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- Topic: Russian >
- "Сестра ест моё яблоко."
33 Comments
The English in this sentence seems a little unnatural to me. It seems like it should be My sister, or at least a or the sister, though that would sound like it was talking about nuns or something. Does anyone else think the same?
Good, it's not just my flawed brain. I suppose it might be both of our odd brains... :-D
Im pretty sure it's a contextual issue. Like within a nunnery "sister" is used as a first name. Perhaps in Russian this is more common.
that's actually a very good point, though duolingo does show mama and papa etc brother etc.
Lol. "A sister is eating my apple": Wrong. "ThE SisTEr eATs mY ApPLe": Right.
I think you should ask this question to a psychologist, not random Internet users
Can 'ест' be translated as 'eats' as well as 'is eating'? I got ixnayed for using "Sis eats" instead of "Sister is eating", but I am uncertain Duolingo is telling me it's wrong because one or because both of these are incorrect.
"Is eating" sounds more natural in English for something that is being done right now, rather than a repeated occurrence. If she's eating one apple today, then another tomorrow, and another the day after that, then she eats my apples. If you're just saying that she's eating one right now, using "eats" is grammatically correct, but normally you would say she is eating my apple.
I'd guess "Sis" as a translation of сестра wasn't accepted. You could report that, but I would recommend translating as sister in future.
Sis is definitely an informal way of saying sister, so I'm not going to bother reporting that, no.
Thanks for the explanation of 'is eating' vs 'eats'. That makes a lot of sense. I'll try and remember it for the next time.
This is simply incorrect. I wrote: "A sister is eating my apple" and it was marked wrong and should be "The sister is eating my apple.". I'm just reviewing basics, and I'm telling you ... it's not right to mark that as wrong. "A sister" is just as acceptable as "The Sister". Doesn't matter how it could be used. With how we have to insert the indefinite article in English for the lack thereof in Russian? Both should be correct.
@ericashelton - Because there's no article or anything, that's definitely a legit translation, but "a sister" in English sounds like a female member of a religious order (like a nun at a convent).
With such limited context, both "a" and "the" sound kind of weird to me though :\
It is because яблоко is a neuter word.
мои is a plural.
мой [moy] is masculine.
моя [moya] is feminine.
моё [moyo] is neuter.
Credit to garpike and ILoveHens ( https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/15030386/What-is-the-difference-between-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B9-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%8F-and-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D1%91 )
No, моя is specifically for feminine words, and яблоко is a neuter word. Words ending in -е and -о are almost exclusively neuter.
есть, as in "у тебя есть" or "у меня есть" does have the meaning of possessing something. It's a homonym - a word that sounds the same but has a different meaning.
When/How does past tense come in? I wrote "The sister ate my apple" and it's wrong, just felt like trying :D
The past tense of yest is yel/yela/yelo - that would be imperfective (she was eating my apple). The perfective would be "съесть". Past tense would be Съел/Съелa/Съелo which would mean she ate the apple and the action is done. Sorry for switching from Latin to Cyrillic there...
click the voice thing and then hear the sentence this will make the sound of the sentence as your answer xD
