAMMATICAL GENDER
Nouns in Russian belong to one of three genders: feminine, masculine or neuter. If a noun means a person of a certain gender, use that one. For all other nouns look at the end of the word:
(TABLE) ENDING IN NOM; GENDER; EXAMPLES
-а/-я ; feminine ; ма́ма, земля́, Росси́я, маши́на
consonant ; masculine ; сок, ма́льчик, чай, интерне́т, апельси́н
-о/-е ; neuter ; окно́, яйцо́, мо́ре
-ь ; feminine or masculine - consult a dictionary ; ло́шадь, ночь, мать, любо́вь / день, конь, медве́дь, учи́тель
IF THERE'S A SOFT SIGN, IT ISN'T POSSIBLE TO PREDICT THE GENDER, AT LEAST, NOT ACCURATELY. HOWEVER, ABOUT 65-70% OF THE MOST USED NOUNS THAT END IN -Ь ARE FEMININE. ALSO, YOU CAN LEARN THE COMMON SUFFIXES ENDING IN A SOFT SIGN THAT PRODUCE A WORD OF A PREDICTABLE GENDER. THEY ARE:
-ость/-есть, -знь → feminine
-тель, -арь, -ырь → masculine
ALL NOUNS WITH -ЧЬ, ЩЬ, -ШЬ, -ЖЬ AT THE END ARE FEMININE. THE CONVENTION IS TO SPELL FEMININE NOUNS WITH A SOFT SIGN AND MASCULINE ONES WITHOUT ONE: НОЖ, ЛУЧ, МУЖ, ДУШ. IT DOESN'T AFFECT PRONUNCIATION, ANYWAY.
