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- Topic: Russian >
- "Луна вращается вокруг Земли."
33 Comments
that infuriating/embarrassing moment when you understand the sentence but can't remember the right word in your native language...
Oh I even didn't know. I just assumed it was wrong because English is not my native language
Correct, I suppose, but I think it's unnatural. "Orbit around" is redundant and I don't think I've ever heard someone say that.
2439
It may be redundant, but I hear such statements more frequently with "around" than without. This may be another of our friendly regional variants.
Yes, I'm pretty sure that should be right. Me, I forgot the word orbit. And English is my native language, so I have no excuse...
Good! Although incorrect. The Earth has a rotational period of about 24 hours and an orbital period of about 365 1/4 days. Correct would be "The Moon revolves around the Earth."
For physical motions, "rotate" is "to turn around on or as if on an axis" and "revolve" is "to move in a circular or curving course or orbit (the Earth revolves around the Sun)."
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The Moon orbits the Earth.
It's perfectly a good translation and i've written that correctly plenty of times, but today i used present continuous, so is it really wrong? "the moon is orbiting the earth?"
There are some contexts where that would be fine: 'OK, here's our plan: the moon is orbiting the earth, let's take our space ship and...' However, as a general statement of fact it sounds unnatural - do you remember a time when the moon wasn't orbiting the earth?
That time would be before Theia collided with the Earth: http://www.space.com/25332-moon-formation-history-lunar-evolution-infographic.html
Also see http://www.space.com/29047-how-moon-formed-earth-collision-theory.html
- 155
Maybe a little off topic, but I heard the word возвращаться the other day, and that means "to return". Could anyone clarify how this is related to the word вращаться? They seem entirely different in meaning...
Redundant ?? What makes "orbit around" more redundant than "turn around"?
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When someone says turn they don't always mean around. The direction of the turn is important and needs to be specified. But nobody i know says "orbits around." "Revolves around," is more common.
- 377
Fkat earth comment was posted twice. He is obviously curious what the heck flat earth has to do it. Msybe it radiates xtra XP...
Using "вертеться" in this context is colloquial and, frankly, pretty childish. So while it's possible it's not better.
- 377
So the song wasn't a child's song.. it was essentially a prayer to God, sung by a Russian woman, praying for God not to forget her and the poor. Prayer Francois Villon. So what exactly is the meaning of вертетсяь, Пожалуйста!
"Вертится" does mean "turns". It's just not the best choice for the more formal language. The singer was going for a more colloquial style. In that case it's not about being childish, but rather "honest", "down to earth", maybe a bit "unsophisticated".
I never said it's a wrong word to use. We use it a lot. It's just not better than "вращается" when we talk about celestial objects. It's just different and fits different style. You wouldn't use it in a scientific report, that's it.
- 377
Awesome as always! Thanks so much. That song and lyrics are on Utube. So beautiful and I memorized it and learned new words. Regina St.. forget. You probably know about her.
