Archives for: December 2009, 30
Не (часть вторая)
December 30th, 2009 by DonAfter two weeks of studying Russian every student knows that не means not. Thus «Я не говорю по-русски» means “I do not speak Russian.” Seems pretty simple. Nonetheless, не can sometimes be misleading because Russians often use не in offers/suggestions to make them softer, more polite, less pushy. Consider the following sentences and translations:
| Не хочешь пойти в кино? | Would you like to go to the movies? |
| Не хочешь чая? | Would you like some tea? |
| Не будем смотреть телевизор? | Shall we watch TV? |
| Не передашь мне журнал? | Could you hand me the magazine? |
Notice that none of the English translations have ‘not’ in them. The не in the Russian sentence simply makes the request a bit more polite, and therefore the best translation of such sentences often contains could or would in them.
Notice that a beginner might be tempted to translate «Не хочешь чая?» as “Don't you want some tea?” That would be a bad translation. When an English speaker asks “Don't you want some tea?”, he is asking because he is surprised that the other person doesn't seem to want tea.
XML Feeds