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- "Я работал день и ночь."
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Working day and night is basically an idiomatic expression meaning you were working a lot. Apparently Russian has a similar turn of phrase.
работать днём и ночью would simply mean to be working both during the day and at night, but perhaps you just have irregular shifts that don't add up to a large number of total hours.
I know that "i worked day and night" is an English idiom/expression meaning "я много работал" but, does this mean the same thing in russian? My question is: does this sentence mean that the person ACTUALLY worked day and night or can it just mean that he/she worked a lot?
Disclaimer, not a native Russian speaker.
My understanding is the instrumental case means you're using something, hence the "instrument":
I write WITH a pen. This meeting sucks, I'm going to stab myself WITH a spork.
(I'm using "with", there are other uses these are just easiest for me.)
Here you're not working with day and night, it's not an instrument. "Day and night" here functions as a noun.
I (subject) was working (verb) day and night (object (accusative)).
This probably isn't exactly accurate, I'm no linguist. But I think it generally holds true.
1995
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"Я работал" is can be used for all English Past Tenses:
"Я работал" (masculine, single) / "я работала" (feminine, single), - "i worked", "i was working", "i used to work", "i had been workimg". For neuter (single) - "это работало" - "It worked", "it was working", "it used to work", "it had been working".
Don't take this as any sort of answer - I'm still sorting this out myself but:
I think it might have something to do with aspect.
работать is (I think) the imperfective meaning on ongoing action. "Was working", even in the past, still feels "ongoing" to me. (/s I'm scientific like that)
I want to delete this reply because I know I'm totally wrong and a moron - but I'm not going to. Because I want to know WHY I'm wrong.
Sorry I can't actually help you. Hopefully someone else will chime in and help us both.
- 1995
You got it right - работать is (also) the imperfective meaning on ongoing action. "Was working", even in the past, still "ongoing" - yes, it's absolutely correct.
Thank you! But you're killing me.
Everyone on various forums and such seem to hate genitive (and maybe I'm not deep enough into it to hate it yet). I find I have to think about it a second and often get it wrong but it's not the monster people make it seem (so far).
Aspect? Aspect/past tense is going to kill me.
In your clarification to kpagcha I understand what you're saying but I don't understand how to... understand it.
Edit: Wait - I think I ran into this before. And asked it before though in a slightly different scenario. And I clearly still don't get it.
You said that Russian past tense can be used for all English Past tenses. But it seems like, using the Russian past tense (unlike English - because we don't have aspect) assumes that the "previous/past" state is still the current state - even if it was in the past tense - unless someone clarifies explicitly that it's not that way anymore? Am I getting close?
So if I said, in Russian (I'm not going to try it in Russian because I'm not that good at it and I don't want to muddy things with errors):
"I used to work at Microsoft" - it would imply that you had worked there for some time and still worked there now unless you explicitly added a phrase like "But now I work for Apple" or "but now I'm at home with the kids"?
I hope it's at least sort of clear what I'm asking? At this point, with this specific thing, I'm not even sure what my questions should be.
Thank you.
- 1995
1) Continuous activity (in this case in the past):
"While you were sleeping, i was working" - "пока ты спал (/спала) я работал (/работала)";
"I was working last Saturday from 9 am to 6 PM" - "я работал (/работала) в прошлую субботу с 9 утра до 6 вечера";
2) The regular activity in the past:
"I used to work at the factory, now I work in a supermarket" - "Я работал (/работала) на заводе, теперь я работаю в супермаркете";
3) One action in the past:
"i worked at the Olympic games" - "я работал (/работала) на Олимпийских играх";
These all are used with "я работал (/работала)".
Present Perfect and Past Perfect:
"Я работал (/работала)" / "я поработал (/поработала)" / "я отработал (/отработала)" (the last is often used) "я проработал (/проработала) - means "I have worked" or "i had worked" (it depends on the context). Examples:
"Я работал (/я работала)":
The action finished recently:
"Today I have worked like a robot" - "сегодня я работал (/работала) как робот";
An action that ended at some point in the past:
"Before I came here, I had worked for the company for 2 years" - "Прежде чем я приехал сюда, я работал (/работала) в компании в течение 2 лет".
"Поработал (/поработала)" - поработать means "to spend some time working"
"today I did a good job" - "сегодня я поработал (/поработала) хорошо";
"I have worked on many works" - "я поработал (/поработала) на многих работах"
"Отработать" - "To compensate for the labor (payment received, missed work time, use of property, etc.), to work off the advance."
"today i have worked my work shift" - "сегодня я отработал (/отработала) мою рабочую смену";
"Проработать" - "To make some a certain time, working" or "a detailed study, a comprehensive view of something"
"I worked at the factory for forty years, now retire" - "я проработал (/проработала) на заводе сорок лет, теперь выхожу на пенсию"
"I have worked this problem to find solutions" - "я проработал (/проработала) эту проблему для поиска решений"
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"I used to work at Microsoft" - "Я работал (/работала) в Майкрософт" means "now I don't work there". It doesn't need to add a phrase "But now I work for Apple". In Russian, the past is not the current state.
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Genitive case. The three meanings:
1) Genitive case in Russian calls "роди́тельный паде́ж". "Родительный" means "parental. This form denotes the genetic (or generic) description of something:
"Сын Джека" - "Jack's son"
"Активы государства" — "assets of the state, the state's assets, state assets".
It is a direct analogue of English possessive form - "kind of".
2) Quantitative/partitive:
«Пять долларов» - "five [of] dollars"
"Стакан сока" - "A glass of juice"
3) It is used with negations:
«яблок нет» (short form from "не есть" - "there is no") — "there is no apples", "у меня (/нас) нет яблок" - "I/we have no apples".
I think because "работал день и ночь" and "was working day and night" are corresponding idioms meaning "was working a lot." The default meaning of your suggestion, however, would be that someone worked both day and night shifts (not necessarily a lot of work in total, just alternating schedules). "Worked nights," for example, seems to be translated "работал(а) по ночам."
Clearly the woman speaking used the masculine form of worked. I was very tempted to use "работала"
I find it odd and confusing that they use the woman's voice for a masculine sentence.
