- Forum >
- Topic: Russian >
- "Что вы здесь видите?"
24 Comments
Is this what a Russian psychologist might say to their patient when pointing to an ink blob? :-)
My Russian is very basic, but as I understand so far "Что вы здесь видите?" has more emphasis on "seeing" and "Что вы видите здесь?" would have more emphasis on "here". Please someone confirm this or correct me :)
It is accurate, Russian sentences tend to "backload" their sentences, or put emphasis or more important information at the end (whereas in English we tend to put such information earlier on).
Can someone give me an example of situations where здесь is the emphasis, as opposed to видите in the sentence 'что вы здесь видите?'
130
I think this would emphasize здесь:
Что вы видите здесь?
Здесь is emphasized because it is placed at the end.
Can someone help me with word order please? If I understand this correctly it goes (question word)(subject)(assumed)(important)?
Example: at a therapists office Что вы здесь видите Что (question) вы (subject) здесь (its assumed youre only able to look here) видите (how do you interpret)
Vs
Example: blind man being led Что вы видите здесь Что (question) вы (subject) видите (its assumed your looking for the man) здесь (info he is asking for)
"Как" is "how", not what. For instance, "It's very dark in here, how can you see?" - "Здесь очень темно, как вы можете видеть?"
@S.B13896 - Ты is for informal "you" (when speaking to a friend or family member or someone younger than you); Вы is formal "you" (when you're speaking to a stranger who's older than you, a person in a position of authority like a teacher, boss, etc.) and plural (when speaking to two or more people, regardless of level of familiarity).
It's a very awkward wording. You would be understood but outside of poetry this word order is very unnatural.
