- Forum >
- Topic: Russian >
- "Как зовут вашу маму?"
31 Comments
Actually, «Вас» in «Как Вас зовут» is Accusative, not Genitive. But «Вас» is the same in Accusative and in Genitive (unlike «мамы»/«маму»).
It is.
Literally it's "How do [they] call your mom?".
By not using a pronoun, and using a 3rd person plural verb form, you create an indefinite-personal sentence. Such sentences are used when the person doing the action is unknown and unimportant, and are often translated into English with the passive, hence "How is your mom called?" or, more idiomatically, "What is your mom's name?"
That would rather be "Как ты зовёшь свою маму?" or "Как вы зовёте свою маму?" My mom's name is Nadezhda, but I don't call her that, for sure :-)
The direct translation is "How do (they) call your mom?" But the person asking this question just wants to know her name, so it's better to use the most common English way to ask that.
279
It's in the accusative case, because her actual name would be in the nominative case.
Они зовут вашу маму Ольга Ивановна.
If we turn the question around into a statement. (and add in the "unknown they" for clarity).
163
Is 'How do they call your mom' correct? I believe that is the literal translation of this word order...