Categories: "Grammar"

Приглашать/пригласить

by Don  

The verb pair приглашать/пригласить means ‘to invite.’ Note the с~ш alternation in the perfective:

Imperfective Perfective
Infinitive приглашать пригласить
Past приглашал
приглашала
приглашало
приглашали
пригласил
пригласила
пригласило
пригласили
Present приглашаю
приглашаешь
приглашает
приглашаем
приглашаете
приглашают
No such thing as
perfective present
in Russian.
Future буду приглашать
будешь приглашать
будет приглашать
будем приглашать
будете приглашать
будут приглашать
приглашу
пригласишь
пригласит
пригласим
пригласите
пригласят
Imperative приглашай(те) пригласи(те)

The person you invite goes in the accusative case:

— Кого ты пригласила?
— Глеба и Борю.
“Who did you invite?”
“Gleb and Boris.”
— Почему ты пригласил Настю?
— Потому что я от неё без ума!
“Why did you invite Anastasiya?”
“Because I'm crazy about her!”

The place you invite someone to appears in a motion phrase, so you often have в/на followed by the accusative case:

Президента Обаму пригласили в Ирландию. President Obama was invited to Ireland.
Уго Чавеса пригласили на Кубу. Hugo Chavez was invited to Cuba.

You can also use к + dative to specify the person one is going to visit, which more often than not is specified with к себе or к нам, and в гости is often included as well:

Петровы пригласили меня. The Petrovs invited me.
The Petrovs have invited me.
Петровы пригласили меня к себе. The Petrovs invited me to their place.
The Petrovs have invited me to their place.
Петровы пригласили меня к себе в гости. The Petrovs invited me to visit them.
The Petrovs have invited me to visit them.

It's possible to get names after к as well:

Шевчука не пригласили к Медведеву из-за его «подростковости и нонконформизма». (source) Shevchuk was not invited to see Medvedev because of his childishness and nonconformism.
Тимошенко не пригласили к Шустеру по случаю 8 Марта. (source) Timoshenko was not invited to see Shuster for March 8th.¹
Лучших сварщиков пригласили к губернатору. (source) The best welders have been invited to see the governer.

¹ Савик Шустер is the host of «Шустер live», a Ukrainian socio-political talk show. Despite being broadcast on Ukrainian TV, the show is conducted in Russian.

Они

by Don  

Они is a pronoun that replaces grammatically plural nouns. It declines like this:

Pl
Nomони
Acc(н)их
Gen
Pre
Dat(н)им
Ins(н)ими

The primary meaning of они is they/them in its various forms. In such contexts you get sentences like:

Они приезжали ко мне в воскресенье. They came to my place on Sunday.
Я с ними познакомился в средней школе. I met them in high school.
Откуда ты их знаешь? How do you know them?
Как часто ты ходишь к ним? How often do you go to their place?

But the interesting part of this word is when it refers to plurale tantum nouns. Such nouns are ones that grammatically occur in the plural only, never in the singular. Sometimes a noun is plurale tantum in both Russian and English, like брюки pants. If они is referring to such a word, then its forms are simply translated as they/them:

— Где мои брюки? Я их не вижу.
— Они на кухне.
“Where are my pants? I don't see them.”
“They're in the kitchen.”

Sometimes a noun is plurale tantum in Russian, but singulare tantum (singular only) in English, such as деньги money. When они refers to such a word, then its forms are simply translated as it:

— Где мои деньги? Я их не вижу.
— Они на столе.
“Where is my money? I don't see it.”
“It's on the table.”

В (degree of comparison)

by Don  

English and Russian both have special comparison forms for adjectives and adverbs, which makes them seem sort of similar. In English the comparative form often ends in -er, and in Russian it often ends in -е or -ее:

The Ferrari is faster than the Toyota. Феррари быстрее, чем Тойота.
Bill Gates is richer than Eike Batista. Билл Гейтс богаче, чем Айке Батиста.
This building is taller than that building. Это здание выше, чем то здание.
Joan Collins is older than Keira Knightley. Джон Кaлинз старше, чем Кира Найтли.¹

But here is a curious thing: if you want to say how many times someone or something is faster, richer, taller or older, then in English there are two constructions you can use. One of them uses an “as...as” phrase without a comparative form, and one of them uses a comparative form with a ‘than’ phrase.

The Ferrari is twice as fast as the Toyota.
The Ferrari is two times faster than the Toyota.

Joan Collins is three times as old as Keira Knightley.
Joan Collins is three times older than Keira Knightley.

This building is five times as tall as that building.
This building is five times taller than that building.

In Russian you always use the comparative form. The word for ‘time’ in this context is раз, which has an irregular genitive plural ‘раз’, and the number must be preceded by the preposition в, which in this context works with the accusative case of the number:

Феррари в два раза быстрее, чем Тойота.
Джон Калинз в три раза старше, чем Кира Найтли.
Это здание в пять раз выше, чем то здание.

Oh, let's try a few more.

Население Москвы в двадцать два раза больше, чем население Тулы. The population of Moscow is twenty two times larger than the population of Tula.
У моей двоюродной сестры в три раза больше зубов, чем у меня. У неё такая красивая улыбка. My cousin has three times as many teeth as I do. She has such a pretty smile.
Бриллианты в сорок раз дороже, чем муассанит. Diamonds are forty times more expensive than moissanite.

¹ If you look at the Wikipedia article on Joan Collins, you will see her name transliterated as Джоан Коллинз, which has an unpronounced ‘а’ and an unpronounced extra ‘л’, which have been added under the influence of English spelling. That is a *bad thing*. Dear Russian Wikipedia authors, please do not fall under the terrible influence of English spelling. You have a marvelous tradition in Russian of spelling things much more closely to their pronunciation. It is why the Russian application of Cyrillic is superior to the English application of the Latin alphabet. Notice that the author of the Kira Knightley article didn't make that mistake. Please maintain your excellent and sensible tradition, and, eight hundred years from now, when we English speakers finally have a sensible spelling reform, you can taunt us with an alphabetic “I told you so!”

В (frequency)

by Don  

In English when you want to say how often something happens and the period over which it occurs, you can use two constructions. The first uses no preposition, and the second uses the preposition ‘per’:

We meet in Prague two times a year.
We meet in Prague two times per year.

In English the ‘per’ version sounds more formal and stilted, and the prepositionless version sounds normal. In Russian the prepositionless version is not an option; you must use the preposition в:

Мы встречаемся в Праге два раза в год. We meet in Prague two times a year.

At first glance it might seem that год is in the nominative case, but that is because it is a masculine inanimate noun. If we see a feminine noun in that context it is clearly accusative:

Я всё ещё читаю газету в печатном виде пять раз в неделю. I still read a hardcopy newspaper five times a week.

If you want to ask how often something happens, then the phrase to use is как часто:

— Как часто ты получаешь критику от читателей?
— Наверно два раза в день.
“How often do your receive criticism from readers?”
“Probably twice a day.”
— Как часто ты меняешь мобильный телефон?
— Раз в год. Мне вседга нужна новейшая техника.
“How often do you change your mobile phone?”
“Once a year. I always need the latest technology.”
Этот сотовый телефон определяет своё местонахождение пять раз в секунду. This cell phone checks its [geographical] position five times a second.
На мобильник сына я скачал софт, который сообщает мне его местонахождение четыре раза в час. Он больше не будет пропускать уроки. I downloaded an app to my son's cell phone that tells me his location four times an hour. He's not going to skip class any more.

That last example is interesting because you could rephrase it with minutes and skip the preposition:

На мобильник сына я скачал софт, который сообщает мне его местонахождение каждые пятнадцать минут. I downloaded an app to my son's cell phone that tells me his location every fifteen minutes.

Note the interesting use of the plural form of каждый before a number greater than one.

Мы (часть первая)

by Don  

The word мы means we. It declines like this:

Pl
Nomмы
Accнас
Gen
Pre
Datнам
Insнами

I often encounter the word in sentences like this:

Мы купили пять aбиссинских кошек. We bought five Abysinnian cats.
Нас выбросили за борт. They threw us overboard.
Через неделю к нам приедут гости. We have guests coming in a week.
Вы можете связаться с нами по этому телефону. You can make contact with us at this number.
Мы взломали сейф и взяли бриллианты. We broke into the safe and took the diamonds.

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