"За ними стоит женщина."

Translation: A woman is standing behind them.

[JosephStylinn]

Aren't both answers correct? Can't you also say За ним стоит женщина?

[deactivated user]

> Can't you also say За ним стоит женщина?

Only if «them» refers to a single person. I’m not sure how widespread singular 'they' is in English; I guess the course creators didn't take it into account. You should probably report this sentence next time you get it.

[CTO_COB]

Yes, the drop-down version of this asks to choose "За [ним/ними] стоит женщина" - both options are grammatically valid.

[pankrates]

Yes I had exactly the same options and I was confused too

[Tina_in_Bristol]

And me! If you do not see any English, there is no way to work out whether it's "him" or "them" the woman is standing behind. I have only learnt by repeatedly getting it wrong that this question expects "them". But I can't see any way to deduce that, unless it is a convention that where you can't tell, "them" is preferable.

[a1amoeba]

What is this drop down version you're talking about?

[person11281]

Wouldn't «За ним стоит женщина» mean "A woman is standing behind him"?

[deactivated user]

Right.

However, English 'them' can refer to a single person when making generalizations, talking about people of unknown gender, talking about non-binary people or whatnot; Russian usually uses masculine pronouns for making generalisations and talking about people of unknown gender, so in some contexts 'behind them' can be translated as «за ним».

[jake3389]

I don't think that was the problem. It was a drop down exercise, so both answers looked correct.

[ironmanjt]

Why is "behind them stands a woman" not right?

[BillLC]

Slightly unnatural word order, but not grammatically incorrect

[nominusJPG]

With thou Shakespeare would like to have a word.

[LobsterGhost]

As far as I know, the instrumental form of они is ими. So is it a rule that you always say ними if the previous word ends in a vowel?

[Jonathan872201]

I believe it's ними because it follows a preposition.

[Sam_Hudge]

Any native speaker please help me, why it's pronounced "стОит" in this sentence? I remember that in another sentence in Russian course, it's pronounced "стАит".

[GennadiyUr]

you can pronounce стоит and стаит, but in terms of grammar 'стоит' is correct, not стаит.

[DanielCant288913]

Behind them a woman is standing

[Stephanie-France]

First I had the Russian sentencevto translate into English. No way to know that ним would nit be accepted!

[Stephanie-France]

Sorry I mixed it up: first time I encountered the exercise I had to put a word in the Russian sentence. Amongst the choices I had ними and ним. No way to know which one to choose, but Duo rejected "ним".

[Adam82-]

There is a lady behind them is not accepted

[gusmcclain]

Can you say 'they are standing in front of her' instead?

[BillLC]

That would be a different sentence, even though it describes the same situation.

[ngochung72]

Is "за"used with instrumental? I thought it is used with genitive.

[kmarkec]

if im correct, "за" with accusative is "for", whereas with instrumental it is "behind"

[ElnSxV]

Why not 'behind them stands a woman "?

[shay449144]

why is behind us is wrong?

[deactivated user]

• за на́ми — behind us,
• за ни́ми — behind them.

[branabol]

Have a look into any dictionary! За ними стоит !!! женщина. A woman is standing behind them! How will you translate: За ними есть женщина. / За ними лежит женщина. / За ними седит женщина. ??? И так дальше...

[deactivated user]

«A woman is standing behind them» — это предпочтительный вариант перевода. Именно он и показан, если прокрутить страницу выше.

У любого предложения есть несколько вариантов перевода. Когда вы вводите неправильный вариант, Вам показывается не наилучший, а наиболее похожий на Ваш.

И, пожалуйста, не забывайте про правило сообщества (см. Community Guidelines) ‘Always be respectful’. Даже если в курсе что-то и не так, это не повод посылать людей в словари и ожидать, что кто-то будет догадываться о Вашей мысли. Достаточно просто вежливо сообщить об ошибке, не нужно восклицательных знаков.

Не ошибается только тот, кто ничего не делает. В курсе, как и везде, бывают ошибки. Это не повод возмущаться. :)

[JudithMett2]

Can one not just as well translate as - 'behind them stands a woman'?

[alex.maslov]

a woman stays behind them - rejected. Who knows why?