"Извините, у вас есть яблоки?"
Translation:Excuse me, do you have apples?
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Вас is both formal, and plural. "У вас есть яблока" could be said to aomeone about just that person, or about them, and someone else (both of them as a group).
Also in some families they speak formally within families aswell. My grandmother once thought I said "вы" refering to just her, and got rather upset, when I was reffering to her, and my grandfather; whereas some of my Russian friends speak formally to their grandmother and speak to her "на вы".
In sentences like 'у вас есть X' X would usually be translated as indefinite clause, unless specified (У вас есть яблоки, про которые я спрашивал? ; У вас есть те/эти яблоки? ). 'Do you have the apples' is most likely to be translated as 'Яблоки у вас?' It is to do with topic and comment. In neutral word order in Russian topic (the understood/known part or the theme of the sentence) comes first and comment (the new part) comes second. F.eks. for 'Do you have apples?' there is obvously you(topic), but what I want to know (what is supposed to be new information, i.e. comment) is if there are any (what could it be, what could it be) apples in your posession. And for 'Do you have the apples?' there are these certain apples I came here having in mind (topic), so what I want to know(comment) is of all possible people is that (wait for it..) YOU who has them?
Really hope I haven't made it any more complicated. With love and respect, for my new duo bestie :sparksle: ;sprakles:
That would be great, as they also have in the Italian course. But, since the Russian course doesn't have it, I use the http://cooljugator.com/ru/ for each new verb I learn here, which is a great tool
That is an interesting question, actually :) Your logic is right for most neuter words, however, nominative plural for 'яблоко' is 'яблоки'. Wikipedia says it is a remnant of the dual number. Same goes for few other words. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_declension#Irregular_plural_forms
Also I have thought about it, and most neuter words with a diminutive suffix ending with -ко have -и ending in Nom Pl: окошко (little window) - окошки, колечко (little ring) - колечки, личико (little face) - личики.
The reason for 'есть' to be in this particular phrase is the topic and comment stuff Bararoom wrote about up this thread.
"У тебя ХХХ?" - would mean that I know we have the XXX, but it's not on me, so the question is whether it is on you or we lost it. Like we did our grocery shopping and we bought some apples, and when we came home I can't find the apples in the bags I brought, so I basically ask you to check if the apples are in your bags. "ХХХ у тебя?" - would be an equally good variant for that as well.
"У тебя есть ХХХ?" - would mean that I DO NOT know if we have the XXX. Well, at least I don't know whether you have it or not. So I'm asking.
The latter could be a conversation in the mentioned grocery shop: "Excuse me, do you have apples?" - "Yes, apples are over there." / "Извините, у вас есть яблоки?" - "Да, яблоки вон там."