Archives for: January 2011, 06

День (часть вторая)

January 6th, 2011 by Don

Previously we discussed день ‘day’ in the nominative/accusative singular. What about the other forms? Here's where it gets tricky. The -е- is a fleeting vowel, which means any time you add a grammatical ending to the stem, the -е- drops out. The -ь at the end makes the stem soft, but it also drops out when endings are added, and the endings are always soft, so the declension turns out like this:

SgPl
Nomденьдни
Acc
Genднядней
Preднеднях
Datднюдням
Insднёмднями

Notice that except in the nominative/accusative singular, the д is immediately followed by н, which is tricky for us Americans to pronounce. It is a nasally-released soft [d]. In other words, you make the soft [d] sound, but then you let no breath out through the mouth, releasing the breath through the nose as you say the [n]. Here are a few sample sentences.

Я не хочу говорить о том дне. I don't want to talk about that day.
Всё должно быть готово к тому дню. Everything must be ready by that day.
С того дня мы с ней ни разу не виделись. Since that day she and I haven't seen each other even once.
Мне было так грустно, что я сидел дома целыми днями. I was so sad that I stayed at home for days at a time.

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