"Какой твой любимый язык?"
Translation:What is your favorite language?
106 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Что and какой both mean "what". As a loose rule, какой means "which". The correct rule is that if a noun follows "what", use какой. If no noun follows "what", use что.
As a memory aid, the following noun's gender and number change какой. Какой precedes masculine nouns, какая precedes feminine nouns, какое precedes neuter nouns, and какие precedes plural nouns. Because что is never followed by a noun, it only changes form in different cases. If you just want to "get by," always use что for "what."
source: wikibooks
1207
When you say что is never followed by a noun, are you including pronouns? Because I'm pretty sure I've seen "что ты думаешь“ or something similar in a duo lesson
«Что ты думаешь» is fine, nothing to do with the pronoun—a noun can go there too, though it's a little weird to ask someone what a third person is thinking. Like «Что кошка думает?» isn't grammatically wrong.
When @wizwisdom talks about words following что and какой, that doesn't necessarily refer to the word immediately after. It's about pairing grammatically. Like it would be wrong to say *«Что твой любимый язык?» because что is failing to match with язык.
This sentence hits the difference between the English and Russian pairs: what vs. which is all about choosing from a fixed set, but что vs. какой is about whether it pairs grammatically with a noun later in the sentence.
1740
I believe if I'm not mistaken that какой is more along the lines of "which." So basically, "which language is your favorite" is how I interpret it
2497
Just wanting to clarify something, if you're asking "What is your favourite music?", would it be "Какая твоя любимая музыка?"?
1160
Хинди Руси - пхай-пхай! (This from soviet children book, may be meaning "indian-russian friendship". Or no? I don't know hindi.)
I think you can use ваш or у вас (and твой or у тебя in the singular / unformal form) for possession. I really prefer the possessive pronoun, closer to my native language. The form with "y" implies the genitive case, it's the equivalent of the verb "to have". So the sentence would be something like "what favorite langage do you have ?"
1223
Телефон ругается на слово favorite, говорит надо favourite. Какая разница (кроме очевидной-написания без/с u) у этих слов?
It means the same. However, the best translation likely to be accepted is the one closest to the one presented, as they may be trying to teach you a grammar form. Your favorite one was not part of the sentence. It was - which is your favorite language. Almost word for word to translate correctly in English. If you add words the robot won't recognize it.
1160
"Эта" is feminine, in this case don't be changed, "моё" is neutral, "родной язык португальский" is masculine - ok. "Это мой родной язык, португальский."