"This is a cheese knife; this is a fish knife."
Translation:Это нож для сыра; это нож для рыбы.
29 Comments
I feel like they should have either provided a much better dictionary hint or change the English sentance to "This knife is for cheese; this knife is for fish".
I wondered the same thing... Except for perhaps an adjective implies a 'cheesy knife" or "fishy knife" instead of a knife that is used for cheese or fish, which для brings out clearly. But thinking "in English" these seem OK to me.
But a google shows this form can be used, it seems: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сырный_нож
I was doing these as strenghthening excercises. The programme would not accept following answer:
это сырный нож, а это рыбный нож
It is very hard to predict what kind of answer is needed
"Сырный" and "рыбный" are adjectives that sound more like "cheesy" and "fishy"... to describe the purpose (I think that's the word...?), in Russian you have to use "для" (+ genitive). [Or at least that's what I understood!]
Is a semi-colon ever used in Russian in this way like English to connect two independent clauses together without a conjunction, or is this simply a literal (and at the same time unnatural) translation?
Yes. Here’s my ad hoc translation of the paragraph from the rules (available here or here):
§ 130. A semicolon is used before two independent clauses, joined together in a complex sentence without using the conjunctions, especially when such clauses are extended and have commas (about the comma between independent clauses, joined together in a complex sentence, see §§ 137 и 138), for example:
Ме́жду тем чай был вы́пит; давно́ запряжённые ко́ни продро́гли на снегу́; ме́сяц бледне́л на за́паде и гото́в уж был погрузи́ться в чёрные свои́ ту́чи, вися́щие на да́льних верши́нах, как клочки́ разо́дранного за́навеса. (Лермонтов) / Meanwhile the tea was all drunk; the horses, harnessed long ago, were chilled on the snow; the moon was hanging pale to the west and was ready to dive into its black clouds, suspended on the far peaks like the scraps of a torn curtain. (Lermontov)
Всё вокру́г засты́ло в кре́пком осе́ннем сне; сквозь серова́тую мглу чуть видны́ под горо́ю широ́кие луга́; они разре́заны Во́лгой, переки́нулись че́рез неё и расплы́лись, раста́яли в тума́нах. (М. Горький) / Everything around was frozen in the sound autumn’s sleep; the wide meadows were hardly visible under the hill through a greyish haze; they were cut by Volga, leaped through it and got blurred, melted in the mist. (M. Gorky)
Why can't you say "Это нож сыра" to mean "This is a cheese knife"? Nor can you say "Это нож рыбы" to mean "This is a fish knife" ?
This would sound extremely strange, as if Cheese and Fish are some people's nicknames and they own some knives.
They are genitive.
Это is used to mean "This is a " ot "These are s" for all genders and for plurals.
«Это кошка» «Это хлеб» «Это масло» «Это лошади» all use это because they're all just stating what things are.
You use это/эта/этот/эти when you are saying something about a specific thing, not just stating what it is.
«Эта кошка ест» «Этот хлеб вкусный» «Это масло тает» «Эти лошади любят есть»
265
I've spoken Russian for more than 30 years and I must say, this explanation makes no sense. Care to elaborate?
Olimo has already written a nice text about it: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/11536858
- 265
Well, I'd say this particular sentence suits quite well for the other interpretation, too. You're comparing or juxtaposing two knives saying that one of them is meant for performing one function, the other for another.
(Although, in the way people actually speak, I've never noticed anyone making that difference. Most Russians I've met would use этот and это here quite equally. Might be regional differences or smth.)
As an originally native speaker (who admittedly has forgotten a lot of grammar with lack of recent practice), swapping это for этот in this sentence changes the meaning subtly. In the default version as above with это, you're just saying "this is a cheese knife, this is a fish knife" as a basic explanation. If you swap to этот, however, you'd be emphasising the difference, like if you had to explain a second time because someone misunderstood or did it wrong.
- 265
Yeah, well, but I'd say you can also easily understand the English sentence in that way. (At least I did.)
Формально - да, но так никогда не говорят. "Сырный пирог" и "рыбный пирог" более уместно, но в основном все же "пирог с сыром" и "пирог с рыбой".
ни разу в жизни не использовала фразы "нож для рыбы/сыра". для меня это звучит слишком длинно. сырный нож, рыбный нож, хлебный нож. единственный нож, который приходит в голову - это "масловый нож" - вот это, действительно, звучит очень не по-русски, остальные же варианты "ножей" - крайне приемлемы!
More random word practice without any preceding study or explanation. "Для" has never been discussed before. Why do stupid things like this?
"a cheese knife" means a style (with a curve and 2 points) not a purpose (for cheese). "нож для сыра" sounds like "knife for cheese". Does it really mean a style, or just means "for cheese"?
Is there a difference in how you would say, "this is a cheese knife," versus "this knife is for cheese" in Russian? Would the latter be "Этот нож для сыра"?
