Она (часть первая)

by Don  

The word она is a personal pronoun that declines like this:

Sg
Nomона
Acc(н)её
Gen(н)её
Preней
Dat(н)ей
Ins(н)ей

The «н» versions of the pronoun occur when the pronoun is the object of a preposition.

Она refers to feminine singular nouns, which can be either people or things, so sometimes it is translated as she/her, and sometimes it is translated as it. In other words, if you are refering to an учительница "school teacher," then the sentence must be translated with she/her, and if you are refering to a машина car, the same sentence must be translated with it:

Где она? Where is she/it?
Я вижу её. I see her/it.
Дети танцевали вокруг неё. The children were dancing around her/it.
Мы поговорили о ней. We had a chat about her/it.
Я подошёл к ней. I walked up to her/it.
Перед ней стоял иностранец. A foreigner stood in front of her/it.

In casual conversation it's common in America to say things like “Me and Sally went to the store,” especially when we are children. Schoolteachers then try to beat us out of that habit and make us say “She and I went to the store.” Because of that influence, English speakers may be tempted to say things like «Она и я ездили в магазин» in Russian. While theoretically one can say that in Russian, no one ever does. Instead it gets rephrased as “we with her” «мы с ней». Of course, it would be ridiculous to translate that as “we with her” in English; you still want “she and I” or just plain old ‘we.’

Мы с ней ходили в кино. She and I went to the movies.
Мы с ней поспорили с вышибалой, и нас выгнали из клуба. She and I argued with the bouncer, and they threw us out of the club.

1 comment

Comment from: Arseny [Visitor]

You’ve forgotten, instrumental case has another form: нЕю/Ею

09/04/10 @ 07:03


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