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- Topic: Russian >
- "Я ничего не читаю."
41 Comments
1699
I think you mean that English grammar does not allow double negatives, and that Russian, Italian, Spanish, and quite a few other languages not only allow them, but require them as part of the grammar.
When colloquial English uses double-negatives, they don't cancel each other out, either, but also intensify the negation. Example: "I don't have no idea what you're talking about!"
(Correct English: "I don't have any idea what you're talking about.")
Personally, I'd like to see certain double-negatives allowed in English, because they do indeed intensify the intent of the sentence.
1699
Grammatically correct English does not.
Colloquial English does, but it's not grammatically correct.
Example of incorrect English: "I don't have no shoes"
Correct English: "I don't have any shoes."
1865
I think at this stage they care less about appropriate translations and more about (near enough) direct translations. Sure "I don't read" and "I read nothing" are fairly synonymous, but it's testing word use, e.g. "nothing/ничего".
250
I'm fairly new to the DL community my self. However, I think that questions should be supported, not downvoted. Thanks for asking.
2376
Is this one of those instances where ничего is pronounced as "nicheVo"?
The "г" sounds like "g" in the sentence recording, but like "v" when I hover over the word.
1699
I have a few thoughts about it:
1. The negation of the verb using не should be before the verb, so не читаю is something you can regard as standard.
2. Я as the subject comes before the verb, so Я не читаю is a word order you can rely on.
3. That leaves ничего, which needs to go either before or after the negated verb. Some people have said that words like ничего are pronouns, which would naturally place them before the verb, but I did a couple context searches and found examples where it was after the verb. There is probably a nuance of emphasis which I just don't understand yet that depends on the placement of ничего.
a very bad audio. I couldn't catch the last word at all, even I was playing it in turtle speed. And after I have been practicing the same many times before. For me it sounds like the speaker says: "Я ничего не четайм". Of course I have never heard about this word and it probably doesn't exist. But I could not recognize the right one at all. So DL, please improve some of your pronunciations!!! You don't need to bind the sounds together like natives would do. It doesn't help us rookies here.
48
So if I understood correctly, these are ways to express that you don't read, just with different emphases. Or is there something wrong?
"я ничего не читаю" - I am not reading anything
"я читаю ничего нет" - I am reading nothing
"я не читаю" - I am not reading