"Сколько там девочек?"
Translation:How many girls are there?
32 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
In this example is it a specific location, how many girls are over there in that place? Or is this how you would ask in general, how many girls exist in the scenario?
1804
This refers to how many girls there are over in that place ("there"). Там is the "there" which contrasts to the "here" of здесь or тут. While the Russian version is clear, the English version of this sentence is unfortunately ambiguous, because we use "there" to mean both a literal там location and a general sense of existence.
- 72
(Russian learner here). General existence probably with есть: Сколько есть девочек?
Maybe a native speaker can explain.
I tried translating it that way, and if we are both right, that should have been accepted.
- 1383
I wrote "How many girls are there there", and it was marked wrong. Others have apparently done the same. See this conversation. I reported it.
Came here to ask that too... My guess is there as in that place. Hopefully someone can clarify!
- 47
Usually the last word is the new info or the point of the question. It helps me to think about which word gets vocal stress in English. Сколько там девочек is "How many GIRLS [as opposed to boys, adults, etc.] are there?" But with там at the end, it would be "How many girls are THERE [as opposed to here or other places]?" Which is possible, but less likely, I think: "I know how many girls are at Location A, and how many are at Location B, but how many girls are THERE? [pointing at Location C]"
This is ridiculous. 'How many girls are there' would suffice. 'Over' is a completely unnecessary word in this context, and my answer of 'there', which was the only thing I could think of, should count.
'How many girls are there there' may sound odd, but it is perfectly proper English. Because of the bizarre ways we use words like 'there' and 'that', one can easily have a sentence which repeats the same word twice, or even three times which is grammatically correct.
I would say it sounds extremely awkward in English. In Russian it is wrong because там is only a place so literally in Russian you would be saying...at that place that place.
- 946
In russian, also informal used to teen and women. To party - informal speech acceptable.
- 949
This is a dumb question because in the english you might say how many are there, then an additional there to clarify the location, too, but this isn't accepted.
- 73
The first time around, I wrote ' how many girls are there there,' which is how I would say it in my native english. Since it was marked wrong (as was little girl), I just wrote what the course wants. ;{
Same here. I put "there" twice as it is the correct translation but it wasn't accepted. I am pretty sure there is a problem here...not there
Apostrophe is a way to write soft sign (ь) with the Latin script. Soft sign changes the pronounciation of the preceding consonant; л is «hard» l, /l/, while ль is «soft» l' sound, /lʲ/.
Compare the difference in pronounciation of some words:
Most consonants in Russian have a soft and hard pairs, e.g. кон / kon — конь / kon'.
In the past, ь was a very short i-like (or e-like) consonant, but it disappeared, changing the way consonants are pronounced. English doesn't have a notion of soft/hard consonants, so it might take some effort to understand them.
- 2471
Thank you for the in-depth explanation of the soft sign. I guess I need to review your sections on soft signs.
BTW, having the latin characters helps a lot getting a taste of the Russian language! Thanks for putting this course together.
It wasn’t me who put it — I'm just going through the forum answering the questions (it makes me happy that people learn my native language), but the course was created by people like Shady_Arc.
- 2471
My bad! Thanks for taking the time to answer my basic question! The level of detail was appreciated as I do have an understanding of soft/hard sounds from other languages.
Is 'там' in this sentence meaning 'there' as in position or 'there' as in 'exists' / more figurative if you get me
I have never seen там as anything but a place. It seems in Russian existence is always implied or understood by the context. It is just like how in Russian there is no 'the', 'a', girl. It is just girl.
- 362
Could it not mean "How many there (in that location) are girls"? Say you have a group of kids somewhere and you want to know how many of them are girls.