"This is a café, and not my house."
Translation:Это кафе, а не мой дом.
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"А" is used when contrasting two things, "и" is used when listing things. Here you're contrasting a cafe and your house, so use "a". A good rule of thumb is that if in English it's possible to use either "and" or "but" (and it is in this case, though it sounds a bit odd), then you should use "a" in Russian. If only "and" works then use "и".
Thank you Theron126. But I'm still a bit confuse. "This is a café and not a house"=>" Это кафе а не дом". If I understand what what you explained, I could place "и" before " кафе" and " дом". But it's not a listing of things. And Russian don't need "the"," a" before words.I quote : "If only "and" works then use " и"". Where should I put " и" in my sentence ? Thank you for your answer.
The English word "and" can be translated as either "а" or "и" in Russian.
"А" is a comparing or contrasting "and". This is a cafe, and not a house" - "это кафе, а не дом". "I am American, and you are Dutch" - "я американец, а вы голландец".
"И" is a listing "and". "У меня кофе, и шоколад, и змея" - "I have coffee and chocolate and a snake". "Это кафе и дом" - "this is a cafe and a house." In fact it is possible to put "и" before both "кафе" and "дом". "И ... и ..." is equivalent to "both ... and ..." in English, therefore "это и кафе, и дом" would mean "this is both a cafe and a house".
I hope something in there answers your question :-)
Super-duper! Thank you for your prompt answer. It's help me to do not forget the whole story. You give several examples and it is important too. I begin to understand the "case". But there are new questions. - "у меня"+" кафе " doesn't work together,I think. Should I use instead " я уже кофе" ? -"и"+"и" = " both". It is something nieuw.Great! Nuances are important. So, the sentence I gave you doesn't need any " и"+"и" because I put a" не" with the second element of the narration. Russian has its practical ways! I like it. - your comparising and contrasting terms are... Efficient! But I prefer a scone with my coffee ... Lol. -" дома " Do you meen " at home " because the "a". I would rather put" дом" without "a" in the following phrase : " это и кофе, и дом." this are a café,a house". Or do you meen something else ? Thank you for all.
You spotted a mistake in my example. "Дома" was incorrect, I should have said "Это кафе и дом". It's fixed now.
"у меня"+" кафе " doesn't work together,I think. Should I use instead " я уже кофе" ?
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. "У меня кафе" is a legitimate way of saying "I have a cafe", though "у меня есть кафе" is probably better. "Я уже кафе" means "I am already a cafe", probably not something you want to say :-)
So, the sentence I gave you doesn't need any " и"+"и" because I put a" не" with the second element of the narration.
Correct. You wouldn't say "This is both a cafe and not a house", that doesn't make sense.
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The "моя" or the "мой" will refer to the grammatical gender of the item it describes - not the grammatical gender of the speaker. So Том might describe his мама, but he would not say мой мама; he would always describe her in terms of her grammatical gender - моя мама.
- Masculine nouns: мой. Examples: дом, телефон, стол, стул, читатель, парень, папа. You'll notice that for the most part, masculine nouns end in a consonant. Nouns that end in consonants are always masculine. Some of these end in ь; words that end in ь can be feminine or masculine. Otherwise, in general, words that end in vowels are not masculine. There are exceptions; sometimes you will see a word that is inherently masculine ending in a vowel, like папа, and you will use a masculine descriptor with that - мой папа. There is another notable exception, кофе, which is masculine.
- Feminine nouns: моя. Examples: мама, аптека, лошадь, рука, мышь, статья. For the most part, feminine nouns end in а, я, and ь.
- Neuter nouns: моё. Examples: платье, мясо, яблоко. Neuter nouns will generally end in е and о. There are exceptions, like имя.
And then there is мои. I notice you mention you used it - this is different from мой. The й at the end creates a diphthong - so that is sounds like "moy." The и at the end of мои is pronounced as a separate vowel from the о, so that it sounds like mah-ee. Мои is used for plural nouns - regardless of gender.
- Plural nouns: мои. Used regardless of gender. Examples: дома, телефоны, столы, стулы, читатели, парни, папы, мамы, аптеки, лошади, руки, мыши, статьи, платья, мяса, яблоки, имена.