"What do you think, is there a school here?"
Translation:Как думаете, здесь есть школа?
36 Comments
Yes, of course. When asking for a yes/no opinion, you use «как ты думаешь» or «как вы думаете»—or, in a more informal style, «как думаешь» and «как думаете».
It's confusing to hear you say "informal style" about a context that would otherwise use «вы». When would you use «как думаете» over «как вы димаете»? And when wouldn't you? How can you have "informal" sentences with «вы» forms if «вы» is formal?
I meant formality as in "casual speech vs. legal contract". Как думаешь/думаете is definitely quite casual. With a pronoun it is neutral.
Politeness is more about treating socially "superiour" with a little more respect, using more indirect requests,and doing so for people you do not know, too, just to be on the safe side. This "standard minimum of respect" takes conventional forms, so native speakers usually do it without thinking too much.
So you can still talk to a professor twice your age in a polite way even if you choose a fairly casual style ("I have a question"), rather than a formal/bookish one ("Recently, I have become aware I seem to lack understanding of a few points of a certain subject previously covered in your classes, professor")
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Don't forget that "Вы" is also the plural "you", not only the formal singular one.
Что вы думаете (о чём-то)? is "What do you think (about something)?" and requires a detailed answer. If you want a yes/no opinion on the truth of some matter, Как вы думаете is used (usually at the beginning of the sentence).
Sounds like Как вы думаете corresponds more with "do you think" and thus would be a better fit for this question about whether or not a school is here.
Why is есть needed in "здесь есть школа?" Can it work as just "здесь школа?"
Also, I got it wrong when I put "вот школа." Why would that not work?
Сдесь is used in expressions like "something is HERE", when we saying about it.
Вот is uset in expressions like "HERE is something", when we are showing something.
We must use есть to say that something exists.
BTW it's здесь, not сдесь. But thanks for the explanation! It cleared up a lot of stuff.
English speakers familiar with older language like the King James Bible should think of вот as being similar to "lo," or "behold." "Вот" is how these expressions are translated in the Russian Bible, and I think it is easier to understand that way. For example, John 1:36b, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" "Вот Агнец Божий." Note this is not translated into English as "Here is the Lamb of God," and although that might not be a terrible translation, it seems to lack the emphasis. Some newer versions say, "Look, the Lamb of God."
Why does this sentence need есть when it is omitted most of the time in countless other exercises. We would say "школа здесь" to say "there is a school here" - but here, in asking the question, all of a sudden the "есть"is required... ?
"Школа здесь" would be an answer to "Где школа?" In this case, the school is known and the unknown part is it's location.
"Здесь есть школа" would be an answer to "Что здесь?" We know about the place but we want to know what exists there.
It's a subtle difference but it comes down to what information is already known.
No, the question is not merely "Is the school here?" but "is there a school here?" that is, "Does a school exist here?" or "Do we have a school here?" It is the having or existing part that requires "есть". (Coming from an English grammar perspective.)
Can someone explain me why "как ты думаешь, есть школа здесь" is incorrect ?
Questions about having do not usually start with есть. Actually, Russian general questions have the same word order as statements.
Me neither, l know there's obviously no use of "to eat" here, but previously untill this point I was dealing with whatever Russian verb conjugation I encounter (usually with memrise) as a special form to be only memorised without knowing any specific rule.
For example, with sentences like ((я ем)), ((Он ест)), ((Они едят)), & есть was introduced before as to eat .. this is what made me confused.
Как ты думаешь, школа здесь есть? was accepted 6 June 2018. Does the word-order make any difference ?
Use "как ты думаешь" to ask for a yes/no opinion. Use "что ты думаешь о " + Prepositional if you want to hear out a lengthy talk on the subject.
Why not using быть instead?
I think I get confused with есть as it's often translated to the verb to eat .
есть IS the form of быть — in fact, the only surviving form (суть also gets used now and then, half of the time incorrectly).
I cannot see how one would use "to eat" here.
Thanks a lot Mr. Shady, After some searching I've come to understand that здесь (in this sentence) is considered a proverb describing the sentence ((есть школа)), школа is the subject and есть is its proper "быть imperfective" form, and ((здесь есть школа)) is considered a simple independent sentence.
Although I'm not totally sure of this conclusion, that's because considering ((есть школа)) as a sentence comes simply from a similar Arabic validity to place the verb before the subject and vice versa without making any change to the meaning, e.g. ((توجد المدرسة)) -this sentence is a word to word translation for ((есть школа))- compared to ((المدرسة توجد)) -which is literally translated to ((школа есть))-. And also that's because I'm not a big fan of word to word translation.
есть~has, ест=to eat. mostly. OK edited because there is a form of "eat" that is есть.
"Есть" is "to eat", "он/она ест" is "he/she eats"; у...есть is part of the expression that means "to have".
The phrase is really "как вы думаете" so "думаете" refers to the second-person plural "вы". (Yes technically in formal speech when you use вы you're referring to someone in plural like "you all" rather than singular. That's how it works.) If it was an informal exchange you'd say "как ты думаешь". If you used "думает" you'd be referring to a third-person singular like "он" or "она". For third person plural (они) it's "думают". It's not as simple as just "plural or singular" unfortunately.
You can think of it as "exists" in this context. "Does a school exist here?" That's what we mean in English when we say, "Is there a school here?" Being a German speaker also, I tend to think of it as "gives," like "Does it give a school here?" (Gibt es eine schule da?)
Not really, there is a difference in meaning between that and "What do you think, is there a school here?" It's subtle, I suppose, but not quite the same. Both languages seem to convey this distinction.
