Thread: design, directions, song, guidelines,

1. The architecture, who designed our home died yesterday.
2. We should try to design the interior of your house.
3. He didn't give me correct directions regarding my tax payments.
4. He didn't give me correct directions to go to his house.
5. I was asking for guidelines in order to solve the problem with the tax payments.
6. The word песня refers to both instrumental and vocal pieces in Russia. E.g. I cannot play this piece / song on the piano.

Also a question regarding the correct English strucutre of , and :.
If I want to say:
My question is the following, what kind of tax do you pay ...
My question is the following, according to the Russian law ...

or is it better to use:
My question is the following: what kind of tax do you pay ...
My question is the following: according to the Russian law ...

1. Архитектор, который спроектировал наш дом, умер вчера. (russian has "дизайн" as noun only. So it can be compound: "разработал дизайн". Designers, however, can use informal verb "задизайнил" (almost slang).)
2. спроектировать.
3. "указаний"
4. the word you seek is "направлений", but this prhase should be rephrased as "Он не дал мне правильных указаний/инструкций как проехать к его дому" or "Он не рассказал мне правильно как проехать к его дому".
5. "рекомендации"
6. "песня" is for vocal or vocal+instumental. Instumental only is not "песня", but "музыка", "мелодия", "композиция", "произведение".
So, I think you mean "Я не могу сыграть эту мелодию на пианино".

Originally Posted by Alex80

1. Архитектор, который спроектировал наш дом, умер вчера. (russian has "дизайн" as noun only. So it can be compound: "разработал дизайн". Designers, however, can use informal verb "задизайнил" (almost slang).)
2. спроектировать.
3. "указаний"
4. the word you seek is "направлений", but this prhase should be rephrased as "Он не дал мне правильных указаний/инструкций как проехать к его дому" or "Он не рассказал мне правильно как проехать к его дому".
5. "рекомендации"
6. "песня" is for vocal or vocal+instumental. Instumental only is not "песня", but "музыка", "мелодия", "композиция", "произведение".

Thank you Alex.
Precise and quick answer.

Originally Posted by Alex80

4. the word you seek is "направлений", but this prhase should be rephrased as "Он не дал мне правильных указаний/инструкций как проехать к его дому" or "Он не рассказал мне правильно как проехать к его дому".

So the word for driving directions is указание/инструкция and not направление?

To answer your question about the English punctuation, it's better to use the colon there. Colons act as a break in the sentence the same commas do, but are used to define new information. For example: <-- (That's an example in itself, haha... okay, but really an example now: )
My question: Where were you on the night of the fifth?

A comma is best used to keep the flow of the sentence and to create a pause where needed or to make mention of information that a sentence can be completely understood without. For example:
The sun, brightly shinning its blinding light, seemed to engulf the world before me.

As you can see, the information in between the commas can be completely left out and the sentence's meaning would remain unchanged. Commas are also used to list things out, but that's the most obvious use, which I think you know of already. e.g. "Buy eggs, milk, and bacon from the store."

Originally Posted by alexei90

To answer your question about the English punctuation, it's better to use the colon there. Colons act as a break in the sentence the same commas do, but are used to define new information. For example: <-- (That's an example in itself, haha... okay, but really an example now: )
My question: Where were you on the night of the fifth?

A comma is best used to keep the flow of the sentence and to create a pause where needed or to make mention of information that a sentence can be completely understood without. For example:
The sun, brightly shinning its blinding light, seemed to engulf the world before me.

As you can see, the information in between the commas can be completely left out and the sentence's meaning would remain unchanged. Commas are also used to list things out, but that's the most obvious use, which I think you know of already. e.g. "Buy eggs, milk, and bacon from the store."

thanks alexei

Originally Posted by Antonio1986

So the word for driving directions is указание/инструкция and not направление?

If you talk about "one direction" - it is ok to use it:
"Езжайте в противоположном направлении"
"Направляйтесь прямо по улице" (verb!).
"Я не увидел в каком направлении он уехал".
"В каком направлении находится его дом?" (Possible answer: "К югу отсюда.")
And so on.
But if we talk about instructions how to reach some point with many steps (go forwad, turn left, go along river to the bridge, cross bridge, etc) it becomes complex thing and we cannot say "направления" about it.

Originally Posted by Alex80

If you talk about "one direction" - it is ok to use it:
"Езжайте в противоположном направлении"
"Направляйтесь прямо по улице" (verb!).
"Я не увидел в каком направлении он уехал".
"В каком направлении находится его дом?" (Possible answer: "К югу отсюда.")
And so on.
But if we talk about instructions how to reach some point with many steps (go forwad, turn left, go along river to the bridge, cross bridge, etc) it becomes complex thing and we cannot say "направления" about it.

Believe me I have used erroneously this word so many times with russian friends.
"Конечно я отправлю тебе по мыло направления к моему офису".
This language is killing me. The initial enthusiasm when I started 4 years ago is leaving from my eyes some times.
But then it comes back more aggressive and fierce than never before.

This language is killing me.

It is simple: in russian word "направление" is "vector in space-time".
In physics there is strong difference between "path" and "distance". The same thing is here.
In fact you can use "направить" as something similar to "command", like "Они направили исследования на изучение черных дыр", but it still about "They move researches along direct line to the black holes".

There is a joke about "too direct persons": "Ты и в туалет наверное по компасу ходишь?"

So, no problem with "направление" in Russian. Problems begin with location terms (heaps of their English counterparts confuse me a lot too): положение, позиция, расположение, местоположение, месторасположение,... - so many awkward words

Though, English 'whereabouts' - is it better?

Я просто хотел бы доповить слово: инструкция, которое может употребляться в выражениях:
3. He didn't give me correct directions regarding my tax payments.
5. I was asking for guidelines in order to solve the problem with the tax payments.

but not in the case of:
4. He didn't give me correct directions to go to his house.

Originally Posted by Antonio1986

but not in the case of:
4. He didn't give me correct directions to go to his house.

Работает, но немного в другом предложении (He didn't give me any directions...). Особенно если использовать с глаголом оставлять, т.к оба слова тогда попадают в формальный стиль речи:
Он не оставил мне инструкций, как добраться до его дома.
Он не оставил мне указаний, как добраться до его дома.
Вариант "не дал инструкций/указаний" тоже возможен, но тут имеет место смешивание стилей, ИМХО.

Если же смысл предложения в том, что "инструкция оказалась бесполезной/неправильной", то я бы наверное предпочёл полностью переформулировать предложение:
Он нам толком не объяснил, как добраться до его дома. (более прямой вариант)
Мы не совсем поняли, как добраться до его дома. (более обтекамый и поэтому более вежливый вариант)

Originally Posted by Antonio1986

Я просто хотел бы доповить слово: инструкция, которое может употребляться в выражениях:

There is no word "доповить" in russian. And I even cannot understand what do you mean here from context. Maybe it is better to ask in english, if answer of RedFox is not what you want.

Видимо, это как у Алисы в стране чудес слово-портмоне, состоящее из добавить, дополнить и наверное еще чего-то третьего.

Originally Posted by Alex80

There is no word "доповить" in russian. And I even cannot understand what do you mean here from context. Maybe it is better to ask in english, if answer of RedFox is not what you want.

Ok this I have never noticed before.
There are two words:
добавлять - add
дополнить - complete (совершать)

Obviously I have created a new word from these two.
Sorry!