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- Topic: Russian >
- "А где вилка?"
28 Comments
I tried to think of an example, but got lost. I believe "But where is the fork?" will more likely be "Но где вилка?"
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Well would a good one be "здесь есть ложка, а где вилка?", or would you still have to use но in this case?
You use и in one phrase like: мама и папа. And you use а if there're two different phrases like: Это мама и папа, а это бабушка. If you translate а as "and" or "but" depends on the context, so you can use both as well.
When do we translate the letter "а" in sentence, because I see sometimes don't translate it.
"Где вилка?" if you mean "where is a fork?" instead "Вилка где?" if you mean "where is the fork?". The typical words order in Russian sentence is "from already known to unknown".
Former sentence "Где вилка" means that you search something, and, then, it is unspecufied fork.
Later sentence means that you are talking about already known fork, and then you ask about its position, and, not, for example, its temperature ("Вилка горячая?")
Or you can recall, that "a" is the shortening for "one" and "the" is the shortening for "this" (эта/этот/это). "Где эта вилка?" "Where is this fork?".
You can use "хотя бы одна" for emotional enhancement: "Где хотя бы одна вилка!?!?" "Where is even one fork!?!?"
In college I was taught that "а" could translate to "and" or "but." Was that wrong?
It was not wrong, but the choice between "and" and "but" depends on the context.
- и = and
- но = but
- а = and OR but (depending on the context)
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I am english native speaker (uk) and in english classes we were taught not to being sentences with following words... and, but, so, because. I think people do this all the time soeakung informally though.
"Starting the sentence with 'and' is bad english stjjfhfitshysw" , I imagine my professor screaming .
