Talk:Russian/Grammar/Articles

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can't you use the definite article with the plural in english? eg. "I ate the oranges?"

As for the link-verb "to be".

1. It exists in present tense but it is not used. The only use is for emphasis (hardly ever), and even in this case usually it is formulated with verb "являться" ("to be", but without meaning "to be located at") followed by the Instrumental case: "Это является неприемлемым" ("It is unacceptable"). Sounds very bookish and even official, though :) The verb "быть"(to be) itself has only one form for all persons in contemporary russian, and it is "есть" (sadly, the same as "to eat" infinitive in Russian). May be used in veeeery special cases, and I mean cases when the pure fact of its presenсe makes the text sound different. It is not used in natural speech/text. Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that people know this verb and this form in particluar, so it's not that it simply vanished. If you use this form, you will sound strange/old/master Yoda/evil lord came to conquer our world, but it won't be like "I (strange verb) a student". If you see infinitive of the verb "to eat" in strange position, then perhaps it is someone speaking strange Russian with verb "to be" and food consuming has nothing to do with it :)))

And the articles simply do not exist. While "to be" just disappears in present tense, the concept of "articles" before words is not here at all. In fact, it is quite a tough part of Western-European languages for Russians, along with the tense systems common to these languages (while use of "am/are/is/suis/es/est/...bin/bist...." is no problem for even 7-8 year old kids at school).

2. While it is thought to be rule by many people, writing "—" between nouns in sentences like "A is B" is optional. It is important to stress that Russian rules concerning the dash in different positions and for different purposes have this "intonation" clause, i.e. it may be used to make accented "pause" in the sentence. And the rule on dash between subject and noun predicate is optional ("...The dash also may be put between...") So in case you need a pause and some "power" in your statement or, perhaps, the sentence just looks messed up and not readable enough - then use it to separate subject (that in noun) from predicate (that is also noun). Usually it is 50/50, i.e. some people usually write dash, some prefer not to do it, some write and don't write depending on what they want... and some write simply because they forgot that dash is not obligatory ;) --217.150.49.205 (talk) 10:30, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

How could I forget...;) Also "to be" is used (widely) in Russian in "there is" sentences("Здесь кто-то есть", There is someone here) and in usual construction of posession. In Russian sentences similar to English, German etc. "I have ..." do exist, but are not usually used for this purpose. Even though the verb "to have" also is in language, the common model states posesion without this verb. Instead "У + genitive+ есть + smth" is used. So "I have a book" would literally be something like "There is a book at me": "У меня есть книга" (formed as a statement that something exists "close to its owner").  --217.150.49.205 (talk) 12:19, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Dash in "A is B" has never been optional! Read the rules. http://www.gramota.ru/spravka/rules/?rub=tire