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- "Не надо, мама."
223 Comments
You can translate it as "No need, mom" or "Don't", meaning "Don't bother" or "That won't be necessary."
If it helps, you can imagine that your mom has offered to do something for you, but you decide you can handle it on your own, so you say ""Не надо, мама." This is just my interpretation; I am not a Russian speaker.
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Yeah, I liked how I basically read "no, nada mama" in Spanish Which helps me get close to the meaning :) I notice other words like "Luna" are also the same Very curious to know the lexical similarity between the two
@jackson: Not so simple. My on-line dictionary lsts the following
it is necessary (for); (one) must; (one) ought; need
More important are the usage examples.
-
мне надо идти — I must (ought to) go
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мне надо вина — I need some wine
P.S. İf Duolingo's incessant repetition has you screaming мне скучно, the key icon is your friend.
You could even use the ("incorrect") idea for it and still arrive at the same communicated intent.
"With/to me, there is no going." In some context. it doesn't mean you need to go. In other context, it does mean that.
"With/to me, there is no wine." You need the wine if you want some wine ;)
It is a false friend, but it still works.
It's not the translation of the words that's important, it's the translation of the thought/idea/intent that is important.
1664
false friends, it seems: apparent cognates with very different meanings or interpretations. Like actual which is Spanish for "currrent" in English, not for "actual" (in English).
Apparent? The faux amis that I grew up WERE cognates dating back to 1066, but spun off on tangents.
My favorite (?) İs an interpreter FAİL from an old Gérard Depardieu interview: ”assisté à un viol." Giggle Translate, for once, doesn't stoop to "assisted," but still fails.
Back to Duolingo. The Spanish course often frustrated me by first introducing a word in my limited (SoCal) vocabulary and later switching to the obvious cognate: manejar instead of conducir, caro/coche instead of automovile, etc.
AFAIK "Don't" is not a synonym of "Don't bother" and "That won't be necessary". The former expresses an order/request to not do something and the second expresses a decline of an invitation.
Example 1:
- I'll kill him when I find him!
- Please don't!
Example 2:
- Please, take a seat.
- Don't bother / That won't be necessary.
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But it's said quite often in English. Even though i would prefer to say "Mom, don't. " unfortunately they marked it wrong for some reason. Anyway, there may be a situation where mom is doing something that requires not to do a particular thing. We don't really know that.
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So this expression could mean, don't do it mom, it's not necessary mom, it is not needed mom, or if you want to use a polite form, Mom, please don't?
In addition to the other examples, I've also seen it being translated in a game to "please", as in "please stop". Scenario: someone's dad is angry at you, that someone says to his dad: "папа, не надо", which was translated as "dad, please".
It's fundamentally the same meaning, but slightly different intention.
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All my life I've heard Brazilian people, and I've thought it sounds like Spanish, buuuut, two years ago I met people from portugal, in the caribbean, and I thought before to know it, they may be from some Slavic country ... Portugues frome Portugal is not Similar to Spanish, it sounds like, to me, Russian or somthing as Bulgarian. I'm spanish native speaker
222
I thought the same on several occasions, but was not sure whether other people perceive it like that. Nice to know I am not alone. :)
I found the "Don't, mom" offered as the answer (it was a word-picking exercise for me) to be rather confusing regarding the meaning in English, as it is a phrase I have seldom seen in use, me being a non-native. An easier to understand alternative would have been maybe "no thanks" or "don't worry". Well, at least I guess I'm learning English AND Russian!
40
When my dad was learning Russian, he said that if the o was not in the stressed syllable, it would sound like an a. It works every time. Try it.
I agree with you. However...
...in english you will typically infer the pronoun of "you" if it is omitted (e.g. "Please eat," really means, "You, please eat," most of the time.
And you can infer the verb "to do" if a verb is omitted. e.g. if you open the door or point at a chair and say only, "Please," it means "You, please, enter | sit | take some action" So, "don't, mom," really means, "You, mom, don't do anything."
But, i don't like this question either :-)
17
I think of it like this: In English, I pronounce the word "potato" like "pə-tA-tO". The only way you know from reading how to say it is if you're familiar with the word. If you go around saying "pO-tah-tO", people will look at you funny.
I find this thread interesting because I still don't understand the usage in Russian. In American English, you might only say, "Don't, Mom," if your Mom is doing, or going to do, something you don't want her to do. And it wouldn't be polite. You would say it at the end of your patience with her. Imagine your mom comes to visit you, you eat dinner together. Then she starts doing your dishes. First, you would say, "Mom, don't worry about that. I'll do it later." She continues to do it, then maybe you say, ""Mom, please don't." Then she still does't listen to you and you command her, "Don't, Mom." Neither of you are happy. So, my question is, "не надо, мама" or "не надо" in general a way to say, "Stop what you are doing." Or is it meant to sound like a more polite, "Hey, there is no need to do that." (The connotation being: Don't worry. I/we someone else will do it.) So, in Spanish it might be "No importa" or "No te preocupes."
We have already given examples of how and where to use this expression. A couple of negative examples and a couple of neutral ones.
For example, during my childhood, children were fairly often physically punished, for a very serious misconduct their parents could hit the child with a hand or a belt on the buttocks. And the child then could ask/beg or shout/cry/yell "Не надо!".
Or you see that someone was about to jump from a bridge or from a building. And you shout "Парень, подожди, не надо, не делай этого!"
Or (an almost unbelievable case :)) the waiter in the restaurant decided to return the change you left to him as a tip. And you say: "Спасибо, не надо."
Or in the store you are offered to buy goods for sale that you don’t need, and you say “Нет, не надо.”
Or that example with mom and doing dishes. It's really polite to say "Не надо, мама."
It is not as rude in Russian as the same in English. How rough this sounds will depend on the intonation and context. You can say it affectionately, and then it does not sound rude, it will be quite polite. But if you rudely shout it, then it would not be polite: "НЕ НАДО!!!" But there are cases when it is required to use this expression with a sufficiently strong and possibly rude intonation. This will be a request, turning into an order. Therefore, this one expression, depending on intonation, can mean all the options listed by you. But this is not an idiom. And this is not the only way to disagree with what is happening. It’s just the most straightforward and concise way. You can also say "Мама, не беспокойся об этом. Я сделаю это позже сам."="Mom, don't worry about that. I'll do it later." Or "Мама, (пожалуйста), не сто́ит (этого делать)."/"Мама, не убирай/не мой, пожалуйста." (If you specify exactly for your example with doing/washing dishes)="Mom, please don't."
Thank you, Alexey914898, for the detailed explanation. I am very new to learning Russian and am really enjoying it. "Не надо" seems really flexible. Thanks for the additional phrases! Спасибо!
As a native English speaker, this translation really confused me at first. It sounds like the mother is doing something wrong instead of doing something uneeded If this phrase is supposed to be telling your mother that something isn't needed, "it's ok" or "that's not necessary" would make a lot more sense to me personally. Without any context, "don't _" can be perceived as rude or demanding
Russian pronunciations come in two main variants: аканье and оканье. аканье is the standard one, and distinguishes itself by merging the sounds of the vowels "а" and "о" when they're unstressed. So, stressed "о" and "а" sounds as you would expect. Unstressed "о" and "а" sound the same, like a schwa (ie. not exactly an "a", but close).
The stress of "надо" falls in the "а", meaning that the "о" is reduced and sounds like if you were saying "nada".
If you're thinking: "damn! this won't help me at all when learning", you're not alone ;-)
unfortunately, as in English where the word Dove can mean a bird or past tense of dive and is pronounced with different stress on the O depending on usage, we only know that because we were taught the different pronunciations based on context. A new English speaker has to learn that. Same with Live - I Live in..... the show is Live - different context, different pronunciation - confusing for new students. so many examples, copper - o sounds like ah, cope o sounds like oh. so this is not new stuff - but we're on the other end now having to learn when its stressed. There are books that discuss this - beginner's books and children school books use a mark above the stressed vowel but more advanced texts don't use the marks as it's assumed you have learned it. "Russian course, a complete course for beginners" helped me understand it. (хорошо is my favorite russian example where the first two o's are pronounces ah and the last one is oh) also, there is a website called forvo.com where you can type in or copy and paste in, a russian word and it will bring up audio clips of native speakers saying the word - not EVERY word is on there but I've usually found what I'm looking for.
I think it would be better to translate "Не надо" as "Don't do it" or "I/we/they needn't it". In this context: "Не надо, мама" we can say "Don't do it Mom". But we should know more about the situation. For example, a kid is going to walk with his friends. The mother is saying: "Take a scarf!" ('Возьми шарф!' in Russian) And the kid is saying: "I needn't it Mom" - "Не надо, мама!". In the same situation if the mother is going to tie a scarf to the kid, he can say "Don't do it, Mom!" - "Не надо, мама!"
In English, "it's not necessary" and "don't do it" mean very different things: the first it is a polite refusal of an offer, the second is an order not to do something. Examples:
Dialogue 1
- Do you want some help?
- It is not necessary.
Dialogue 2
- I will jump from the last floor of this building.
- Don't do it!
Are both meanings expressed by this Russian sentence?
It means no need mom, Не = No and Надо = need. I speak Russian as a second language
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Am I the only one confused by this sentence? I have been traveling the world for years, talk regularly with native and non native english speakers from all countries, and never ever heard "Don't mom".
I can't think of a real use case for this sentence other than a child whose mother is about to throw away his favorite toy...
It's an acceptable phrase in English but I think it's being used wrong here. "Don't person" is a demand, it's the same as telling someone to stop and the "do that" after "don't" is implied. As a native English speaker, it's something I don't hear too often but have said myself. I'm by no means an expert, but I hope that (hopefully correct) explanation helps a bit
It would be something like "not necessary, mom", literally.
The words are pretty common. The only strange one here could be "надо" ("necessary") it can be used for example to say "I need to ".
Example: "I need to go to the bank" -> "Мне надо поити в банк", which would literally translate as "to me is necessary to walk to the bank" (as far as I know, it's always used in this passive way)
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Mummy was marked incorrectly. Why is Duo so limited and only prefers the American English???
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Фраза вырвана из контекста. Возможно тысяча ситуаций, в которых этот ответ приемлем, но они могут по разному интерпритироваться. Дуо пытается объять необъятное, и у него это не всегда получатся. Я уже бросил арабский по тому как он здесь предлагается - без грамматики. Как и в арабском, произношение на русском желает много лучшего. За попытку преподавать русский - пять, за исполнение - двойка. Надеюсь, Дуо, поймет.
I think I remember it being used as "Don't worry" rather than "Don't". "Don't" to me is much more of a cautionary order than a pleasantry, which this has always been to me since my studies for the Air Force in the 60s, or has it somehow changed? It is not as if either I had kept up, which I didn't (this is my first refresher after 57 years, or that language doesn't change, which it certainly does. This is just my interpretation of my interpretation.
This phrase doesn't make sense, at least not in the given translation as "Don't". You do not simply say "Don't" in English if you do not need it. You'd rather say "No need."
This translation as "Don't" is very confusing and seems wrong as "Don't!" is rather a very strong Warning! not to do something, i.e., aiming to stop someone from doing that particular thing.
It has nothing to do with "no need".
Duo blundered here.