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it accepts "a taxi" or "taxis". it's the article thing, the app is real stickler for articles
That's interesting, checking my dictionary (ABBYY Lingvo if anyone's interested, it's a good app), такси does not decline at all -- are there any other nouns that do this?
Yes, lots. They are typically loanwords that happened to have an unfortunate ending that doesn't belong anywhere: пальто, радио, кофе, шоссе, какао, кенгуру, кафе, меню, фортепиано, кашпо, жалюзи, рефери, атташе...
Nice, I can recognize many French words here (paletot, radio, café, chaussée, cacao, kangourou, menu, fortepiano, jalousie, attaché), but I have no idea if they have the same meaning!
505
Why can't радио, кофе, or in general loanwords ending in е or о be declined just like normal neuter nouns? I can see why меню, кенгуру, жалюзи, etc cannot be declined, since those are "invalid" russian endings, but о and е should be fine...
I don't know, it just doesn't work. There is some notion of what sounds “good” and what doesn't, and if I try to form oblique forms, they don't sound good at all. It's probably related to why you can't say “I will win” with «победить» or “34 watches” with «часы», but “we will win” and “35 watches” are absolutely fine.
On the other hand, there is some tendency to decline the undeclinable (because undeclined forms sometimes sound awkwardly imprecise), so it's not impossible to hear «нет там жалюзей»... which is absolutely unacceptable as far as dictionaries are concerned (and is really bad Russian, so don't do that), but phonetically is OK.
But I'm an armchair linguist, so take this with a cubic metre of salt.
The same in Polish, some time ago words "radio", "metro", "kakao" were undeclinable. Now it is changing, "radio" and "metro" decline even in dictionaries - but "kakao" is still undeclinable (some people say "kakaa", "kakaem" - but it can be acceptable "only in very informal Polish". I think these words were treaten as foreign in Slavic languages, but now they have been used for such a long time that for people they became "native" and that's why they decline them (prof. Jan Miodek, a popular Polish linguist, writes it is a natural process). In Polish it already happened, maybe in Russian it will take more time? But if now these are bad forms, we should learn as good Russian as we can ;)
There are tips and notes for every lesson, but they are only visible in the web app. https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ru/Possessive-Modifiers-1
Tips and notes
POSSESSIVE ENEMY MINE
There isn't much to say about words like "my" or "your" in Russian.
his/her/their do not change: его́, её, их(and they don't get an initial Н after prepositions!)
my/your/our roughly follow an adjectival pattern, i.e. they copy the gender and the case of the noun they describe. Just like этот:
>>мой/твой/наш папа
>>моя́/твоя́/на́ша ма́ма
Unlike English, no distinction is made between my and mine, her and hers etc.
Pronunciation: in «его», as well as in adjective endings and "сегодня" the letter Г is pronounced В. It is a historical spelling.
GRAMMATICAL GENDER
Nouns in Russian belong to one of three genders: feminine, masculine or neuter. If a noun means a person of a certain gender, use that one. For all other nouns look at the end of the word:
(TABLE) ENDING IN NOM; GENDER; EXAMPLES
-а/-я ; feminine ; ма́ма, земля́, Росси́я, маши́на
consonant ; masculine ; сок, ма́льчик, чай, интерне́т, апельси́н
-о/-е ; neuter ; окно́, яйцо́, мо́ре
-ь ; feminine or masculine - consult a dictionary ; ло́шадь, ночь, мать, любо́вь / день, конь, медве́дь, учи́тель
IF THERE'S A SOFT SIGN, IT ISN'T POSSIBLE TO PREDICT THE GENDER, AT LEAST, NOT ACCURATELY. HOWEVER, ABOUT 65-70% OF THE MOST USED NOUNS THAT END IN -Ь ARE FEMININE. ALSO, YOU CAN LEARN THE COMMON SUFFIXES ENDING IN A SOFT SIGN THAT PRODUCE A WORD OF A PREDICTABLE GENDER. THEY ARE:
-ость/-есть, -знь → feminine
-тель, -арь, -ырь → masculine
ALL NOUNS WITH -ЧЬ, ЩЬ, -ШЬ, -ЖЬ AT THE END ARE FEMININE. THE CONVENTION IS TO SPELL FEMININE NOUNS WITH A SOFT SIGN AND MASCULINE ONES WITHOUT ONE: НОЖ, ЛУЧ, МУЖ, ДУШ. IT DOESN'T AFFECT PRONUNCIATION, ANYWAY.
Can в такси mean both "inside the taxi vehicle" and "currently taking a taxi" (as in English, "I'm on the train"), or does it explicitly and only mean the first one?
Nothing is is in genitive case here. Дети is in nominative, такси is prepositional case.
Из русского предложения невозможно понять, что дети находятся в нескольких такси. Логика подсказывает, что дети находятся в одном такси: Your children are in the taxi.
You could use твои (rhymes with "i-ee", used for plural nouns) (not твой, which rhymes with boy and is for masculine nouns) if you were talking to an individual with whom you were already familiar, like a friend. Ваши works if you're talking to two people (like both parents) or are being formal.
Use твой when you'd use ты (speaking to one person with whom you are familiar); use ваш when you'd use вы (speaking to multiple people, or when addressing someone formally like a teacher, supervisor, stranger, etc.).
Твое is for singular neuter nouns in the nominative case; ваше is for singular neuter nouns in the nominative case.
I believe in order they are the formal version of your in Plural, Neuter, and Masculine. The Feminine being ваша.
i wrote : your kids are in taxi Correct solution is : Your kids are in taxis wtf is wrong with you xD?
Because in English you either have to say "a taxi" or "the taxi", with an article, if you're talking about a single taxi. In plural, you can say "They are in taxis", though it sounds a bit odd just because of the meaning of the sentence. Russian does not use articles in this manner.
ok so typical problem of duolingo witouth native speak of english u cant do any courses :D also with some porblem like dislexia :D 1 letter mistake and all sentence is wrong so anoying
- 1209
Hmm... Given that «такси» is indeclinable, and «ваши» here refers to «дети», how would you indicate plural taxis in the Russian here? i.e. "Your children are in the taxis [pl]", as opposed to "Your children are in the taxi [sg]"
Really the only way would be to add adjectives to такси, as then the adjectives would have to decline based on the number and case (они в разных такси for instance).
- 1209
Sneaky, I like it! Thanks for the reply. Just making sure I wasn't overlooking something obvious.
The е in ваше will sound more like something between "uh" and "eh" (just like in Porsche), while the и in ваши is an "ee".
Why sons isn't allowed? Отцы и дети is a Russian masterpiece of literature and it is translated as Fathers and Sons.
It's a traditional translation of the title, but it doesn't mean that it is literal or correct . "Дети" means "children", not "sons".
