"This is a café, and not my house."
Translation:Это кафе, а не мой дом.
40 Comments
What is the difference between мой and моя? Grammatical gender or something else?
"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.
The top line, far left letter has it as is own letter...i has that same issue.
okay but technically I was correct when I used моя insteaf of мои, since I'm a female
697
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.
Why do we use both "мой" & "моя" when saying my? What's the difference? Because in phrase practice I us "мой" and in the alphabet practice I've used "моя".
Could someone, please, explain me when I gotta use "нет" and when "не"?
