"Какой у тебя родной язык?"

Translation: What is your native language?

[madam_im_adam]

would какой твой родной язык also work?

[Smike77]

I think it sounds even better

[sjoqvist]

If I hover over Какой, the translation says both "What" and "Which". Yet "Which is your native language?" is incorrect. Why is that?

[vitaoma]

You usually use "which" to ask the listener to choose among a set of options, while "what" leaves the answer open.

[Duane258217]

You are asking just that, among the set of options "all the languages" which one do you speak. Same if you ask about a car, when you ask which car do you drive? the set of options is the available cars. If you ask what is on your mind, then there is a difference. But to me, which language do you speak? sounds perfect.

[SpokeMnemosyne]

I agree. While I absolutely understand vitaoma's point, because there's a possible context he's correct, "which" could also be correct. Maybe a person grew up in a country with multiple official languages, and is being asked which one they think is their native language. So I absolutely think "which..." should be accepted.

[Kirsten54022]

agreed. I also put which.

[xO.Lx]

Spanish.

[matiasluis2077]

It's my family language

[NoNo730245]

Russian, but English took over, so I'm here.

[CathyFranc6]

You know, I was stumped how I would answer this question. You are spot on, thank you. : )

[marcio.i]

Is there a relationship between род and родной? Indicating gender as the innermost native characteristic of a person, perhaps?

[firstlos]

Yes, there is a relation between род and родной. No, sexual gender is пол in Russian. These are not related. I believe you are confusing "gender" with "sexual gender". Gender in English comes from "gendre" French, which comes from "genus" Latin meaning "sort" or "kind." Род has precisely this meaning, not the sexual one.

Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gender#Etymology_1

[LauPaSat]

Полший (Polish) I hope it is like this in Russian

[Maja890643]

*польский

[IanKendric3]

Guapanese.

[Juan_Villalba13]

Испанский.

[Thieumz]

Why родной and not родный?

[firstlos]

Because there is a subset of masculine adjectives that end in -о́й (that is oj with a stress on the o), e.g., большой, больной, родной, другой, молодой и т.д.

[mb505]

Do they always end in ой? Because I put in "warm day" and "warm fish" in google translate and for day it was теплый and for fish it was теплой

[Theron126]

Google translate is utterly unreliable. The masculine nominative form of the adjective is "тёплый". "Fish" is a feminine noun so the correct nominative form of the adjective is "тёплая", but for some reason on "warm fish" it gives you the answer in a different case. Just now it showed me "тёплой рыбы" which is genitive case, the nominative is "тёплая рыба".

Edit: for checking different forms of a word, this site is immeasurably better than GT. The whole site is in Russian so it may take a bit to learn your way around but it's well worth it. http://www.morfologija.ru/%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B0/%D1%82%D1%91%D0%BF%D0%BB%D1%8B%D0%B9

[joseperus]

Very interesting link, thank you

[VVirtanen]

Финский.

[Trudy664886]

I wrote which instead of what and it was not accepted.
.

[Sekisova_tatiana]

So do I. I wrote "which is your mother tongue" and of course Dou didn't take my answer. But I want to know can I translate so? If not why not? Please, people who have English as their first language, help me

[jvdn.aze]

Azerbaijani

[Taemasu]

what is wrong with 'mother tounge'?

[Randonneur3]

tongue

[ULRICHSCHL4]

The female voice clearly pronounces родной with an additional initial syllabel with an "a". This is confusing

[MichaelKar237633]

Why not "What is your first language?" First implies native.

[Ani_live13]

Tatarian

[elaesztus]

surely "native language" can be translated as "mother tongue"?

[Bichidian]

Китайский