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- "You have a quiet voice."
"You have a quiet voice."
Translation:У тебя тихий голос.
29 Comments
1549
I wrote "У тебя есть тихий голос", and a note told me to not use есть in certain cases. Could I get a more accurate very square-ish explanation? Thanks :)
You use «есть» when you want to make it clear whether there is something, but omit it if you describe qualities, possessed items and so on. Example:
«У него есть машина» — a simple statement that he indeed has a car.
«У него машина» — means that he has a car, not a boat or bus or I don't know what else.
You normally don't use «есть» when describing people because it sounds like "a quiet voice" is something physical, an item you can put on a shelf.
It seems that technically you are correct. What is the difference between being a native speaker and someone that learns formal language. Just one of those subtle nuances that you have to learn through usage. I made the same mistake and probably will several more times!
I wrote у тебя есть тихий голос and it said it wanted вас. Why the difference?
That is quite a subtle distinction. Now you have pointed it out, I realise I need to be much more thoughtful about my native English. Thank you.
I had the same error but I think I know why. "You have a quiet voice" doesn't make sense when you're talking to multiple people (since their voice isn't shared); in that case it would have to be "You have quiet voices", or "У вас тихие голоса" in Russian.
- 1712
Вы is also the formal "you" - singular, addressed to someone to whom formal deference is owed, like your boss at work.
Perhaps it's a way of showing that you shouldn't be making personal comments to someone your should be treating formally.
Except I can imagine a host of situations where I'd be talking to someone I didn't know and thus would address formally, ask them to speak up because they had a quiet voice.
Abraham Lincoln had a thin, reedy voice which was ill-suited to public speaking in the 19th century. I can't imagine talking to him about how quiet his voice was without using the formal "you".
Why cant I say "У вас тихий голос"? Why does it have to be "теья"? Is there another way to say it formally?
У тебя есть is what I wrote and it was considered wrong! Why, does not have to be у вас necessarily since it is 'you'.
I put 'у тебя' instead of 'у вас' and I object to its being marked wrong. I've never had use of familiar or polite form penalized before.
Having been penalized for omitting 'есть' on numerous occasions, I included it this time and that was wrong. I give up! Сдаюсь!
- 98
I've just read Norrius's explanation from a few years ago, which I think is pretty clear. If I've understood him well, you use есть to indicate ownership of an object, whereas the sentence without "есть" indicates having a quality or an attribute: У меня есть машина - I have a car (ownership of an object) У меня тихий голос - I have a quiet voice (an attribute of mine, and not an object I own)
- 541
As I understood it у вас сёстры would be for informal or plural which in this case it could be both. у тебя есть Would be for formal or singular. I can't find the post I saw that in but I did write it in my тетадь
