31 Comments
Without «родна́я», it wouldn't be clear if she's a sister (родна́я сестра́), or a (first) female cousin (двою́родая сестра́).
In fact, it can be a more distant relative of the same generation: a second female cousin (трою́родная сестра́), a third female cousin (четырёхю́родная сестра́)... Technically you can have an unlimited number of these: пятию́родная сестра 'fourth female cousin', шестию́родная сестра 'fifth female cousin'... стою́родная сестра '99th female cousin', тысячею́родная сестра '999ths female cousin'. :D
In четырёхю́родная why is ю́ stressed? Aren't all words with ё accentuated in that syllable?
This word is composed of 2 roots, so it has two stressed syllables: the main stress on ю́ and secondary stress on ё.
It is impossible for that syllable to be stressed. In a word either the last syllable or the one of the two syllables before the last are stressed. I think this is how it works in english too.
You must be confusing Russian with some other language. Russian allows stress on any syllable, it has no problem with words like «му́ченичество» where the fifth syllable from the end is stressed.
Родной may be used for blood relatives that are your siblings or your direct ancestors/descendants (e.g., parents, granparents, children, grandchildren). English does not have a word for it, so it gets lost in translation.
Parents, children, brothers, sisters are called first-degree relatives in English. Maybe coincidentally, but this also fits nicely with the other meaning of родной -I mean first language
Great! If so, though, DL surely should accept "...my sister by birth." with arguably just the same meaning. Reported.
I think there needs to be a clear difference in the words: "Анна" and "Она." I can't tell them apart.
To native speakers: is it wrong to say "она моя сестра" when talking about your actual sister?
No, of course it's correct to use it. It's just less precise: you can say «она́ моя́ сестра́» about sisters and about female cousins, while «она́ моя́ родна́я сестра́» refers only to sisters, and «она́ моя́ двою́родная сестра́» refers only to first female cousins, «она́ моя́ трою́родная сестра́» refers only to second female cousins, etc.
Would "birth sister" be an appropriate translation? As opposed to an adopted sister maybe?
You must not be hearing the same audio that I am. Is "она" supposed to be accented on the first syllable? The audio at the top of this page is not the same as the audio in the lesson. The lesson had both slow and fast and I'm not sure either was TTS. This page's audio sounds like TTS.
We only have two audio files, the normal one and the turtle-speed audio.
Она, они and оно are accented on the last syllable. And they do not have a prolonged "n". They synth has its share of glitches but not that obvious and not here. Its most jarring downsides are sudden pitch changes and intonation.
Well, I don't know what else to say. The pronunciation of "она" that I heard for this sentence, in the lesson, was accented on the first syllable, both slow and fast. I listened to both to be sure of what I was hearing. So I typed "Анна" in my answer and got marked wrong. The audio at the top of this page is not the same audio that I heard.
You can tell its она and not Анна because there is no additional stress on the н sound. In russian if you have double consonants between the same two vowels you give the consonants a little stress by lingering when you say it. Sort of like Italian.
No, genitive singular is сестры́: у сестры́ 'at [the] sister's [possession/place]'.
The forms with ё are:
- nominative plural: сёстры 'sisters',
- dative plural: сёстрам 'to [the] sisters',
- instrumental plural: с сёстрами 'with [the] sisters',
- prepositional plural: о сёстрах 'about [the] sisters'.
Genitive and accusative plural also has ё, but in a different place: сестёр. So, у сестёр 'at [the] sisters' [possession/place]' (genitive), я ви́жу сестёр 'I see the sisters' (accusative).
You can see the full forms of the Russian nouns in the Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/сестра#Declension_2 (if the table is hidden, click on the ‘Declension of сестра́ (anim fem-form hard-stem accent-d reduc irreg)’ blue box to open it).
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I've put "She is my blood sister" because was thinking of the difference between a step sister and a sister from the same parents, but it was rejected. Is it an acceptable translation? Should I report it?
