19 Comments
Уме́ть means having a certain skill.
- Я уме́ю гото́вить. 'I can cook.' = 'I know how to cook.'
- Я уме́ю пла́вать. 'I can swim.'
- Я уме́ю игра́ть в футбо́л. 'I know how to play f̶o̶o̶t̶b̶a̶l̶l̶ soccer.'
- Я уме́ю чита́ть мы́сли. 'I can read [other people's] mind.'
Мо́чь refers to general possibility, often the possibility to do action at the moment. When used without any context, it usually sounds as an offer:
- Я могу́ гото́вить. 'I can cook', 'I could cook'.
We don't say things like «я могу готовить» often, because, well, who doesn't? I think it's used with «не» much more often than in positive sentences.
- Я не могу́ гото́вить, не́ из чего. 'I can't cook, I don't have anything to cook!'
- Я не могу́ пла́вать без пла́вок. 'I can't swim without swimming trunks.'
- Я не могу́ игра́ть в футбо́л без мяча́. 'I can't play soccer without a ball.'
- Я не могу́ чита́ть его мысли, пока́ он но́сит ша́почку из фольги́. 'I can't read his mind while he wears a tinfoil hat.'
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In this option must be: "knows". Because when he sick he can't, although he knows.
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The way the woman is pronouncing it, it sounds like "умед". Would a Russian speaker not really pronounce the two "e"s separately?
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Yeah the pronunciation of уметь is totally off. Should be more like "umeejet" and not "umeet" here.
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Ah... one of the few sentences that are shorter in English than in Russian!
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Hey! I think I have just written my first Russian poem: он умеет готовить что он делает он там спит
hahaha does it make sense? Is my grammar right?