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Note that although "папа" looks like a feminine noun (ends with "а"), it is masculine, of course. It declines exactly like "мама", but uses masculine forms of adjectives and adjective-like words.
I've been really wondering about this, because I've noticed it several times with this and a few other words (I can't think of them right now). By "adjective-like words", I assume you mean that possessive pronouns follow the rules for declining masculine nouns, even though you change the endings as if the noun itself were feminine.
For example, папа in Dative case would be папе which is the feminine singular Dative ending for a word ending in a in Nominative case. The Dative case declension for "my" is:
Masculine: Моему
Feminine: Моей
So, under the grammar rules, "my dad" in Dative case would be моему папе and not моей папе, correct?
Just came here to say that this is a really great didactic sentence: in the lesson for genders, you're showing two words of two different genders and showing how the same adjective declines to match them.
There should be more questions like this throughout the course.
"Ваш" is used when you are on "вы" terms with someone, and "твой" corresponds to "ты".
DON'T GET MAD! but i still don't get how "вы" and "ты" differ! can you explain please.
Both mean "you", but you use "вы/ваш" with strangers or in formal relations e.g. at work, and "ты/твой" informally e.g. with friends, children and family.
BUT apart from the formal use directed towards one person, you also use "вы/ваш" when you're talking about or to a group of people. Say, you want to express that a group of people, e.g. sisters have one dad, you say (directly to the group) "это ваш папа", which in english is also translated with "this is your Dad"
I confuse it with the plural form of "Наш". Is "Ваш львы" correct? How would someone say it on "вы" terms if at all possible?
can i say ваши папа и мама?
To my (American) ear it should be "mother and father" in English just like "Ladies and gentlemen"
I've also just automatically translated this wrongly as mum and dad because in Britain that is the order you would always use.
I've been drilling these lessons - so repeating them a lot. Every single time I answer 'mum and dad' and get dinged for it! It seems to me the way translations should really work is: 1) read sentence(s); 2) derive meaning; 3) construct natural equivalent in the target language.... 'dad & mum' just hurts! But I suppose they're also verifying we know how the nouns map, so therein lies the quandary.
Is that the customary order in Russian or is it just to test our understanding?
I used "father" and "mother" and was marked wrong. Are these strictly familiar terms? Then why would you use ваш?
Pa and Ma are also perfectly words for father and mother, along with dad and mum, daddy and mummy, pater and mater and dad and mom (american). Also papa and mama
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Could something like "ваш папа и мама" be used in Russian to mean the same thing? (Sorry, I'm not sure what form "ваш" would take, or if it's even possible.)
Or would this have different meaning or implication, or does it simply not make sense to skip the second determiner?
