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- Topic: Russian >
- "Рыба — на столе."
39 Comments
I was marked wrong for writing "fish is on the table." Would this be a correct translation?
1657
Using the singular verb "is" requires an article (a, the) before "fish" - "the fish is on the table" (which could mean one fish or a mass noun group of several fish.) If you don't use the article, then you'd have to say "Fish are on the table".
- 405
General American can use it as a mass noun, too: "You have your choice: Chicken is on the counter, beef is on the stove, and fish is on the table."
- 2142
So is there a difference between one fish and multiple fish? "The fish are on the table" was marked wrong. So would "The fish are on the table" be "Рыби - на столе"?
- 1987
Yes, there is a difference:
if you can count it - one fish - "рыба", from two to four - "рыбы", five and more - "рыб". For example -fifteen fish - "пятнадцать рыб", give me three fish - дай мне три рыбы.
If a lot of fish, you may say - много рыбы (a lot of fish). If you want to say "many fish" (many types of fish) - много рыб.
But if you can't count the fish (or you don't want to count) - correctly to use in the singular. For example: Рыбаки пошли ловить рыбу сетями - the fishermen went to net fish.
So "The fish are on the table" would be the same as one fish - "Рыба на столе". Next time press report -> my answer should be accepted.
Also, рыба/рыбы counter is relative to unity digit, so you will say двадцать две рыбы, тридцать пять рыб
Is this rule - about the quantity vs diversity valid for things other than this particular case? Like: много сыра - A lot of cheese; много сыров - A lot of cheeses?
"The fish are on the table" would not be the same as one fish. Are is a present plural tense. "Рыбы на столе."
Also, any number ending in 1, 2-4 or 5-9+0 follow the rules except 11-19 which use the same ending as 5-9+0.
Двадцать одна рыба (1), пятьдесят четыре рыбы (2-4), сто девять рыб (5+), семнадцать рыб (10-19), тридцать рыб (0).
Since there isn't a direct translation for "there is," would "There is fish on the table" be correct, or would that be "na stole ryba"?
- 1987
You are right - "there is/are fish on the table" would be "на столе рыба", it also means "рыба на столе", because in Russian language you can change the words in some places without losing the sense of the sentence.
That's what I tried as well, but it wasn't accepted (15 Dec 2015). I reported it, so let's see.
- 1987
These are two different sentences:
In the sentence from the task one tell - "where is/are the fish lying". In your choice you just say - here's a kitchen, there is a table on the kitchen, there is/are fish on the table, there is a window next to the table
i was wondering the same thing, do russian people really pause for the auxiliary verb or just say it all without a pause
- 367
I think столе is in the prepositional case (because it's preceded by на). Since стол doesn't end in -и, or -ия, or -ий, or -ие, its prepositional form gets an -e added to it :D
I am still trying to pronounce столе properly. To me it sounds like "stow lee uh".
It's "na stalyeh /stɐ-'lʲɛ/"
"stow lee" sounds like Stoli (the English pronunciation of the vodka). There is no "uh" at the end.
- 454
How am I supposed to pronounce Рыба? I know it's spelt Ryba but I hear it like the Spanish word arriba
Ы is a specific Russian vowel. You can look it up on https://forvo.com/search/%D1%80%D1%8B%D0%B1%D0%B0/ to listen to pronunciations
- 1521
It's not really a Russian oddity, the same vowel exists in a whole bunch of other languages. Polish, Portuguese, Korean, Estonian to name just a few.
I didn't call it an oddity. I just said it's a specific vowel in Russian, which is 100% correct. Yes, this vowel also exists in Belarusian ы and Ukrainian и. It's not an oddity.
- 1521
It's close enough. Just drop the initial "a" and make "r" a really short trill, one tongue tap at the alveolar ridge is enough (unless you want to be really emphatic)
- 1521
It depends on the dialect, your ear, and, if Spanish is not the speaker's native language, his or her first language.
