"Я уже ем."
Translation:I am already eating.
76 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
956
Because sometimes I find it harder to express myself, lol.
But I'll try to think it is German xD
When I first learned German thirty years ago (wow I feel old writing that), the lack of distinction between present simple and continuous was jarring (though less so than the lack of distinction between present and past perfect). Eventually you just get used to it. I think that will be the least of my issues learning Russian, as everything else is so different from any language I've ever studied before.
I was asked to translate to English, wrote "I already am eating" and my translation was not accepted. The official answer was "I already eat." Okay.
Then, I was requested to write in English the translation to: Я уже ем. Tried "I already eat". Now the correct answer was: "I am already eating."
Come on...
15
"I already am eating" was marked correct. 28DEC2021 I came here to view what alternate responses were allowed and DL's preferred way.
"I already eat" or "I eat already" should be acceptable also.
You can't come to the discussion to find out what is or isn't accepted. Sure, you might find some people stating, "X is/isn't accepted," but 1) that doesn't tell you everything that is (most sentences have hundreds or even thousands of acceptable translations, and I am responsible for entering many of them) 2) no matter how many comments you see about "translation X," there's no final state. We add (and, if necessary, subtract) things that are accepted all the time. The comments don't and can't reflect that. 3) you can't trust every comment. Many times what people say isn't accepted actually is. They just didn't enter exactly what they think they did. People unintentionally make typos or other small mistakes (especially with the exercise where you select the word tiles), and autocorrect doesn't help.
All that to say that "I already eat" and "I eat already" are in fact currently accepted, regardless of what any comments here might say.
1214
Are you sure it is incorrect? I thought it was just a more emphatic word order (i.e. "You should eat something." "But I already AM eating!")
Well, yes, but the same is true of "I am already eating." It is natural enough to say: "I am already eating plenty of fruits and vegetables." But it is not natural to say "I am already eating dinner," or "I am already eating the cake - sorry, were you saving it for something?" A native English speaker would say "I am in the middle (of eating) dinner," or "I just ate some of the cake - sorry, were you saving it for something?"
1017
Why isn't it я уже ест To denote eating rather than eat?
The thing i did immediately before this one introduced ест as eating, so this one i got wrong bc if it's "I'm already eating" 'eating' is used to denote presently doing it
Alternatively, why doesn't Я уже ем mean "i already ate"? Although i would suppose a third word for 'ate' would make more sense so there'd be a difference between 'eat' and 'ate'
"ест" is a "he/she/it" form. "He is eating" - "Он ест".
"ем" is an "I" form. "I am eating" - "Я ем".
The past tense forms depend on the gender: "ел" is masculine, "ела" is feminine, "ели" is plural.
I ate, you ate, he ate - я ел, ты ел, он ел (masculine)
I ate, you ate, she ate - я ела, ты ела, она ела (feminine)
We ate, you ate, they ate - мы ели, вы ели, они ели
уже is generally "already," (or in negative sentences, "no longer"), but sometimes it's used for emphasis in a way that doesn't translate exactly into English. But really even in those circumstances you could think of it as "already." The meaning would be obvious, but it wouldn't sound very natural in English. So basically, I'd stick with a default of "already."
Я means I am as a literal translations. уже means already. And ем means to eat. Like the romance languages( not Portuguese) and slavic languages have words have a normal form and a conjugated form but this is just looking for a loose but strict translation.... The structure must be correct but the terms do not have to be conjugated. In spanish it is like comer versus come. Comer means to eat but come means he/she eats. Later more letters at the end will be added or changed to specify feminine or masculine. Take all of this with a grain of salt for I am not an expert but this is what I have experienced. If you want more information contact a professor at a local university or local schools that have russian classes. Google here is also your friend......
P.S. Notice I di not say that Google translate was your friend. It is the reason my Spanish homework is always wrong....
42
I should imagine it means the most used or colloquial usage. I know that what Duolingo/Google . Babbel etc give as correct can sometimes be somewhat stiff though grammatically correct. My Russian friends give me different versions ...the more colloquial ones.
1369
I noticed when looking up the declension of есть on Wiktionary that certain forms were accented differently (е́м, е́шь, еди́м, etc.) and the same for other words. Are these other ways of writing the same words or just phoneticised or something?