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- "Это моя новая книга о мальчи…
"Это моя новая книга о мальчиках и девочках."
Translation:This is my new book about boys and girls.
39 Comments
I'm a bit confused. This sentence is taught in the instrumental case lesson, but I thought о goes with prepositional case?
After 5 exercises where you use the same endings, you can turn into a robot and not really learn anymore. Mix it up to stay fresh
This is absolutely true and it can be seen as either an issue or a feature with multiple courses on Duolingo. The words “мальчиках” and “девочках” in isolation can either be instrumental or prepositional plural. The instrumental case lesson teaches these two words because they can be in the instrumental case and so Duolingo places them here. It can be confusing, but it can also help you make connections and associations within a language that are not necessarily grammatical but still correct.
The instrumental plural of the words 'мальчик' and 'девочка' are 'мальчиками' and 'девочками', respectively. 'Мальчиках' and 'девочках' can only be the prepositional plural of both words.
You are 101% wrong. It is impossible to be more wrong than you. You said the most wrong thing ever spoken.
True, "a book about" something or someone is more common in English, but "a book on" something or someone is also quite possible (with "on" having the same meaning as "about").
"A Book on Life and Death Becomes a Best Seller" is an example headline in a major American newspaper. https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-book-on-life-and-death-becomes-a-best-seller-1482167354
1652
Books "on" particular subjects are not the same as books "about" those subjects. Books "on" any particular subject usually are discussions of the subject matter in a disassociated format - objective rather than subjective, distanced rather than involved. For example, sociologists would read books "on" the relationships between boys and girls at various ages. Novels dealing with the same subject matter would be "about" boys and girls; there is no distance between the reader and the subject matter, if the novel is any good.
"Adolescent society: The social life of the teenager and its impact on education." is a book on teenage boys and girls. One could say that this book is also "about" teenage boys and girls.
"Romeo and Juliet" is a play about a teenage boy and girl. One could not say that this play is "on" two teenagers.
You do not write books "on boys and girls" in english (but when youre sitting on top of them and are writing). If the content of the book tells about boys and girls then the book is about boys and girls.
I completely disagree, as words can have more meanings than one, depending on the context. In most cases you can infer what "on" means from the context and that "I'm writing a book on boys and girls" can have the same meaning as about, though to avoid confusion I would use about here too.
what morti said -- if reading, a book can be "a book on american people," but if writing it, it can only be "i'm writing a book about american people."
Might this sentence be said by the author of the book as well as by somebody who just purchased that book? The English sentence isn't inherently clear about that. Is the Russian sentence any different?
This is a prepositional sentence, not instrumental. Why is it in this lesson?
"A book about the boys and the girls" sounds very odd. I can't think of a scenario where a native would say it like that. Even if you were refering to a specific group of boys and girls, you would say "the boys and girls" (leaving off "the" before girls) but you still have to give context for the specificity, like "the boys and girls of Smith Elementary".
- 528
"I work at Smith, and I am writing an article about the teachers and the janitors."
"Really!? I work there too and am writing a book about the boys and the girls."
To my feeling, there's a slight difference between the two. 1 x the = a book about all children as a whole, their interactions, etc. 2 x the = a book about the boys on the one hand and the girls on the other. Could be different chapters for both, or not, but it implies a segregation. This may well be an interpretation, but it feels correct to me.
Could someone explain the distinction please. I thought the word это was supposed to be used with neuter nouns and that in thia case where книга is feminine that they would write эта. (If i did not understand correctly, I also think этот is the masculine form) or do they have completely different meanings
- 1652
Это has two meanings:
1. As you correctly say, it is the determiner "this/that" which is attached to nominative neuter singular nouns: это место "this/that place"
2. When not attached to a noun, it means "this is", "it is", "these/they are". In this function, "это" is invariable; it does not change, even if associated (but not attached to) a particular noun:
Это мальчик "This is a/the boy"
Это девочки "These are girls"
Это места "These are places"
This is a boy- Это мальчик/This boy...- Этот мальчик...
This is a girl- Это девочка/This girl...- Эта девочка...
This is milk- Это молоко/This milk...- Это молоко...
This sentence is in the wrong lesson. {Prepositional}
But still, I think Instrumental is the hardest case for me. I don't understand when to use it. I understand most of it, but then some sentences make it difficult and throw me off.
This is my new book about boys and girls. It is different from my other books about boys and girls in that the boys and girls have different names and that the actions are in a different order. If you liked my previous books, you will definitely love this one.
again! my answer was not accepted just because I wrote boys and girls the other way round.
