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- "This is mashed potato, and h…
"This is mashed potato, and here is a pizza."
Translation:Это пюре, а вот пицца.
150 Comments
"а" is used when you name things one after another, like - "это мама, а это папа" - notice the presence of "это". "и" is used when you combine two things and count them as a group - "это мама и папа" notice - there is no second "это" because dad is not a single object anymore. To say "это мама и это папа" is incorrect
1295
А именно вот эти оба варианта должны приниматься: "Это пюре, а вот пицца" и "Это пюре, а тут пицца".
@Matt2411: Your examples are correct. There are sentences with two different clauses, when you would still use "и", though.
I'd suggest you a simple rule of thumb: if you can replace "and" with "but" in English and it won't sound very wrong, use "а" in Russian. If you cannot, use "и".
These are potatoes, but that is pizza - odd, but not too wrong → use "а".
I have a book but a chair - nonsense → use "и".
You are a teacher, but I am a doctor - not too wrong → use "а".
@olimo: Making a generalization, is it correct to say it has to do with grammatical clauses? If I said "these are my things: a book and a chair", then I'd only have one clause, and in russian I'd use "и". When you have two different clauses (as in "this is a book, and this is a chair") in that case I use "a". Am I right? Did I figure it out?
I have the same confusion. Im guessing because its two different items of food. For example if the sentence was "this is mashed potato and i like them" then "и" would be used?? But because it is two types of food like listing them they use "а". Like a dinner lady is telling what there is but its unlikely you would have both...?
В большинстве случаев (часто, в основном) мы (русские и русскоязычные) говорим "пюре" и подразумеваем (имеем ввиду) именно "картофельное пюре", так как (потому что) другие пюре встречаются в повседневной жизни редко. Если ты или кто-то говорит, например, о фруктовом пюре, то в начале говорим - "яблочное пюре" (сразу уточняем тип, вид этого пюре), "фруктовое пюре" (фруктовое - это несколько фруктов в нём (в пюре) или любой фрукт без уточнения), а как только говорили о яблочном пюре, то потом в этом разговоре (обычно сразу по ходу речи) говорим "пюре" и понимаем, что это тот вид пюре, который только что обсуждали. Думаю, что так у большинства языков мира, поэтому в этом курсе лучше не писать просто "пюре" иначе не понятно о каком пюре речь. Но в жизни скажете "пюре" в первый раз и в 99% подумают о картофельном пюре. :-)
Извините, но мой английский не очень хорош и нет времени сейчас переводить :-(
197
[last sentence first !! Sorry, but my English is not very good and there is no time to translate now :-(]
In most cases (often, mostly) we (Russian and Russian-speaking) say пюре "mashed potatoes" and mean exactly "mashed potatoes", since (because) other [types of пюре] are rare in everyday life. [like "mash"= mashed potatoes in UK dialect]
If you or someone is talking, for example, about fruit puree, then at the beginning we say - "applesauce" (we immediately clarify the type of puree), "fruit puree" (fruit puree is several fruits in it (in puree) or any fruit without specification), and as soon as we talked about applesauce, then later in this conversation (usually immediately in the course of speech) we say пюре and understand that this is the type of пюре that we just discussed.
I think that this is the case for most of the world's languages, so in this course it is better not to write just "puree" otherwise it is not clear what kind of puree we are talking about. But in life you say пюре for the first time and 99% will think about mashed potatoes. :-)
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In line with the generous, although banal, explanation I conclude in opposition to this that пюре alone is perfectly understandable, such as the UK mash=пюре. An additional 2nd argument is provided (in bold above) to support my conclusion: But in life you say пюре for the first time and 99% will think about mashed potatoes
252
In British English 'mash' means specifically 'mashed potatoes'. I suppose the idea is similar in Russian.
We more often say mashed potatoes (plural) in my location than mashed potato (singular). Where do they say mashed potato? I'm curious.
I typed in "Eto niope (No russian aphabet on my keyboard) a bot pizza." (Pizza in russian requires the letters not on the keyboard) But I don't know how I got it wrong because it says I used the wrong word, I'd never even seen in the lesson pyure pitstsa.) Is it writing pizza like that so that it can be written with the English aphabet?
Also, is there any way to type in russian on a standard keyboard?
You have to either choose the Latin alphabet or Cyrillic. You can't combine them. You wrote niope and pizza in one line so you're expecting this app to recognize when you want 'p' to mean 'p' or 'r'. Or when 'n' means 'n' or 'p'. In the Latin alphabet they will always use the Latin version so for пюре you need to write pyure or something like that. Cuz niope reads like ниёпе and that makes no sense
541
- the Russia z is transcribed on duolingo as ts;
- Yes, you can mix Latin and Cyrillic. I do this when I need the soft sign, which I have not been able to figure out how to transcribe on Duolingo (' does not work here, though it works outside of Duolingo): I transcribe into Latin and C&P the soft sign.
Your first approach cannot work, since a 1:1 correspondence between Russian and Latin phonemes and thus letters just isn't there. The two basic (sane) alternatives are writing transliterated Russian (which Duolingo seems to default to), or to answer your last question, yes and it's dead simple. Go to your OS settings and add the Russian Cyrillic keymap to the list. You can switch back and forth any time you want... the hard part is learning the completely different layout!
It is doable though, I've done it, after 2 days I was able to type Cyrillic quite comfortably without even looking at the keys. At first you'll probably want to web search an image of a Russian keyboard so you'll have a reference or even tape/draw at least part of the Cyrillic letters beside the Latin ones right ON the keys. It's quite the paradigm shift but it was a neat motor exercise for me. Once you get used to it, you will NOT want to go back to typing transliterated (the real thing is much faster and you get the exact letters you want, directly).
541
I would prefer typing in Cyrillic, but -- unlike you -- I can't learn touch-typing Cyrillic in 2 days. It took me longer than that to learn to switch to German, which only has a few differences from the English one. One of these days, I will get back to the Russian online typing course, but until then, I am not going to waste my time search the keyboard 9i'd rather waste it grousing on this forum).
Please don't compliment me, I didn't mean to boast or say that switching the layout is easy in any way. Way back, when I first tried it, I literally drew the Cyrillic letters on the keys with a marker pen. That was my "visual reference". And so far it still hasn't stuck, I don't remember the layout anymore and I've had to "learn it again" every time I've tried it.
However, the technical part, actually being able to type Cyrillic is as easy as it gets. It's about 5 mouse clicks and maybe waiting a while for the language pack to download but after that you can switch the layout to Cyrillic and back again like a finger snap, whenever you want to.
There's even a program, on a website actually, somewhere where you can type transliterated Russian and it converts it to Cyrillic. I don't remember where it is but you can probably find it with Google. I found that program useful in that I could write down words with a Western layout but still be able to print it (a word list) out on paper in proper Cyrillic. Back around to the first point, even though I'm somewhat able to type directly with the Russian layout, typing transliterated is a LOT faster. I think I should have emphasized more the fact, in my case, that the different layout thing is much, much more a brain/motor/whatever - exercise , and not necessarily at all that practical or even related to actually learning the language.
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"Здесь" is very simply "here" "Вот" is a spoken pointer "here it is"/"voila", or a particle to add emphasis "вот здесь" = "right here". Such particle can be omitted without loss of meaning unless it is a one-word-sentence.
This is one of many incidents, but they are quite confusing... around 50% of the time when my (typed) Russian answer is accepted it still says 'There are typos in your answer'. However they are rarely pointed out, so it's difficult to understand how exactly something is supposed to be typed and what "mistakes" does the parser understand. It's often unclear: was there a typo or wasn't there?
My answer (after a couple of attempts) for this one was exactly the right one, it was accepted but it said there's a "typo". I have no idea where, since in this case the right answer is shown in cyrillic. Also, I tend to think that forms such as "pjure" or even "piure" should be accepted, the same as with 'ya' and 'ja'. (Native/expert level speakers are very welcome to clarify if there's actually a real reason why those forms COULD NOT be accepted... advice is much appreciated).
I also want to point out that I am not out here just to complain or be a pain in the neck... I think this is a great piece of software that just happens to have a HUGE amount of unrealised potential because of the bugs/peculiarities/etc. I (and others) have mentioned. I sincerely appreciate the app and only hope that the problems will be sorted out. Unfortunately I have brief experience of the IT world myself, so I can assume it's not easy :)
318
I can not write "mashed potato" because my keyboard doesn´t have Russian keyboard. Therefore I have to stop this lesson.
339
Stop making me try to type in Cyrillic alphabet!! This won't let me skip! I don't have capabilities on my computer, and it's not offering a word bank.
132
What's the difference between "вот" and "здесь"? In which cases I have to use each one for a "here is..." sentence?