"Извините, у вас есть яблоки?"
Translation:Excuse me, do you have apples?
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I believe Вас is formal. If you were to say 'you' (singular) in objective form to a person you don't know it would be вас. If you know someone like your mom, or friend you would use тебя.
Hmm wonder if duo accepts "ye" and "y'all" for this, as it does in irish plural you ... didn't what to break my streak to find out, lol, but I'll try next time.
Also, «Вас» is always capitalized when singular:
ты / тебя - singular, casual
Вы / Вас - singular, respectful
вы / вас - plural
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:
Спасибо! In spanish is at the contrary- if you say "las manzanas son rojas"(apples are red) is speaking in general,indefinite. Common mistake trying to express in english
Извините, Could you make a verb conjugator like they have in the German Duolingo. That would be 'очень отлично'
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
Why only 'excuse me' and not 'pardon me' as a translation. They are quite interchangeable in English.
Since "apple" is a Neuter word, and we don't know exactly how many apples there are, don't we use the Nominative plural, for a word ending with "о", "яблока"?
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.
If you wanted to say "my dog has a ball" would you say, "у моей собаки есть мяч"? Do the possessive pronouns act as adjectives and change to genitive for the noun 'собаки'?
No, they don't have to be together, but the word order in a Russian sentence works to highlight the main part of it, so in most occasions it's best to have them together. Depends on what you're trying to emphasize.
Isn't "есть" a bit overused in these examples?
I talked a bit with russian speakers (allthough Ukrainian) and they rarely use est, also when we had books at school, older releases would just say "У тебе ХХХ" while newer ones would say "У тебе есть ХХХ".
Any reason for this?
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."
If you mean Извините (izvinite) and Извини (izvini) then yes, it is the same verb (perfective: Извинить. Imp.: Извинять.) The first is conjugated for formal / plural second person (you), the latter is informal "you".
Yes, вы is formal and this sentence sounds more respectful than "у тебя есть?".
