"У директора нет друзей."
Translation:The director does not have friends.
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Thanks! Youtube has it with English subtitles! It will be my first Russian film!
if he were a socialist duck, we would know that he killed his friends by hungry or bullet.
The director has no friends because his friends are the means of production. It is the time for the workers to seize back these means and abolish all the directors that oppose us. Come on my friends, there is nothing to lose but our chains!
In this case, "директор" becomes genitive "директора" because "У" is followed by the genitive form of whatever noun or pronoun it precedes. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80
Ok, thanks! Just curious, how would a feminine director be in this case?
директриса is what I could find, but I have never heard it used in conversation
Yes, rather директрисса than директорша ;) You won't expect to hear something like than in a country, where female pilots are expected to answer "вас понял" - just as a males. In the "traditionally male" professions, it's rather impolite to point out on the female gender. Ткачиха, учительница, воспитательница - it's OK (the male gender would be more unusual there); директрисса, врачиха, инженерша - it may be OK in theory, but you won't call 'em that in the face. Лётчица, снайперша - doesn't sound nearly as bad for some reason. Even than, is you point out the gender, it implies on qualities other, than professional. In Russia, "female professional" points out on the only possible profession, even if you say that in English.
For some reason директисса is considered somewhat acceptable, when you mean a female headmaster of a school. But a director of a firm would always be директор regardless of their gender.
Just found out today that Russian apparently has a fourth grammatical gender called the common gender (общий род). It encompasses animate nouns that can represent people (sometimes also animals) regardless of the represented person's gender. It includes words like «сирота», «врач», «директор», making «директор» a word that can also represent a female director. Think of it as being able to refer to a woman who acts in movies as an "actor" rather than an "actress".
So long, as you realize, that "директрисса" offends, it's your choice entirely. Sometimes you may afford it, sometimes you rather not.
@redarkblade, "директор" is acceptable for females and often preferred. In Russian, there are many instances in which female professionals take the technically male version of their title. For example, it is common to call a doctor "врач" regardless of gender.
I never have called a medical doctor "врач" but always "доктор." Например, спрашиваю, "Кто она?" Ответ: "Она врач." Понятно. Тогда я к врачу (к ней), "Доктор, у меня такая проблема."
On the other, at the institute where I go to work periodically, if I asked "Кто она?" and got the answer "Она доктор", then I would further ask, "Какой? Физ-мат или мех-мат?"
So друзей is genitive plural of друг, right? I'm kind of curious about the rule for making plurals here.
Друг seems to be an irregular noun. http://www.russianforeveryone.com/Rufe/Lessons/Course1/Grammar/GramUnit2/GramUnit2_2.htm
Директор - Director/CEO, principal.
I just realised a thing about my own native language: Swedish! In Swedish, just like in English, there are two different for director and principal: direktör and rektor. I have just realised that they maybe come from the same root.
How does one say in Russian "The director thinks he has many friends, but actually he has none" ?
I will make an attempt: Директор считает, что у него много друзей, но в действительности у него никаких.
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"у него никаких" is not correct grammatically, "у него их нет" sounds much better. "None" cannot be translated literally
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My father and his former director became friends (back in the soviet union) and he took my father to archaeological excavations
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reminds me of García Márquez`s famous novel El coronel no tiene quien le escriba ... (The colonel has nobody who writes to him)
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or El otoño del patriarca. I think the coronel does have friends, he just doesn't get that one letter
Possession (having something) has (possesses) several aspects. The most common form of "having" is expressed in Russian with the "possessor" being the location for the thing or things possessed. In other words, the person or thing which "has" is not regarded as the active agent. In this case, the friends actively exist (or don't exist). The preposition у (Latin u) could be translated into English as "by." "By director no friends." = "The director has no friends."
In English I say, "I have a headache." In Russian I say, "By me head aches" ("У меня голова болит").
I have a computer and I have friends. My computer belongs to no one else. My friends do not "belong" to me and are also friends of many other people. In Russian, I can say both "у меня комрьютер" and "я имею компьютер." I would not say "я имею другей" but would only say "у меня друзей." In other words, the verb "иметь" (to have, to possess) is a "stronger" notion of possession.
As there are no articles in Russian, there are no equivalent to this Russian form in English. "He hasn't" - "У него нет"; "He has" - "У него есть" - and that's about it, you just have to memorize the form I suppose.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_case#Russian - It doesn't help, not really. Even as I thought it should...
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D1%83#Preposition_2 - It may help. Somewhat. After a fashion...
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Russian_prepositions
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The word 'manager' wasn't accepted. Curiously, though, in Spanish and other languages this term often translates as 'director/directeur/direttore'.
Я согласен. And some Russian language apps actually teach that директор = manager.
We typically never say this in English- I can't think of a single instance that sounds correct. "No friends" is far more common, and both mean the same thing.
How would you say in Russian: "The director and I are not friends"?
Anyone any serious question? Russian grammar dudes. So друзей should be genitive plural of друг (friend). Are there different forms for the other cases in the plural? E.g nominative plural and dative plural are different from друзей.
I put the boss doesnt have any friends, is that wrong? Or does it only mean like movie director?
Директор in Russian doesn't mean a movie director. It's 1) "a person who is in charge of a department, or organization"; 2) "a member of the board of people that manages or oversees the affairs of a business"; 3) headmaster / headmistress. A movie or theatrical director is режиссёр.
I'm not sure about that. It's a close thing but not exactly the same. Boss can be anyone higher than you, but директор is usually someone who is on the top. Here is a very big Rus-Eng online dictionary. It doesn't have "boss" as a valid translation for директор.
Wrong word stress
- У дирЕктора нет друзей (the director does not have friends.)
- Они все директорА (all of them are directors)
"The director doesn't have friends" is not accepted while "The director does not have friends" is. Countless times encountered the same error here, you need to remember that "doesn't" and "does not" are messed up in this course.
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The director has no friends - not accepted, even though it's an interchangeable sentence in English.
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I think they simply forgot to add this translation, so you should probably report it.