31 Comments
I don't think this sentence is in any way special and demands special treatment in Duolingo. I don't know why the course creators didn't use a pronoun here.
In general, pronouns are often dropped in colloquial speech, but rarely dropped in written texts and in formal language. Maybe this sentence sounds colloquial so that's why the pronoun is dropped? After all, we don't often ask about cutting potatoes in a formal way... That's my guess.
It really confused me and this sentence should be changed to use the pronoun, no reason to drop it here without any context.
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The reason is that можете is clearly you-plural form, so a pronoun вы is not necessary.
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I often see the word можете, or можешь, used without a pronoun. I think it is because it often functions as an imperative-type sentence (as here), which doesn't use pronouns.
Карто́шки can be either a accusative plural form, or a genitive singular form.
It’s not plural because «карто́шка» is an uncountable mass noun. It behaves like «rice» in English.
But if you wanted to use a genitive singular, you can. «Можете нарезать карто́шки?» sounds OK with genitive too. Accusative shifts the meaning towards 'all the potatoes', while Genitive shifts the meaning towards 'some potatoes'.
I have heard the plural forms of картошка used quite often by native Russian speakers. Online dictionaries also seem to indicate that plural forms for картошка do exist, while it is formal картофель which is the uncountable collective (mass) noun.
Yes, I was corrected in some other topic.
I personally don't use it in plural, but such option indeed exists.
I give you a potato and ask you for to slice it "можешь нарезать (1) картошкУ?"---a genitive singular. But I ask to slice some potatoes so I'll say "можешь нарезать картошкУ (картошкИ) and so and so, the both options are correct
you can to slice и картошкУ и картошкИ-- the both will be correct, we speak so and so
While you're certainly right, Duolingo seems to use different translations for these:
- cut [the] potatoes = нарезать картошку,
- cut some potatoes = нарезать картошки.
I'm native speaker of Russian and I often use: (на)резать картошкУ( seldom "и"), (по)чистить картошкУ( to cut), (по)строгать картошкУ(to cut/slice), (по)мыть картошкУ(to wash), (при)готовить картошкУ(to make/cook), (с)варить картошкУ(to boil), (по)жарить картошкУ(to fry), (по)мять картошкУ(to mash), выкинуть картошкУ(to throw out), (вс)копать картошкУ (to dig), сажать/выращивать картошкУ (to plant/grow)...и т.д.
А как это противоречит моему комментарию? Конечно, винительный падеж здесь к месту. Как и родительный.
Я лишь указал, что на Дуолинго различают эти два падежа в английском переводе: нарезать картошку = to cut [the] potatoes, нарезать картошки = to cut some potatoes (аналогично с другими существительными: купить молоко = to buy [the] milk, купить молока = to buy some milk).
нет-нет, ни в коем случае, я просто привела примеры, что более употребимо окончание с "У"
Are there different verbs for slice/cut? Or is this just a particularity of the translation?
Accusative Singular. You can find all the declensions of картошка here. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%BA%D0%B0 This of course does mean either the English or Russin sentence is, as of right now, not a correct translation.
"Can you cut up the potatoes?" doesn't - erm - cut it.
I wonder why. I'm pretty cut up about it.
Yes, I think this variant is correct too.
Typically in questions you're asking for permission to do something... typically people only say "MAY you?" when they're being passive-aggressive about someone misusing the verb can.
можете is the second person plural/formal conjugation of the verb мочь (Вы можете). Even though Вы is not stated explicitly, "you" (the person with whom you're speaking) is the logical subject of the sentence based on the verb conjugation.
According to my conjugation table, both perfective and imperfective aspects of the infinitive are spelled the same, but the stressed syllable is different: нареза́ть (imperfective) / наре́зать (perfective).
While I realize the computer voice is far from accurate, at least for this sentence, I hear "her" saying the perfective aspect infinitive. Would that be correct?
Yes, that’s correct. She is pronouncing «наре́зать», and this sentence sounds natural with «наре́зать». «Мо́жете наре́зать» is a question about slicing a certain number of potatoes.
(«Мо́жете нареза́ть» could work if you’re asking to slice potatoes for some period of time, and it doesn’t matter if you slice all of them or not; or if you’re asking to be slicing potatoes repeatedly, not just one time.)
im pretty sure "can you" can works as well as "could you" it should not be marked as incorrect
