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- "Дима ест яйца?"
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I'm starting to feel these are specificly targeted towards people with allergens
(First read through still translates as 'Dima is an egg'. One of these days, есть!)
"Есть" is the infinitive "to eat". "Ест" is the third person singular form - he/she/it eats.
Doesn't есть mean have? Or "Exist by" as is universally used to show ownership in conversations? Such as "у нас есть яблоки"?
You're right, this is one of the most confusing words around. Есть is the infinitive "to eat", it's also the present tense form of быть "to be", as in your sentence.
Same in German. They have a saying: "Man ist was man isst." Which means, "you are what you eat."
Thanks Homie, impressive Duolingo record you have there. Oh my god is that a 186 day streak!!!!??
Well, thanks :-) Yes, that is a 186 day streak - but then I draw your attention to the 264 day streak immediately below, and the 624 day streak below that...
Edit after stumbling on this a while later: The streak died at the ripe old age of 207 days when I was without internet for a week.
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Same here. At 607 day streak the area lost internet for a week. Then, my bad left phone in locker for a day. Too bad.
How good is your Russian now with that long of a streak? Do you use ither apps?
Would anyone else find it acceptable to say "Does Dima eat egg?" In Australia anyway it seems to be perfectly common to refer to non-specific foodstuffs in the singular, much like how you would say "Do you eat cake?"
I'd say no. I can't speak for the Aussies, but to my ear, while it's often appropriate to treat foods as mass nouns in that way, it doesn't work with eggs for some reason.
I think it does, for instance, if you're checking specifically for allergies or preference. If you're talking to Dima and asking him if he eats egg, I suppose this would imply you think he's a baby, so possibly not the best place for this construction, but if you're asking his friend or mom and he's not near, then I think this'd work.
Fair enough. I have seen it used in this manner and would not find it strange or unusual to spot in a sentence. I'd give it a pass, definitely.
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[ яйцо́ ‧ Singular ] ‧ [ я́йца ‧ Plural ] ‧ Яйцо ‧ Noun Declension ‧ cooljugator.com/run/яйцо ‧ ‧ en.wiktionary.org/wiki/яйцо ‧
Countable eggs either gestationally mature, perish and reconstitute or are transformed from being an egg in some supply chain processing. Food, vaccines, paint, photographic emulsions, fertilizer, soil, waste and other products contain mass noun egg. A tempura batch starting with countable eggs results in mass noun egg as a listed base ingredient on the tempura paint tube. Countable embryo hosting egg shell transitions into mass noun eggshell.
‧ www.imaginationstationtoledo.org/educator/activities/how-to-make-a-naked-egg/the-anatomy-of-a-chicken-egg
‧ allerg.qc.ca/Information_allergique/3_3d_oeuf_en.html
‧ www.naturalpigments.com/artist-materials/tempera-emulsion-recipe/
‧ www.cavemanchemistry.com/cavebook/chphoto3.html
‧ www.azumaya.eu › Accueil › Produits identifiés “oeuf”
‧ ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/product-pharmaceutical-ingredient-cracking-eggshell-waste
‧ hamiltonhealthsciences.ca/documents/Patient Education/EggFreeDiet-trh.pdf
‧ www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/files/16294035/Developments_in_understanding_and_assessment_of_egg_and_egg_product_quality_over_the_last_century.pdf
So many of these questions have the intonation of a declaration. Is that accidental, or do Russians intone questions differently than anglophones?
Why is "Is dima eating an egg?" wrong? Isn't ест in this case equivalent to both is eating and eats?
«Ест» is, indeed, both ‘is eating’ and ‘eats.’
However, «я́йца» is ‘eggs’, and «яйцо́» is ‘[an] egg’.
English allows using ‘egg’ (uncountable, without an article) to refer to any amount of eggs. Russian doesn’t do this, so «Дима ест яйца» can be translated ‘Dima eats egg’, that is, indefinite amount of egg(s). But ‘Dima eats an egg’ can’t be translated with «я́йца», only with «яйцо́».
Well, «У Ди́мы есть яйца?» is a normal way to ask if Dima has some eggs. Maybe you want to cook a pie but you don't have eggs, so you need to know if Dima can lend you some.
Alternatively, since «яйца» is a slang term for testicles, «У Ди́мы есть я́йца?» 'Does Dima have balls?' can be a very slangy (and impolite) way to ask whether Dima is male. But since Dima is a male name anyway, the question is likely to be metaphorical: 'Is Dima a man?' = 'Does Dima behave like a man?'.
Why is it is not "Дима едят яйца?"? Since Dima eats multiple eggs, shouldn't the verb be in plural form?
Do we use the infinitive verb form to specify something over using the verb form that is correct in number to its noun?
Russian belongs to the nominative-accusative languages. It means that verbs always agree with the person or thing doing the action (linguistically speaking, with the agent) and not with the thing that is affected by the action (not the patient).
I.e. it doesn't matter how many eggs Dima eats. What matters is how many people eat eggs.
Is it joy? -
"Correct solution:
• Dima eats the eggs?"
On which language is this question?
Is this natural or is it better to use singular in this type of question in Russian?
It depends on what you're asking. If you want to know if Dima eats eggs in general (i.e. maybe he's observing the Nativity fast?), or if you want to know if he's eating more than one egg now, than you'd use plural. If you want to know if he eats one egg now, than you'd use singular.
Is the difference between яйцо and яйца really audible? Shouldn't both be deemed correct?
Yes, it's audible because it's distinguished by stress: яйцо́ 'egg', but я́йца 'eggs'.
Listen to the beginning of the word. In яйцо я is not stressed so it sounds like [ji] (together with й), in яйца it is stressed, so you hear [ja]. In the end of яйцо you hear a stressed [o] and in the end of яйца an unstressed a, but those are harder to hear.
Something along the lines of "Ya-eets-uh", with the first two syllables blurred together. That's not the best description, but it's the best I can come up with. Try listening to it here and see if that helps.
In "Type what you hear" I do not hear a question, but a statement.
The problem I have with some of these, this one included, is that I cannot tell either from the text-to-speech intonation or from the syntax whether it is a statement or a question.
Are the words "eat" and "have" originating from the same word? And do you actually hear the difference in pronounciation? I don't :(
What part of this turns it into a question? Why is it "Does Dima eat eggs?" instead of "Dima eats eggs"
