Говорить/сказать

by Don  

The verb pair говорить/сказать means “to say, tell.” It conjugates like this:

Imperfective Perfective
Infinitive говорить сказать
Past говорил
говорила
говорило
говорили
сказал
сказала
сказало
сказали
Present говорю
говоришь
говорит
говорим
говорите
говорят
No such thing as
perfective present
in Russian.
Future буду говорить
будешь говорить
будет говорить
будем говорить
будете говорить
будут говорить
скажу
скажешь
скажет
скажем
скажете
скажут
Imperative говори(те) скажи(те)

Sample sentences:

— Моя девушка сказала, что она меня больше не любит!
— Гм, значит, она уже не твоя девушка. Дашь мне её телефон?
“My girlfriend said that she doesn't love me anymore.”
“Hm. That means she's not your girlfriend. Could I have her number?”
Мама говорила, что честному человеку всё по плечу. Mama used to say that an honest person can handle anything.

The perfective form of this verb is often used in polite requests for information:

Скажите, пожалуйста, где ближайшая почта? Could you tell me where the nearest post office is?
Вы не скажете, как дойти до аптеки? Could you tell me how to get to the pharmacy?

Супер-пупер

by Tatiana  

Ever since I started writing blog entries, my friends have been begging me to write about «супер-пупер». This expression is similar to “super-duper” in meaning but, because of the obvious references, it sounds much funnier in English. :D The first time they heard me saying it, they could not stop laughing.

— Как тест прошёл?
— Супер-пупер!
“How did your test go?”
“Super-duper!”
Я такой супер-пуперский фильм видел!
“I saw such a super-duper movie!”
Моя жена супер-пуперски готовит Биф-Строганоф!
“My wife's Beef Stroganoff is super-duper!”

Just like in English, «супер-пупер» is formed in consonance with «супер» "super". I wonder why it is «пупер», though. Maybe it has something to do with «пуп» or «пупок», "belly button." In Russian «Пуп Земли» means "The Navel of the Earth", a cosmological notion of the center of the world in various religious and mythological traditions. It is a very important and holy place, a place where God sits. (source) It might be a little too far fetched but it seems that «супер-пупер», which essentially means "the greatest", is associated with the holy place.

As it often happens with slang, expressions come and go; words that seemed so popular just recently are being replaced by the even newer ones. Likewise, «супер-пупер» is no longer a commonly used expression; however, people will not look at you funny if you use it. It will just make them smile. &#59;)

Говорить/поговорить

by Don  

The verb pair говорить/поговорить means “to talk, have a conversation, speak.” It conjugates like this:

Imperfective Perfective
Infinitive говорить поговорить
Past говорил
говорила
говорило
говорили
поговорил
поговорила
поговорило
поговорили
Present говорю
говоришь
говорит
говорим
говорите
говорят
No such thing as
perfective present
in Russian.
Future буду говорить
будешь говорить
будет говорить
будем говорить
будете говорить
будут говорить
поговорю
поговоришь
поговорит
поговорим
поговорите
поговорят
Imperative говори(те) поговори(те)

Sample sentences:

Моя сестра любит говорить по телефону, а я-то телефон ненавижу. My sister loves to talk on the phone. But me, I hate the phone.
Я быстренько поговорю с Димкой и потом пойду домой. I'll have a quick chat with Dmitri, and then I'll head home.

Let's say your friend has just finished a conversation on the phone. In English we might say “Who were you talking to?” A beginning Russian student will be tempted to translate that with the dative case «Кому ты говорил?» Russians will never never use the dative in that context. Instead they use the preposition с followed by the instrumental case:

— С кем ты говорил?
— С Пашей.
“Who were you talking to?”
“Pavel.”
— Анна Петровна, сегодня ваш сын опять прогулял уроки.
— Ой-ой-ой, я с ним поговорю.
“Anna Petrovna, your son blew off classes again today.”
“Oh, no. I'll talk to him about it.”

Говорить

by Don  

One of the first words we learn in a beginning Russian class is говорить “to speak.” Although we should learn most verbs in Russian in pairs, in the meanings we discuss today it has no perfective partner. It conjugates like this:

Imperfective
Infinitive говорить
Past говорил
говорила
говорило
говорили
Present говорю
говоришь
говорит
говорим
говорите
говорят
Future буду говорить
будешь говорить
будет говорить
будем говорить
будете говорить
будут говорить
Imperative говори(те)

Like all common words, говорить has multiple meanings, and one of its meanings is “to be capable of speech”:

Нашей дочке всего один год, она ещё не говорит. Our daughter is only one year old. She doesn't talk yet.
Марсианe не говорят, они общаются телепатией. Martians don't speak. They communicate via telepathy.
Хотя попугаи могут говорить, они не понимают значения своих слов. Although parrots are able to speak, they don't understand the meaning of their words.

Говорить also means “to know how to speak a language.” In English we say things like “She speaks Spanish,” where Spanish is the direct object of the verb. You can't do that in Russian. That's right. It is ungrammatical to say «Она говорит испанский язык». Sure, the Russians will understand you if you say it, but you will sound like an ignorant foreigner, and your Russian 101 teacher will never write you a recommendation. Instead they use special adverbs that start with по-:

Мама хорошо говорит по-норвежски. My mother speaks Norwegian well.
Я раньше говорил по-немецки, но теперь отвык. I used to speak German, but now I'm out of the habit.
Я женился на испанке, значит, наши дети будут говорить по-испански. I married a Spanish woman. That means our children will speak Spanish.

There are some languages for which Russian does not have these adverbs in по-, for instance тви Twi (language of Ghana), апаче Apache, чероки Cherokee, эсперанто Esperanto, and суахили Swahili (language of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda), пушту Pashto (language of Afghanistan and Pakistan), бенгали Bengali and урду Urdu and хинди Hindi (languages of the eastern Indian subcontinent). In that case one uses the preposition на followed by the prepositional case, although those languages are usually indeclinable, so you don't really know that it's prepositional unless the word язык is included in the sentence:

Наш сосед говорит на навахо. or
Наш сосед говорит на языке навахо.
Our neighbor speaks Navajo.
— Правда ли, что твой папа говорит на бенгали?
— Да, правда.
— Но как же? Ведь в США на бенгали никто не говорит.
— Ну, понимаешь, он работал в ЦРУ.
“Is it true that your dad speaks Bengali?”
“Yeah, it's true.”
“How can that be? I mean, nobody in the USA speaks Bengali.”
“Well, you know, he used to work for the CIA.”
— Где говорят на пушту?
— На пушту горорят в Афганистане и Пакистане.
“Where is Pashto spoken?”
“Pashto is spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

«У меня есть» or «я имею»?

by Don  

Previously we discussed how the «у меня есть» construction can be equivalent to a I have construction, and we also discussed иметь, which means “to own, possess.” But if you look up иметь in some dictionaries, sometimes you will find something like this:

have /hæv/ n.: 1. иметь;

This sometimes leads to confusion: when can you use иметь for have, and when does that not work? Here are couple of rules of thumb:

1. When you want to know whether someone has a particular item on them at a particular moment, then you cannot use the иметь construction, you must use a variation of the есть construction:

У тебя есть ручка? Мне надо записать телефон. Do you have a pen? I need to write down a telephone number.
У тебя нет ручки? Do you happen to have a pen [on you]?
У тебя не будет ручки? Would you happen to have a pen [on you]?

(See this post for a discussion of the use of не in polite requests.)

2. When you want to know whether someone owns something, both the есть and the иметь construction are theoretically possible. Both are grammatical:

У вас есть машина?
Вы имеете машину?
Do you own a car?

The normal way to ask the question is «У вас есть машина?»¹ But if you want a verb that is vastly more formal or emphatic, say when a lawyer is interviewing a suspicious client, then you might hear «Вы имеете машину?»²

3. There are dozens of phrases where иметь bears the tense of the sentence but the noun that follows it in the accusative case bears most of the meaning. For instance:

иметь значение to mean something
(lit. to have meaning)
иметь смысл to make sense
(lit. to have sense)
иметь место to have a place
иметь в виду to have/bear/keep in mind
(lit. to have in view)
иметь возможность to have the opportunity

There are lots of phrases like this. Here are some examples:

— Почему ты меня покинула? Я ведь подарил тебе цветы!
— Это не имеет значения. Ты ведь украл у моей мамы тридцать тысяч рублей.
“Why did you leave me? I mean, I gave you flowers!”
“That doesn't mean anything. After all, you stole thirty thousand rubles from my mother.”
— Хочу примириться с Дарьей. Может, я ей куплю цветы?
— Это имеет смысл.
“I want to make up with Darya. Maybe I should buy her some flowers?”
“That makes sense.”
Не ругайся матом. Такие слова здесь не имеют места. Don't cuss. That kind of language doesn't belong here.
Имей в виду, что цветы не решат все проблемы с Дарьей. Надо бы и поподлизываться. Bear in mind that flowers won't solve all your problems with Darya. You're going to have to kiss up to her as well.
Ты когда-нибудь имел возможность ходить на концерт Леди Гаги? Have you ever had the opportunity to go to a Lady Gaga concert?

¹ Bear in mind that the question «У вас есть машина?» is ambiguous. It can mean either “Do you own a car?” or “Do you have a car [at your disposal today]?”

² Bear in mind that «Вы имеете машину?» can only mean “Do you own a car?”, not “Do you have a car [at your disposal today]?” Thus if you want to be perfectly clear that you are asking about ownership, then can use иметь, but it will have either a vastly more formal or more emphatic sense than “у кого” phrases.

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