"Is it coffee or borsch?"
Translation:Это кофе или борщ?
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I really wonder what this coffee must look like, if it might be confused with borsch ...
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If it was supposed to be borsch but looked like coffee I'd expect the word order to be reversed. (Is that borsch or coffee?) :-)
Because "борщ" is the only correct way to spell and say "borsch" in Russian.
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Where did the t come from then? My дедушка (who used to make it for when we would visit) was Russian and I'm pretty sure I was taught the word as "borscht"
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Me too. English is known for corrupting words it borrows from other languages, maybe that's all?
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Except that I learned the word from my father and his first language was Russian. -ponders- How is it said in Ukrainian?
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Hm. According to Google Translate, it's exactly the same in Ukrainian, so I don't think that's it.
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If I'm remembering right, that would be saying "Is he coffee or borscht?"
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What's the difference between этот and это? And why is этот wrong in this case?
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If I understand this correct Это means I an unspecific "a". I you ask with Этот (this specific thing) it translates to something like "Is this coffee or is the borscht.", which sounds like you ask wether any of those exists at all.
what is the difference between using кофе а борщ and using кофе а борщ? when i clicked on "or" it says either can be used but i got it wrong when i used "а".
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I don't think that 'а' corresponds to 'or' exactly - 'а' is like a cross between 'but' and 'and'. Maybe there is a particular instance where 'а' is more like 'or' - but I don't think it's this one.
Like you can say: это не кофе а борщ - That is not coffee, but borsch
But your version with 'а' above would be: 'Is it coffee but borsch?' - which as you can see from the English, doesn't work.
HOWEVER, I am not a native speaker and looking at our levels, my Russian is not better than yours - so I don't know that for sure you can't use a here - and we'll have to await further confirmation :)
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When I type in the romanized version of this sentence, it says that "borscht" is wrong. How should I spell it?
