Anything and something translated...
Hi.
I am wanting to say two phrases.
Do you want anything to eat? Vu Khateetye chtoneeboot pa yest?
I think the above is pronounced ok is this right? If I then want to say instead:
I want something to eat, how would I say the word something? Could I have the written Russian text and the pronounciation aswell?
спасибо
Andrew
Re: Anything and something translated...
Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewsco
Hi.
I am wanting to say two phrases.
Do you want anything to eat? Vu Khateetye chtoneeboot pa yest?
I think the above is pronounced ok is this right? If I then want to say instead:
I want something to eat, how would I say the word something? Could I have the written Russian text and the pronounciation aswell?
спасибо
Andrew
Something and anything have the same meaning here and translated into Russian as что-нибудь, кое-что, что-то. In Russian the word doesn't change depending on whether it is a statement or question. However, in questions or negations you may get a different grammatical case:
I want something. Do you need anything?
I want nothing (I don't want anything).
Я хочу что-нибудь (Accusative). Ты чего-нибудь (Genitive) хочешь?
Я ничего (Genitive) не хочу. (In Russian double-negation is correct).
Statements with хотеть can have Genitive as well: Я хочу чего-нибудь (вкусного).
Quote:
Vu Khateetye chtoneeboot pa yest?
Vy khateetye shtoneeboot pa'yest?
Вы хотите что-нибудь поесть? (Вы хотите чего-нибудь поесть?)
The answer could use the same words:
Я хочу что-нибудь поесть. (Я хочу чего-нибудь поесть.)
When Russians are learning English we have to pay attention to some, any and no words because it is quite different to Russian. Genitive, IMHO, has a slight meaning of portion, not the whole thing in the above examples, as opposed to Accusative.