"It's dark there, that's why I think that he is going to fall."
Translation:Там темно, поэтому я думаю, что он упадёт.
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What an exceptionally useless hint for "fall"! It doesn't mention the verb "to fall", just the noun for the season between summer and winter, namely "autumn", as we say on this side of the pond!
I just left out the "я" and got marked wrong! All the nitpicking in this course ... "думаю" already means "I think", doesn't it? In some contexts, "я" might be necessary for emphasis, but there is no context here.
123
For the learners I would suggest not doing it at all, because I don't think that there is a rule. 'Я' is often unnecessary, but it is better to add it where it is optional than omit it where it is necessary, like in this sentence. Without it the sentence sounds off.
If you want more specific advice, I'd say you usually can omit 'я' in simple sentences where 'я' would be the the only subject when you're answering a question, especially if question doesn't have a subject either.
- Что делаешь? [What are (you) doing?]
- Думаю. [(I'm) ruminating.]
In complex sentences, like this one, just don't do it. It's not a rule, sometime you totally can, but it is better to be unusually specific than unusually bizarre.
Would считаю work as well ? I thought it meant "I guess" or "I reckon" or "estimate".
- 1885
Там темно вот почему я думаю что он упадёт this is absolutely a correct translation. I reported.
- 1529
I think something is fishy here. I can't catch the context As for me, I would say: "It's dark there. I afraid he's going to fall." - "Там темно. Я боюсь, что он упадёт."
Would someone please explain the difference in meaning between он упадёт and будет падать. I see the notes promise to cover буду later, but this looked like a good sentence to ask about.
- 123
TL;DR: "он упадёт" means completed action in future, "он будет падать" means continuous action in future. Verb "будет" used with imperfective verbs in future tenses.
In the Russian language, there are different verbs for perfective or imperfective aspect. This feature serves roughly (!) the same purpose as perfect tenses in the English language. For example,
to fall - падать (imperfective), упасть (perfective);
to suffer, to expirience hardship - страдать (imperfective), пострадать (perfective);
to provide light - светить (imperfective), посветить (perfective).
Now, things are actually a bit more difficult, because there are usually two verbs of imperfective aspect: determinate and indeterminate (not in examples above). Also, one verb of imperfective aspect (for example, плыть, swim) might have several different corresponding perfective aspect verbs (уплыть, приплыть, заплыть, etc) often with a different meaning, which in their turn each have corresponding imperfective aspect verbs (уплывать, приплывать, заплывать, etc). Don't think about it. Russians never do.
Perfective verbs only have past and future tense forms. Don't think about it too much either, after a lot of practice it will be intuitive. The important thing is that imperfective verbs don't have the future tense form, so to compose a future tense with an imperfective verb you need to use "быть" in future tense form + verb infinitive.
Она будет смеяться (She will be laughing)
Я буду бегать (I will be running)
Оно будет петь (It will be singing)
You do not normally do that for perfective verbs. There are exceptions, but again, don't be bothered at this point. Instead, you just use their future tense forms:
Она засмеётся. (She will start laughing)
Я убегу. (I will run away)
Оно споёт. (It will sing and it will finish singing whatever it will be singing)
So, 'он упадёт' (perfective aspect) is somewhat like 'he will have fallen', meaning that in future he will participate in an act of falling and this act will be concluded, presumably, by a landing of some sort. 'Он будет падать' (imperfective aspect) is like 'he will be falling', meaning that in future he will participate in an act of falling that will not have any specified conclusion and might go on indefinitely or (more likely) that he will repeatedly and relentlessly indulge in the act of falling, getting hight, and falling again.
what an utterly useless lesson for this sentence since the correct hints aren't available.
What about Темно там, ... - is this an unnatural order? I thought that adjectives should be said before whatever they are describing. No?
- 123
It is sound unnatural out of context, because in this order you put unexpected stress on the word "темно". It might make sense in a conversation tho. For example: "Почему ты думаешь, что он упадёт?" (Why do you think that he's going to fall?) "Темно там, поэтому и думаю!" (It's dark in there, that's why!)
- 1885
You can say this way, but usually Russians don't use such order of words. It isn't wrong, but it sounds a bit awkward.
- 1019
I couldn't figure out упадёт, suggestions were of little use - implying it's correct to use infinitive, nevermind nonsense about the autumn.
- 123
Different verbs. "Упадёт" - future tense, third-person, masculine of the perfective verb "упасть", "to fall". "Пойдёт" - the same form of the perfective verb "пойти", "to go". Corresponding imperfect verbs are "падать" и "идти".
- 625
Take these two sentences, both of them, and put them in ANOTHER translator. "Там темно, поэтому я думаю, что он упадёт." "Там темно, поэтому что я думаю, он упадёт."
Now tell me, WHY im wrong for writing the second phrase, when its closer to the "right" answer.
- 123
Because the second phrase is dead wrong and doesn't make any sense in Russian. You can't just move words around like that with no regards to the meaning whatsoever. Also, you should not rely on machine translation when dealing with highly synthetic languages, like Slavic ones. Sometimes it works, but more often than not it will come out as some horrible mess. Machine translation works better for analytical languages, like English or mandarin.