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- "Извините, его нет."
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Can someone please break this sentence down? I do not see 'he is away' or 'he is not here' at all.
Нет essentially means "is not" so if someone asked you "Is Mr. Johnson there," this would be a perfectly normal response, translated literally.
This sentence literally means "sorry, he isn't." so it would be an answer to a question like "is he here?"
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«Нет» is not just 'no', it's also used to express absence, like 'there is no'. So, «его нет» literally means 'there is no him'. This is not something we would say in English, so that's why it needs to be re-phrased as 'he is away'.
Why didn't DuoLingo explain this. It should've been in the notes so we know this stuff. You get a lingot
Duo does not believe in explanations. You are expected to learn by example alone.
Surprisingly enough, I've found that the things i remember most are the things i have to figure out on my own.
They do have notes on this. You press a course and then the lightbulb and you will see them explain how things work including this :)
1790
I understand "Извините, его нет" as "sorry, he is not here", but the translation says: "I am sorry, he is away", this should not be: "Извините, он делеко"? (or something like that) or it is correct for both cases?
- 905
How would you translate: a) Is he at home? Sorry he isn't. b) Is she doing her homework? Sorry she is not.
a) — Он дома?
— Нет, его нет [дома].
б) — Она делает домашние задания?
— К сожалению, нет. / К сожалению, не делает.
- 1504
When I first saw this sentence, I took it to be a short-hand form, with something like дома or здесь elided, as in его нет [дома/здесь].
No, that would be «Извините, не он» (or, depending on the context, it might be another case).
Wow, my inner existentialist translated this to "I'm sorry, he is not". I'm astounded at my own stupidity.
I also translated this as "I'm sorry, he is not,"* but not as a existential thing. It's a common wording for correcting an assertion someone has made about a third person:
"Ivan Ivanovich is the eighth winner of the Such-&-Such Award."
"I'm sorry, he is not. The Awards were canceled last year and there was no winner, so that makes Ivan Ivanovich only the seventh winner of the award."
(*I was marked wrong for this on 13 August 2018, and have reported it.)
I’m afraid this is not a possible translation.
It might teoretically work if you use nominative («он — нет»), but even that doesn’t really sound natural in your context. I’d say «Извините, это не так» ‘Sorry, it’s not true’ or something.
how would you say, "it is not his"? (as in, it is not his book or whatever)
It's kind of like in Spanish how you can say that someone "no está" or "isn't" and it means that they aren't here/ aren't around. At least that's how I understand it. Hope this helps someone.
- 1504
Он is nominative case. You need to use the genitive form, which is его (look it up on a declension table of pronouns).
Genitive is necessary because of нет. The word order is backwards from English - if if the word order were tuned to English, then it would be нет его, and you have to use genitive for words negated by нет.
Everyone if you press a course, let's say this one "Genitive" and then press the lightbulb you'll find a transcript for the lesson on how everything works. They explain it there how this works.
I got this as a listen and write. I write it perfectly but it made no sense. "Его нет" means "He is away"? Really? Perhaps in a specific context but I read it as "He isn't" which has a much more broad application for learners. Is he hungry? Is he there? Is he good? Is he sleeping? etc. Can его нет be used for these questions too?
