"Кто может написать это слово по-немецки?"
Translation:Who can write this word in German?
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my russian roommates told me that you absolutely have to say написать here, that писать plainly doesn't work. I'm guessing though, that the purpose of написать is to show that it's just like, one word, and you're writing it down once, and that's it. using писать would be like saying "who can be writing this word?" or something among those matters.
really just came across to this conclusion by comparing it to говорить and сказать. I dunno if говорить doesn't work here at all, but if you compare it to english, you don't speak a word, you say a word. even though (according to the mates) you wouldn't say он говорит слово but он выговорит слово, if I understood right.
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if i use кто может писать anyway, would it suggest a situation, plausible or not, where writing something repeatedly is a feat not everyone is capable of?
You use the perfective (написать) here instead of the imperfective (писать) because you are completing a specified action; i.e., writing this word in German, rather than just writing in general. Я пишу = I write (in general), or I'm writing (at this moment). Я напишу новый роман моим уважаемым читательям = I'm writing a new novel for my esteemed readers.
Careful - напишу has future meaning ('I will write') since написать is perfective; and we don't need the ь in читателям - the я on its own shows the softness of the л. :)
As I understand it, it means "I will write (to completion) as opposed to the imperfective form in the future, which would mean just "I will be writing"
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conversely if i were to translate "who is able to", would кто может or кто умеет be more suitable? though i suspect кто умеет would suit "who knows how to" more often.
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What's the difference with the Russian sentence for: "Who can write this German word?"?
That would be, "Кто может написать это немецкое слово?" The sentence in the example seems to imply that the word is given in Russian (or another language), and asks the speaker to translate it into German and then write it.
The pickiness of this course with "this" or "that" is strange. Often they are completely interchangable, sometimes only one works, never is it explained. At least keep it consistent.
They have different aspects; verbal aspect in Slavic languages is a complicated topic.
Long story short, perfective verbs are used for single specific actions whereas imperfective verbs are used for everything else (ongoing, repeated, habitual actions or the name of the action in general).
In this particular sentence, it is the presence of "this word" that maked написать the natural choice (the speaker has a specific act in mind, with a word succesfully written as a result). On the other hand, in a sentence like "Who can write novels?" either could appear depending on what you mean.
Any reason for using может instead of умеет? Since it's asking who can, implying who is able?
Why is "Who can write that word in German?" I thought это can be translated as this or that, depending largely on the context.
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This word = Это слово (meaning that the word is close to the speaker and the person he speaks to, for example, it is written on the blackboard or a person can read it in the book in his hands)
That word = То слово (meaning the word can be seen on a sign or something in a distance)
As a native Russian speaker I wouldn't recommend to translate this case as "THAT word".
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When you are talking about a language do you always have to use по? Like по-русски or по-английски
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So if I wanted to say "I know a little bit of Russian", I'd say "Я немного знаю по-русский" ?
написать seems to be a past tense infinitive. Therefore why does this sentence not read Who can have written.... or Who could write.....
The perfective verbs use is more complex than it... It is used for an unique action, by example and also in future.