35 Comments
папа is masculine and animate. Therefore it is supposed to follow the Genetive case. Why is it acting like a feminine then (папа -> папу)? Wait a second... another exception?!
Just like in Latin, there are declensions in Russian which are declined similarly. Папа is the first declension as well as мама. No matter how masculine and animate he is.
Another way of putting it (for those who don't know Latin) - nouns that are end in -а but refer to masculine people (папа, дедушка, etc) have the same forms as any feminine noun ending in -a as far as the word itself goes, but the rest of the sentence treats them as masculine.
старый дедушка - an old grandfather - not старая дедушка
папа купил хлеб - Dad bought bread - not папа купила хлеб
It should not be accepted. "is seeing" is a special expression which often means "is dating". This particular verb should be used here as "sees".
682
The present continuous form of see in English is .... is seeing ... English users have placed the emphasis on the continuing part in this particular verb. There is an element of interested intention involved in the ongoing process of seeing.
I am seeing a doctor means I am deliberately placing myself in the position of seeing the doctor for a continuing period for the express purpose of seeing him or her, maybe repeatedly.
I see the doctor means simply that the doctor has entered my field of vision.
Since seeing in the present continuous form is very, very commonly used to describe a romantic relationship with someone (you are deliberately, repeatedly placing yourself in the position of being able to see and interact with a particular individual) it is very seldom used in other circumstances without additional context to make it clear there is no romance involved.
I am seeing a doctor.....because of the ongoing pain
I am seeing a lawyer ......because I was arrested last night
I am seeing Nicole.......(the assumption without any context, is that it is romantic)
I am seeing a nurse......(again, without context provided, the assumption would be romance)
I am seeing my mother.....would not need context to eliminate romance but would seem a strange way to talk about it without additional context.
The present continuous is not used with stative verbs. "is seeing" is a set expression which includes more than just "seeing", but also meeting someone to see that person, whether romantically or for appointments. http://esl.about.com/od/grammarstructures/a/prescont.htm http://esl.about.com/od/grammarstructures/a/g_stative.htm
- 682
Many verbs are included in both the stative and action categories. See is one of them.
Seeing someone is in the present, is continuous and is explicitly active.
Seeing the sun rise is stative.
- 682
We are learning both since both languages are involved in translation. No matter how advanced our knowledge of one of the languages, we are learning something about it if we advance far enough in our target language.
That may not be true for you. If so, please ignore any posts relating to the differences between Russian and English.
apparently 'papa' in the only permitted translation for 'папа.' They don't accept 'pop' or 'dad.' Also 'вирит' can only be translated as 'sees,' not 'is seeing.'
Good, I'm glad their breakup didn't effect the kids relationship with the parents
Does Russian not capitalize proper nouns like in English?
For example, the correct translation of this sentence would be "The child sees Mom and Dad." because "Mom" and "Dad" here are proper nouns (this is currently incorrect in the English translation).
I think you're right that the translation is technically not correct grammar, but many native English speakers do not capitalize "mom" and "dad" even when they refer to a specific person.
It's actually new to me that Mom and Dad should be capitalized. However, this definitely isn't used in Russian. Well, it definitely isn't correct in Czech and I'm pretty sure it's not correct in Russian either.
Capitalization of proper nouns is more of a German grammatical-rule. English mainly capitalizes names/countries/languages (e.g.: John, Jane, Jill, Jack, etc.; Canada, America, Britain, United Kingdom, Great Britain, etc.; French, Russian, Japanese, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek, English, Mandarin, Korean, etc.; but non-specific nouns are generally not capitalized unless starting the sentence -- e.g.: cat, dog, tree, country, landmark, name, language, place, etc.; but specific-named nouns become capitalized -- e.g.: the White House, the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, the 9/11 Tear Drop Memorial, etc).
When a masculine noun ends in а or я (дедушка / дядя), it forms the Accusative like feminine nouns.
дедушка (Nom. singular) ⇒ Я вижу дедушку (Acc. singular)
Is article in english answer nescesary? I am not english native speaker and have problem with it.
"The child sees mom and dad" works in English as long as the mom and dad referred to are either a) the speaker's mom and dad [more properly written Mom and Dad] or b) the child's mom and dad. In the first case, Mom and Dad are functioning as proper nouns. The second case is probably best understood as an idiom - a similar construction likes "the father sees son and daughter" does NOT work.
"The child sees a mom and a dad" or "The child sees the mom and the dad" are possible translations of the Russian, but unlikely - they refer to some entirely different mom and dad. The alternative to b) would be "the child sees his/her mom and dad"
The good thing is that this is the Russian course!!!
I gave "the child sees ITS mom and dad". This was marked as incorrect. Can someone please explain why?
In the English reply 'her' is added, whereas there is no 'её' in the Russian sentence.
Whose mom and dad are these? In English they are most likely the speaker's parents. Is that the same in Russian?
Rebenok vidit mamy i papy. - how else can one write these cyrillic words in roman script?
- 434
I tried "The baby looks at mom and dad".
"Look" does not work here? Does it have to be "sees"?
Russian has basically the same distinction as English. "The baby looks at mom and dad" would be:
Ребёнок смотрит на маму и папу.
- 682
In English, look refers to where you direct your eyes.
See refers to what your consciousness registers.
I saw that coming may well have nothing to do with your eyes.
They look but cannot see is all about lots of use of eyes but not being able to register what is important.
You can assume that most modern languages will have words that make the same distinction as English. You can interchange the words but only because you are ignoring the difference. Lots of time the difference is unimportant. But look and see are still different words with different meanings.
If you exchange look and see in the two examples I gave in this comment, it completely changes the meaning of the two sentences.
