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- "Jenny is not a girl but my c…
"Jenny is not a girl but my cat."
Translation:Дженни — это не девушка, а моя кошка.
31 Comments
777
You should use genitive only with "нет" (there is no, have no). "Не" (not a) doesn't require genitive.
У меня нет девушки. I have no girl.
Там нет девушки. There is no girl over there.
Это не девушка. It's not a girl.
Она не девушка. She is not a girl.
1714
I'm not exactly sure of this, but I think that не negates the invisible verb "is", and doesn't negate the word девушка/девочка. Why that is the case is completely unclear here, since девушка/девочка both mean a human girl, while кошка is a feline girl, so negating the fact the Jenny is not a human girl is not illogical or nonsensical.
Not sure if you know, but девочка refers to a young girl - a child, whereas девушка refers to a girl from about the age of puberty on into womanhood.
The issue with the genitive here, is that genitive would be used to say there isn't any of something, but if you are saying someone or something isn't something else, then it remains in nominative case.
256
Девушка девушки, девушке , девушкой, девушек девушками, девушкам, девушках. It's no word девушкы
2308
Но is used when there is a meaning of "despite". Учитель зашёл в класс, но дети разговаривают - The teacher entered the classroom, but kids are talking. Он не учил песню, но знает слова - He didn't learn the song, but he knows the lyrics.
1714
I want to know why you'd use это here at all.
On returning to this exercise, since I got it wrong at first, Duo accepted Дженни не девушка, а моя кошка.
Just found this and now I understand: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11536858/A-Guide-to-Using-%D0%AD%D0%A2%D0%9E
126
So all this time, duo was blaming a cat for forgetting the luggage in the subway? Smh