31 Comments
"There is the luggage" is virtually the same as "the luggage is there" !!
I put "Baggage is there", and was marked wrong. Can this not be referring to just generic baggage? Does it have to strictly be specific baggage? Does it really require the definite article in the English? This may be a little far fetched, but what if I'm walking along with a friend, and I just happen to spot a pile of random baggage on the side of the road, could I not say "Багаж там"/"Hey, look, baggage is there"? (Insert whatever is Russian for "hey, look" at the beginning of the Russian bit. lol)
In your example I would say "Look, there is baggage." (I would also say in Russian it would be Там багаге but the difference seems very subtle).
There is the possibility to point out something that is not countable (like baggage here) and not specific. For example when you are in a supermarket and you ask where the sugar is. The assistant would point to an aisle and say 'Sugar is there.' But I am not sure if that would work for baggage. To be sure I usually use 'the'.
When you ask where something or someone is, the answer would be 'the baggage is there' - багаге там. When you spot something or someone, I would say 'there is (the) baggage/a (or the) house/Tim' - там багаге/дом/Тим.
10
Without any context, my brain first jumped to 'luggage is there', as in 'there is where luggage goes', as might be pointed out on a train or something, in which case 'the luggage is there' would, in fact, be wrong, as you wouldn't be referring to anyone's specific luggage. That's always the difficulty with these sentences; lack of context. There are times in English when I would use 'the' and times I wouldn't, and we language learners have no way of knowing if the Russian works for both versions or not.
I said "there is the luggage" and was marked wrong. That's not any different from "The luggage is there."
So it seems, the consensus opinion, especially for lack of context, is that luggage is there," and "there is luggage," should be marked as correct. If there is an outstanding reason why this is not so, I suggest the question be moved to a more advanced level of exercises after some specific grammar coaching. Thank you.
Ш makes the 'sh' sound in 'ship,' whereas ж makes the 'zh' sound in 'pleasure:' the former is unvoiced where the latter is voiced.
With regards to щ, my understanding is that it makes a double 'sh' sound ('shsh'), though I am not entirely sure. Could someone more knowledgable than me clarify this?
Is "там" meaning "here" or "there"? Several questions do accept "here" as a correct aswer.
What's the difference between "There's the luggage" and "the luggage is there"?
why is "there is the luggage." not accepted? I reported it, but now am not sure if it is correct.
Russian does not have them, I think. That's similar in Finnish. When translating Russian to English, you have to interpret from the context whether there's need for a definite article. When translating English to Russian, you don't have to worry about them.
