"Where is water here?"
Translation:Где здесь вода?
10 Comments
"Где вода здесь" wasn't counted as correct. Is it actually wrong (word order), or should it be correct as well?
It's not outright wrong, but sounds less natural.
So order in this case would be "what you want to know about requested item, location of requested item, requested item"? So if I were to ask, is the water red here, I would not go with the Google translation of "красная вода здесь?" but with "красная здесь вода?", is that correct?
No, that's not. «Красная вода здесь?» sounds more natural. If the question is a general question (unless you use «ли»), then you'd generally use the same word order as in the statement:
- If the statement is «Красная вода здесь» (The red water is here), the question would be «Красная вода здесь?».
- If the statement is «Красная здесь вода» (It's water that is red here; with вода emphasised by intonation), then the question would be «Красная здесь вода?».
- If the statement is «Красная здесь вода» (The water here is red; with кра́сная emphasised by intonation), then the question would be «Красная здесь вода?» (Is the water here red?).
When there's a question word in a question, you move that question word to the beginning:
- If the statement is «Красная вода здесь», the question would be «Где красная вода?» 'Where's [the] red water?', because «где» is moved to the beginning.
Thanks for the explanation, szeraja_zhaba! I'll try and remember this. You've definitely written it up clearly. Now I just have to incorporate this into my understanding and apply it correctly. :)
"Where is water here' sounds unnatural in English. - rather use "where is the water here?"
Not necessarily. If there's a body of water here and you want to know where it is, yes. If you're just thirsty and wanting some water to drink, then to me it sounds entirely normal to ask "Where is water here?".
I have to agree with revel77. If I read "Where is water here?" I hear it in my head with a Russian accent, because it's lacking the article. "Where is the water here?" would be more correct.
It might be more correct, but it's not what I normally hear. Actually, what I normally here would be someone asking "Is there water here", or "Where is water". But to be consistent with myself other places, maybe I should agree with you and say we should use correct English.
