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I wondered who'd be the first to stick that butterfly in a comment somewhere. I wouldn't have guessed that this would be the sentence, though.
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I would think so, yes, but I confess to being completely ignorant regarding tattoos in general, let alone Russian ones.
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Can this also be translated as "The old woman has a lot of experience"?
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думаю да, because "бабушка" can be your grandmother or just separate old woman
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Thanks, I don't fully understand that yet but it helps, I thought и meant plural, I guess not always
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The и ending is used to mark the genitive case in singular nouns whose nominative singular forms end in -ка, -га, -жа, -ша, -ща, -ча or -я. In feminine nouns whose nominative singular ends in -ь and neuter nouns in -мя, the и ending is not only used for the genitive singular, but also for the dative and prepositional singular forms (in the case of -мя, the final -я is historically part of the root and -мя is replaced with -мен before all endings - e.g. имя - имени, именем etc.) . И is also used instead of е in the dative singular forms of nouns whose nominative singular ends in -ия, and in the prepositional singular forms of nouns whose nominative singular ends in -ия or -ие or unstressed -ий.
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Why is "experience" not in the genitive plural here? I thought that много always took the plural genitive.
My thinking is that she does not have a lot of experiences, but a lot of experience.
I think experience in its singular nominative form is опыт. But I am guessing here as I am also a learner...
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True, unless the word 'experience' is modified with an adjective in which case the word опыт often proves to be the wrong choice, "событие [в чьей-то жизни]" or "испытание" being the more preferable options. Sometimes it's best to omit the noun in translation and use the short neuter adjective form alone, e.g. "It was an exciting experience" = Это было очень интересно, "It was a tough experience" = Это было нелегко, "It was a tough experience for her" = Ей пришлось нелегко. The thing is that if you modify опыт with an adjective, the word tends to be interpreted as having its other meaning which is 'experiment'.
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It is OK, though, to say things like "У него большой опыт работы в этой сфере" = He has lots of work experience in this field
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много does always take genitive but you can use it with genitive singular.
A lot of water = много воды: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/12804317
A lot of bread =много хлеба: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/12404054https://www.duolingo.com/comment/12404054
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Interesting question, I analyzed some examples that came to mind, think we use есть, иметь (have, to have) only when it in opposite to нет, не иметь (do not have), in other cases У кого-то, чего-то replacing есть, for example:
He can drive (take) us, he has a car - Он может отвезти нас, у него есть машина. (as opposed to us, we don't have)
He is a real hunter, he even has a rifle - Он настоящий охотник, у него даже есть ружье (в отличие от нас)
Вам надо пройти два квартала, там есть отель (and here is no hotel)
in other cases we do not use есть
У меня две собаки - I have two dogs. (in phrases like: У вас кот? А у меня две собаки.)
У моей жены красная машина - My wife has a red car.
Maybe there are other cases, so here is professional article http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/the-unusual-use-of-%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C-in-modern-russian.2380374/
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In a previous question in the same lesson, "a lot of experience" was translated as "большой опыт" (or whatever the proper case of that word is). But here it's "много опыта". Are they synonyms or is there a rule when one is used instead of the other?
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They are synonyms but I would stick to the phrase "большой опыт" as "много опыта" is a lottttt less common (hardly ever used, in fact). We do, however, use the adjective многоопытный (having a lot of esperience) to add sarcasm. Other, less formal ways of saying, "She has a lot of experience" are "Она давно живёт на свете" and "Она многое повидала на своём веку"
