"They are women."
Translation:Они - женщины.
32 Comments
Why can I not use это? Just a few questions ago, it asked me to translate "those are women", and it accepted это for that. As a native English speaker, I don't see any difference between "those are women" and "they are women".
I'd say it depends on the context. If you are talking about them for a while you won't say, "Yes, but those are women, they should be aware of blah blah blah". "they are women" sounds much better here, and I think it's the same little nuance in Russian. Tell me if I'm wrong 'cause I'm French x)
Yeah, that's true. But Duolingo doesn't have any context, so it should accept both, I guess.
It seems like it wants the most literal and direct translation in most cases
Someone help me with the cases please. When do we use женщина instead of женщины ? Thanks for your help!
In this case, it's because it's plural Women, whilst женщина would be singular woman. Judging from your levels, I'm assuming that you're starting in English?
Russian uses different suffixes instead of prepositions for plural and different relationships between nouns and verbs. I found it useful to look up the technical terms and definitions for some of the cases in English, Grammatical Cases on Wikipedia was quite a good starting point. All the suffixes in Russian follow rules in how they're constructed, unlike English where there's sometimes more exceptions to the rule. Just gotta learn and practice the rules and you'll get the hang of it ^^
Why do they have a - in between certain words? Just trying to understand it why.
In Russian, the present form of the verb "to be" (English: is, are, am) is often omitted completely. The "-" indicates that the verb was omitted in that sentence. The dash is not always used ("Они женщины." is valid), but it's used in Duolingo for clarity.
Think of a literal translation, "They women." In English it sounds like fake "caveman talk", but the meaning is still understandable. The verb is just not considered necessary in Russian unless a non-present tense or other inflection is needed.
If you can't find it, this is not a Russian keyboard propably. Remember, many languages use Cyrillic alphabet, maybe you are using a Ukrainian keyboard, and Ukrainian does not have this letter. Take a look and see the name of the language written on the keyboard space bar, if it is written "Русский", then there must be some error, which I believe it is not.
Ы ы
That's about as close as you can get with English transliteration. "ы" is not a sound we have in English
"Ы" is approximate to a very fast rendition of "oo-ee" (a diphthong), shrinking that to the length of a single vowel. Try saying the sound "ooh" while quickly sliding your tongue forward.
I think that even Russians find "ы" to be a humorous letter. There was a film i saw once, sort of a Russian-language three stooges sketch, called Операция Ы ("Operation Ы") -also, my personal preference is to pronounce "Мы" by pronouncing "mih" and "mwih" at the same time.
The щ here sounds like "sh," rather than "shch." Is that because it's in the middle of the word? Is that always going to be the case?
What's the difference between "Они есть женщины" and "Они женщины" without "есть"? Without this latter it seems to me the verb is omitted!
Она means "She (is)" you would use this like if you're saying "She is a woman". However "Они" means "They (are)" and in the sentence "Они ‒ женщины" means "They are women." Hope this helps
You can use the letter "y" if you're typing in the Latin alphabet. Duolingo accepts this transliteration. Они - женщины = Oni - zhenshiny
For anyone wondering how to transliterate the Russian characters here, you can use the letter "y" if you're typing in the Latin alphabet. Duolingo accepts this transliteration. Они - женщины = Oni - zhenshiny
I was taking a test to skip a level, and answered "Они женщины" and it was marked incorrect. That is so unfair.
