"Does your mom have brothers?"
Translation:У вашей мамы есть братья?
14 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Yes, it is necessary. Otherwise the question will sound like "Is it brothers that your mother has?", as if you know she has some siblings, but you just want to clarify if they are brothers.
Ahhh, thanks a lot! I find this exact thing one of the hard aspects of Russian! :D
У твоей мамы есть братья? I cannot tell without context wheter duolingo wants me to use the вы form. So this should be right as well. But more context would also be nice. I like context. =)
1804
The adjective must correspond to the gender of the noun. Мама is feminine, and so the form of "your" must also be feminine, and in this sentence, must also be in genitive - ergo, твоей or вашей.
I was just marked wrong in a similar construction for using есть and now I am marked wrong for using it. I am confused. Either I don't understand the rules or it is completely random. It is difficult to grasp subtleties when a sentence stands alone with no context.
- 1804
Here is an explanation bordering on major oversimplification which may help you:
When questioning something's existence, then use У ... есть.
- У вашей мамы есть братья? (Implication of the question: I do not know whether or not your mom has brothers.)
- Да, у неё есть братья.
On the other hand, when needing qualification rather than yes/no, use У ... without есть; it assumes that the asker already knows something exists, and does not wish to confirm existence with есть, but rather wishes for a description rather than a mere yes/no.
- У вас яблоко? (Implication: I know you are holding something behind your back. Something exists back there. I bet it's an apple, right?)
- У меня торт! С днём рождения!
- Шоколадный торт! <3 <3
See also @olimo's always super helpful helpfulness above - she goes into what the implication would be of using У вашей мамы братья without есть.
What I find with Russian is that it does not translate 1:1 with English; using certain words such as у ... есть and using perfective and imperfective verbs (if you haven't gotten there yet, don't lose heart once you do; bookmark Russian for Everyone and Russian Lessons for future use) carry nuances of meaning, rather than allowing for any sort of direct translation.
mistake in the system, it does not recognize the correct sencence, it marks est' a as amistake, why doesn't anyone correct the system, please?
When do you use есть with у and when not? For example you can say у меня яблоко and no есть is required (iirc)