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- Topic: Russian >
- "Why is he standing here?"
"Why is he standing here?"
Translation:Почему он здесь стоит?
23 Comments
I wrote зачем for this and it is correct, but I have troubles getting the difference with почему. I was imagining that I was asking a question about the "purpose" of him standing (to wait for someone, to catch a bus, etc.), not the cause of him being there standing (that he needs to go to class, or that he got kicked out of his house).
Here, both are possible.
Почему asks about the cause (in the past).
Зачем asks about the goal (in the future).
As far as I understand, it seems to fit relatively well with Spanish phrases:
Почему? = ¿Por qué?
Зачем? = ¿Para qué?
That's because you don't speak Spanish probably, because "para qué" is perfectly common in this language.
"Зачем тут он стоит?" was marked incorrect, evidently due to word order.
Is this word order plainly wrong, or does it just put an unusual emphasis on him standing here?
You must switch тут and он. So, "Зачем он тут стоит" would be correct. If Duolingo marks that incorrect, it may be due to the word "тут"...It wants us to use "Здесь"
I've got my Swedish word order going on, but is Зачем стоит он здесь wrong? Спасибо.
Why is "тут" not a substitute for здесь? I thought in the tips section that it, while informal, could be used just about everywhere здесь could be and also in some more esoteric places.
Or is it just a reportable error?
Reportable error. They just imagined that you would practice the use of that new word instead of coming back to здесь haha
I suppose I should complain for failure to catch my error. I spelled it стойт instead of стоит, and it only suggested a different syntax without pointing out my spelling (and pronunciation) mistake. Surely it IS an error, isn't it?
I wrote зачем он стоит здесь. Is this also correct or not? Duo accepted but suggested to switch the last two words around.
