"We have ice cream for dessert."

Translation: У нас есть мороженое на десерт.

[KyleDumovic]

Why на десерт and not для десерт?

[2E3S]

На обед, на ужин, на завтрак, на десерт, на первое, на второе (as a part of meal), they usually all take "на" meaning "to". Для requires genitive, by the way: для десерта. It sounds grammatically valid as well but rather uncommon and semantically different here.

[Davishiro]

Why dessert isn't conjugated like десерта? На and для are prepositions as far as I know

[Adrienne134675]

I am also confused on this. We use на столе and на дереве and на салате but then... на десерт?

[AllieC490376]

Yeah, it's a bit confusing alright!!! :-/ на + Accusative usually implies movement...

I found a discussion about the same sentence at :
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/11947453/Buy-ice-cream-for-dessert

Apparently, it's a set expression to use на + Accusative in "for lunch/dinner" etc...

I also found this extract from Russian For All Occasions: A Russian-English Dictionary of Collocations and Expressions.

"When ordering, it is customary to use the accusative for the item being ordered."

[RaginEvet]

Maybe, it's accusative . Because it is no living male object, there is no "a" = десерта is wrong.
Or - because desert might be a foreign word in Russian - like taxi and others - it wouldn't be changed in any case.
I suppose the first one, because in the translation they mention десерта - which then would be genetive with other prepositions like "из, у..."

[matheus110641]

I think it's just an semanthic difference.

[IgorSejas1]

If you ever have the chance to try Russian ice cream, do it. It's amazing.

[JasonHave]

Yeah it is. Imagine eating Russian ice cream with your new Russian girlfriend...

[RaginEvet]

In a Mixmarkt

[ChikCheSpa]

Why is У нас мороженое на десерт wrong ? Cant we ommit есть ?

[zirkul]

It is not wrong, and it is accepted. It has a slightly different meaning though:

"У нас есть мороженое на десерт" could mean one of the two things:
- "We have ice cream as one of the dessert options"
or
- "We have something for dessert; it is ice cream".
In Russian we use "есть" in Present Tense to demonstrate the existence (or availability) of something that may or may not exist/be available. In this case "есть" would demonstrate the existence of ice cream as one of the options or just the existence of dessert.

Meantime, "У нас мороженое на десерт" simply describes the dessert. Its existence is implied or was never in doubt.

[Matrix2913]

Nice reminder

[Makepeace8]

Is "У нас на десерт есть мороженое" actually wrong, or should it be accepted?

[2E3S]

It sounds correct, but probably the words order is not neutral.

[QurtQurt]

на десерт = на сладкое

[zirkul]

FYI: одним из распространённых вариантов десерта в Европейской кухне (например во французской или испанской) является сыр. Так что со знаком равенства Вы явно погорячились. Но в данном контексте годится, я добавил.

[doubsel]

Лол в другом задании, модераторы говорили нечего спамить (хотя тех кто поддержал более логичные варианты перевода много людей поддержало их кристалами) мы не можем добавить другие варианты, ставьте флажки. И кому прикажите тогда верить? А рандомному человеку без нулевой поддержки конечно хочешь на добавим еще переводик.

[ricojes]

does the на in such constructions require accusative?

[deactivated user]

Why isn’t it «У нас есть мороженое на десерте.»?

[JasonHave]

This is one of the things why I won't get duolingo plus. I am here to learn a a language, not to become a master in it without the proper explanations.

Besides who the Q would care if I would say: для десерта or на десерта? Answer: it is No One.

But really, why is для десерта not correct... Anyone?

[Claudia674060]

I have no russian alphabet on my mobile