49 Comments
A neat tangent here (considering your user name) is that the meaning of Beowulf (the hero from the old saxon poem) is derived as such: Beowulf -> (old norse) bee wolf -> bee/honey predator -> (kenning) bear!
Almost. Медведев is "Bear's," not "bear's." It belongs to a person named Bear, not the animal bear. Медведь had kids, Медведев сын и Медведева дочка. Bear's son and Bear's daughter. A bear's fur would be медвежий мех.
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I am having a hardtime understanding ь. I am using duolingo only on my phone, so I can't read the notes before the skills. What am I missing out?
Here is the alphabet information: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/8256103 Alphabet
Use you browser to see this page and scroll down for the tips and notes: https://www.duolingo.com/skill/ru/Plurals
http://www.memrise.com/course/78454/learn-basic-russian/4/ See the video in lesson 4 about soft and hard consonants.
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It's not a standalone sound, it only "softens" the previous letter, though it has the most effect on suffixes/endings. Because of it the adjective is медведев, not медведов.
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It has no sound, it is basically like a punctuation mark. Same with ъ.
If you turn your phone sideways, you do have access to Tips & Notes.
The soft sign, мягкий знак, Ь, is not punctuation. It palatalizes the preceding consonant, but it does sometimes separate the next vowel. For example in пять ("five") the я already palatalizes the п so it sounds similar to "пьать," but пьяный ("drunk"), the ь separates the "пь" from the "яный" in pronunciation. Other wise "пяный" without a ь would sound like "пять."
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How do you scream: медведь? Seems harder to scream than "bear" or "oso" or "Bär" or "orso". Does anyone have a video? (Serios question )
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Берлога = the bear lair Бер+лога = берлога, the second part of word лога derived from логово = lair.
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The first part бер similar to English word bear. I think a long time ago in old Russian root бер meant bear, but supplanted by the word медведь
I think(only my thought, because of the names on several civilizations) that it might be something like the patronymic, like bearish or somethjng like that, It'd be funny as my girlfriend's surname is зайцева, which if I'm right, would be something like bunnyish
Bear's son = Медведев сын.
Hare's daughter = Зайцева дочь.
Rabbit's daughter = Кроликова дочь.
Is there a proper tone to say медведь! As in if you are taking a hike and see a bear and shout, "медведь!" Or would it be the same as in English-scared and panicky?
don't understand why its just bear. Why not I have a bear, or mishka est utka. Can you please explain why? BTW I live in texas and we had a tornado yesterday.... Speciva for all of your help. (I was being sarcastic)
Oh, I see what you mean. I don't know why they're just teaching a word. But,
I have a bear = У меня есть медведь.
Mishka yest utku. = Мишка ест утку. = A teddy bear is eating a duck.
Sorry you had a tornado. We don't have those here in CA. We have fires, floods, mudslides, and earthquakes, though. :-)
мишка is usually a teddy bear, or a cute bear in a storybook or cartoon for children. Or, very little children will call a bear мишка. Мишка is also the diminutive name for Миша, which itself is a diminutive name for Михаил.
Мишка = Mikey, Миша = Mike, Михаил = Michael
