"У тебя есть телефон?"
Translation:Do you have a phone?
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After "у", we need "тебя" (2nd person Genitive of "you"), because this is a sentence about possession, and "у" requires that "you" be in the Genitive.
That's how possession is expressed in Russian: "By you/me/him/her/them is (x)"
I don't understand it to in translation. Its just a common phrase you have to use when you want to say, that you have something. You have to use: "у меня есть..." and not: "я имею..."
ест indeed is "eats" or "is eating". Есть, however, is the infinitive—and there is another есть, which is the only surviving present tense form of "to be".
In general, yes. There are a few exceptions where it is kept as a spelling convention after consonants that cannot change their pronunciation to palatalised (e.g., in мышь, ночь or читаешь).
Yes, it is one of the possible interpretations. Naturally, it is not as likely these days when mobiles are so widespread.
A very useful sentence when traveling to Russia from another country :D
In English, telephone could be shortened just to phone, could this work here (in Russian) too? спасибо!!!!!
Nope. Фон means "background". It is also a linguistic term unknown by most native speakers.
Since you, probably, did not know that meaning of "phone" in English, I think it is safe to assume you won't need it in Russian. "Background" is useful, though—just not in the historical sense. It is more like a literal background or something that figuratively serves as a background against which something else happens.
When I answered in English, "phone" is accepted as a translation of телефон, but I guess it isn't reciprocal.
So, if I were to ask if someone had a phone in AE, most people would assume/know I was asking about a landline telephone. Where as if I needed to ask if someone had a mobile phone, I'd use the word "cell", or (in some dialects) a "mobile".
What, if any, correlation exists in Russian? If I ask for a телефон, would I be directed to the nearest landline?
Спасибо!
Nowadays, if you ask someone if they have a телефон, they'll most likely assume you mean a cell phone, especially in public away from any landlines. It's the same in English where a phone used to only be a landline because cell phones weren't as popular, however, if you want to be 100% certain about what you mean, you can always say "Мобильный телефон" or "Мобильник". Hope this helps!
I answered 'do you have a telephone', and it is wrong. Telephone=phone?
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If this is asking about A (general) telephone, how would you ask "do you have THE (specific) telephone?" Is there a difference or is it context reliant??
У тебя есть это телефон, perhaps?
Edit: Definitely wrong. It would have to be "этот телефон" if anything, but that would mean "THIS telephone".
What's the spellinf of both do you have and i have? I'm getting the two mixed up
Well, there such words as "мобильный телефон" and "сотовый телефон". Some people even use the word "мобильник". But mostly people just say "телефон".
Word for word, "У тебя есть телефон?" means "By you exists telephone?". In Russian, there's no real verb for 'to have' (there is, but it's only used in specific contexts). Instead, you say that whatever you have is 'near you'. This is why even though you're talking about you (ты), it becomes "тебя" in the same way it's "HE has a phone." but "There is a phone by HIM".
Most questions in Russian start with the first word (often the question word) being raised in tone. Here's a good resource about intonation for questions:
Ты (тебя, тебе, тобой) is the singular "you"; вы (вас, вам, вами) is the plural one.
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What's the difference between this (and similar ones) sentence as a question and as an affirmative? If we can't even distinguish any changes in its intonation, how can we distinguish one from the other?