58 Comments
The audio very much sounds like it's putting the stress on the first syllable in она, which makes it sound like Анна. At least it is in the normal speed version of the audio. If you play the slowed down audio, then it sounds proper, with the second syllable being stressed, which is how I understand it's supposed to be. Is there any chance that perhaps the audio could be fixed to better represent that она's second syllable is the one that's supposed to be stressed? Unless, of course, it turns out that I'm entirely mistaken, but I'm pretty sure it's the second syllable that should be stressed here.
I just looked it up on wordreference.com, and the accent is indeed on the second syllable: она́.
Yes, I understand that it's supposed to be on the second syllable. I'm trying to say that the audio here on Duolingo is wrong because it sounds distinctly to be putting the stress on the first syllable, which it's not supposed to do.
Sorry if I wasn't clear; that was what I referring to as well. The audio in this course leaves a lot to be desired.
I found it useful and very informative to open google translate when i'm studying from duolingo, i make sure the correct word is inserted in translate and that it results in the correct explanation as well (because google translate isn't always correct). That way i can make sure the pronunciation from both sites are matching.
I know the problem is the audio in duolingo, but since nobody is doing anything about it, i found a solution instead of being mad about the audio.
yeah, it does a little bit. But since the 'o' is read as an 'a', you can be sure it's not stressed
In the full form of Russian writing, an accent mark over the vowel denotes stress. Unfortunately, it seems to be mostly restricted to children's books, as grown ups are expected to be able to infer where they have to be. Then again, English is much, much worse in this respect: it doesn't only does away with stress indicators, but the orthography is all over the place...
You would still say "она мама" Russian does not have explicit articles like "the" or "a" the way English does. This is why you often hear native Russian speakers drop them when they speak English (He is good boy, We have nice couch, etc). In Russian, the article is implied by the word. So "she is a mom" and "she is the mom" is read the same. When you translate to English, using a definite or indefinite article is context dependant, and gets added as you translate. Чем она занимается?/Она мама. "What does she do?/She is a mother" Кто eё мама?/Она мама." "Who is her mother?/She is the mother" If you're trying to say "she is the mom" and want it to be very specifically in relation to a child, you could say "она её мама", which is "she is her mother".
You are right. Just want to add some comments about "Кто eё мама?/Она мама." phrase. Russian don't say so. We will say "Вот её мама" or "вот она" or as you mentioned "она её мама" pointing to her. The last one sounds a little bit weird. Don't forget that in Russian you often can ommit many words required in English. "Вот" or "она" are absolutely correct answers.
That makes so much sense, now I can understand how that stereotypical language style came to be. I can practically hear the accent saying it
Well there are words for "to be" (быть, though only used typically in the past or future tenses or in idiomatic expressions, and являться , which takes the instrumental case but which is typically higher level speech used in... well, speeches, legal cases, technical manuals, contracts, etc.). In everyday speech, for most conversations in the present tense, you won't use a verb to express that something is something or that someone is someone.
Articles like "the" and "a" are typically not necessary since the case structure allows you to express that sentiment without an article, unless it's a demonstrative thing (like you want to say "these books, not those books".)
I typed the translation as "her mom" and it corrected me saying it should be "she's mom"
Hi there, for those of you that thought that it was saying Ana, a little help-> In Russian the name sounds more like Anna, with two well pronounced Ns, something like An-na.
Oops, I thought one was to use an em dash with predicate nominatives. Is this only the case in certain situations (e.g. not with pronouns) or am I just completely confused here?
Usually we don't use an em dash after personal pronouns. Only for a special intonation like 'She is [pause] a [solemnly] mom!' -> 'Она — мама!'
But most of native Russians have problems with punctuation rules, so there are a lot of em dashes in sentences like this. =/
I think that's correct. I read in another comment thread that the dash isn't used with pronouns (at least not following a pronoun).
I've come across a few phrases now, which don't really...show tense. How do you know she 'IS' a mother? I assume there are words that denote past and future...'was', 'will be'.
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Past: ' Она была мамой' (was = была)
Future: 'Она будет мамой' (will be = будет)
You can use 'есть' instead of 'is' in present time, and everyone will understand you but 'Она есть мама' sounds strange and funny. Also this is a common indicator of a native English speaker.
In some formal sources like court documents or police report the following statement will be used to reflect the fact that some woman (let's say Иванова) is somebody's mother (let's say Петрова): "Иванова является матерью Петровой" In usual speach one just says "Иванова - мама Петровой".
Because of the intonation and the fact that there is no question mark at the end of the sentence to indicate that it would be a question.
If this were an interrogative sentence (Is she a mom?), then yes. But for this sentence that is not applicable. You're going to see a few cases of that in the Russian course here.
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My second language is english, I come from germany, and learned some russian there. Otherwise I would not have tried this course. Thanks, and I hope to make some progress.
In the audio it sounds like анна of course the words are very similar but it is almost impossible to hear the difference
So, help me make sure I'm getting the differences in pronunciation correct, if someone were to say, "she is Anna" (она Анна), it would sound something like "on-ah on-nah"?
Well, the O in она is not stressed, so it sounds like an A. The big difference here is in the syllabic stress. о-НА АН-на.
