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Hello. I don't really understand the difference between "Как дела" and "как ты". Can someone explain it to me? Thx
- Как дела? means literally "how are your affairs?"
- как ты? means literally "how are you?"
Is there a contextual difference between the two? E.g. you only use как дела if you expect to hear a story; and use как ты as a more "american" how are you?
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Как дела? = Что ты делаешь (или чем ты занимаешься) в последнее время и каких успехов в этом достиг?
Как ты? = Как ты поживаешь или Как ты себя чувствуешь?
It is not used as a greeting. You only use "как дела?" when talking to people you know well enough, and you expect to hear some answer, like "great, I've just passed that exam I was so worried about!" or "I'm sooo tired with all this work" or "I've finished painting that wall", etc. People actually tell how or what they've been doing since you last met them. Of course, sometimes they just say "нормально" (OK / I'm fine), and you go on with the conversation.
Normally, you don't say "Привет, как дела?" to someone you barely know. It's just weird. You have to know a person before you are able to be really interested in their current affairs.
Some native Russian speakers do say "как дела?" at the first contact (especially on the internet), but many others feel annoyed with this question from strangers - me included. We just don't see the point of inserting meaningless "Как дела? - Нормально, а у тебя? - Все хорошо" into the conversation, and prefer to get straight to the business.
Does this illustrate a difference between Russian and English speaking cultures? It seems Russians actually expect an honest answer when they ask как дела? whereas we English speakers might genuinely want to know but could also just be making polite 'small talk'. In English, if you answer honestly, you might find the other person glazing over!
Yes, such is the difference. We don't do "small talk" if we don't need to fill awkward pauses. We can talk on general topics like weather etc., but it is really uncommon to ask strangers how they are doing.
I ask "как дела?" when the point of conversation is just to keep in touch and have a chat without any haste. Like, I want to know how my mom is doing and expect to hear about her current health, work, etc. In return, I tell her about my son and what we've been doing recently.
Thanks, trying to learn Russian is fascinating already but understanding cultural contexts adds a whole new level of nuance and challenge!
This is one of the things that I LOVE about Russians. They're straightforward and don't like making useless small talks, just like me. Where I live, people greet you with some form of greetings like, "Hello. Good morning. How are you?" Even to a stranger.
We also don't smile needlessly like Westerners, so Russians have a reputation for being sullen. In Russian culture, smiles are earned, not used like a dummy. Haha
This reminds me of my first encounter with my last Russian instructor. The school year had already started and when I discovered I could fit a Russian class into my schedule, I approached him to see if he would agree to let me get added to his class. Naturally I wanted to impress him with what little Russian I already knew and I am almost certain, I said, "Привет, как дела?" It had been a while since I had spoken any Russian to anyone, so I was probably pretty proud of myself for having remembered even that much. Now I know, I probably didn't impress him at all. Nevertheless, he agreed to let me join the class. Perhaps he recognized that I could use some help!
You're right. This does not look like typical Russian to me. Normally, it is like:
- Привет!
- Привет!
- Как дела?
- (some information on how you are doing, at least "нормально" - I'm OK)
- (some information in return)
- (the conversation goes on, often around this information)
I mean, you don't say "how are you" as part of the greeting. "Привет" is a greeting, and "как дела" is a beginning of the actual conversation. Saying it as one phrase "Привет, как дела?" is uncommon.
I was surprised that the translation "How are things?" was not accepted. It's colloquial, normal English and at the same time closer to the Russian original. There's no "you" (ты) in the question, after all. Thanks for the work you do on this course!
I left a note many times inside the exercises about wrong stresses. In fact there are several, but nobody seems to care. This is a serious problem because with the wrong stress you are using a different form of the noun, meaning something else.
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the problem is that it's just a google automatic language that been programmed from the man's and woman's voices . So it can't be fixed. And BTW there are like lots of stupid mistakes of pronunciation which Russian ppl does not use. They speak like stupid robots.
What is the difference between these two sentences "Hello, how are you?" and "Hello, how do you do?"?
i find the pronunciation in general is not clear, its difficult to pick up the right sound , can you please recommend me about a website or some kind of program to start with learning the phonetic in a proper way ?
Привет, this is not an official appeal. Do not say hello to the boss, an unfamiliar adult, Queen of the United Kingdom.
You can say "привет" to a school friend, a colleague with whom a friendly relationship, a child, a grandmother and all family members. Forgive me for my mistakes, I am from Russia.
Is it just me, or does дела sound like day-vuh? I know it should be day-luh.
I'm having problems with listening, too. It sounds like either "dee-vuh" or "dee-wa" to me, but it's definitely supposed to be "dee-lah" then?
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The text to voice has been hard. Learner he alphabet through memrise and the coming here... The pronunciations seem very different.
Yeah, the pronunciation is not good. You can see in every lesson,for the "л" word she says "v" instead of "l".
Shouldn't "How are your affairs?" be an acceptable answer, because that's the literal translation and what you're actually asking?
In English, that sounds like you are asking about someone's sex life. That is not the meaning of the Russian at all!
Second. Synthetic voice makes some mistakes. It sometimes hurts me as a native speaker)
The stress in the word дела should be on the а, not е.
In the word "делА", the accent is on the second syllable. Wrong pronunciation the record.
No, if you want to ask specifically about someone's business, you'd say: Как твой бизнес?
Isnt дела more as "Affairs" ? Then what would be the difference between бизнес and дела on their own without the questions ?
Can как дела and как ты be used interchangeably, and what is the difference between them?
Usually this phrase would be translated properly as "How are things?" A general, all around, how goes it (diminutive american english phrase).
How do you actually figure out what the letters mean? I am native english and have a really hard time understanding what to type.
You would have to learn it elsewhere, but its really easy. There's lots of videos on Youtube and pages online you can use.
When getting the answer wrong, the system corrects you with "Hi, how are you going?"
This makes no sense. "Hi, how are you going?" would be a question one would ask to a friend who is meeting you somewhere and you want to compare routes!
Dude, it's idiomatic. Don't be a grammar Nazi. Just be normal, like the majority of native English speakers.
I'm a native English speaker, and I have never heard ANYONE say "How are you going?", except as an enquiry about travel arrangements. (But then again, I am English. I have never heard anyone say "dude" either.)
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first - how are you doing (business, affairs, success in life etc) second - how are you PERSONALLY (feelings, things that you are going through etc) BUT basally it doesn't matter, it's the same like in English you ask "what's up" "how are you" "what you been up to" . It doesn't make much difference. You can use both and not give any shirts about it if you know what i mean
