"Де тітка Тома?"
Translation:Where is aunt Toma?
44 Comments
Is the first "T" in "Тітка" pronounced more like a K? Or am I hearing it wrong?
Really? No, it's just a normal "T" sound...
Actually, there are two different "T" sounds in this word! Although the letter is the same, from our point of view consonants can be "soft" and "hard". The one followed by "i" becomes soft.
When you say the hard т (as in та то ту те ти) you touch your teeth with the tip of your tongue (you can even make it stick out a bit as in "th" for an exaggerated effect), and for the soft т (as in ті тя тє тю ть) you press your tongue against the roof of your mouth.
Maybe it's the soft "т" that sounded like "к" for you?
- 25
- 25
- 22
- 18
- 16
- 16
- 13
- 13
- 12
- 11
- 11
- 10
- 10
- 10
- 9
- 8
- 8
- 8
- 7
- 7
- 7
- 6
- 5
- 3
- 3
- 3
- 3
Oh, now I need to learn the cursive too. Thank you. Do you know where I can find it? I knew there had to be a reason, since it was everywhere she wrote.
Oh, haha, sorry, I just make Ukrainian words cursive sometimes so that they stand out in a sentence because I don't like to use quotation marks... I won't do that anymore :)
Here you go:
Interesting, I would like to understand why :) Maybe it's an effect produced by the "soft" T? (check the reply to HobsonA)
- 14
- 10
- 8
- 7
- 4
- 3
- 3
- 3
- 2
- 2
You're not alone, I definitely thought the first "т" in "тітка" sounded like an English "k".
- 19
- 10
- 8
- 8
- 6
- 6
- 4
Тітка is a literary standard, whereas тета is dialectical form, perhaps from Halychyna or somewhat close, if I'm not mistaken
- 13
- 13
- 8
- 7
- 6
- 6
It's possible that тета is derived from the Russia version, although the Russian spelling is тётя.
- 19
- 10
- 8
- 8
- 6
- 6
- 4
There's another dialectical version 'цьоця' but both of those used only in western Ukraine so doubtfully they are derived from Russian, maybe Slovak or Polish. I have people in my family who use 'тьотя' , that would be Russian.
- 25
- 25
- 15
- 13
- 9
- 6
- 4
- 2
I wrote "Where is Tom's aunt?" which was counted as correct. Is this right?
- 15
- 10
- 9
- 9
- 7
- 6
- 6
- 5
- 2
Yep. Creaters of the course had in mind feminine name Тома, but than realized that it's the same as genitive of masc. name Том
- 25
- 25
- 15
- 13
- 9
- 6
- 4
- 2
Perfect!
So "[something] Тома" means "Tom's [something]"?
Can the order be switched? "Тома [something]"
- 17
- 9
тут вообще круто! тут живой человек говорит! Я когда проходил Английский для русскоговорящих - там сначала вообще трудно было что-то понять (робот был ужасный) потом немного получше стало. А тут - шикарное произношение!
Only one letter different from "тётка", no? Both are either equally funny or equally OK from an English speaker point of view :D
- 21
- 14
- 14
- 11
- 11
- 7
- 6
- 6
- 5
- 4
- 2
Yeah, I think only Russian speaker may notice something funny here, because there's another word that sounds very similar to тiтка :D
- 10
- 7
- 5
- 5
- 2
- 2
- 2
Not at all. "Toma" - it's a female name. You can see it, because there is "aunt Toma", not "unсle". The full name is Tamara, it's not so popular slavic female name with semitic origin (from name of Tamar, a jewish woman, a personage from the Book of Genesis)
And the short nickname of Artyom sounds like Tyoma (or Töma) - and there is very strong difference between two names "Toma" and "Tyoma" - because you can't just call male by female name and vice versa.
Do people say that in English, the aunt Toma? Usually when you refer to your or somebody's relatives you don't add "the": uncle Sam, aunt Lisa, brother Tom and so on, never with "the".
- 10
- 8
- 7
- 5
- 3
Agreed. Adding articles in translation only makes sense if they're required or don't violate conventions of the target language.
- 14
- 10
- 8
- 7
- 4
- 3
- 3
- 3
- 2
- 2
"Do people say that in English, the aunt Toma?" No, we don't. P.S. Thanks for your Ukrainian tips.
- 10
- 5
- 3
"The" is used to define something Or to refer to certain thing It is not used with names Cause names naturally defined
