Thread: Have you seen my...

Hi.

How would I say this? Have you seen my...football? Or have you seen John? etc etc

Ты не видела мой футбал?

Is this correct? Or does this mean you havent seen my football have you? If not how exactly would I say it as simply as possible?

Thanks
Andy

whether you write Ты не видела? or Ты видела? (both can be translated as Did you see?) - it would be correct anyway. But all depends on the answers.

Ты не видела? - yes,i saw it/no, i didn't see it

Ты видела? - yes,i saw it/no, i didn't see it

Incidentally, what do you mean by 'have you seen my football'. Have you seen me playing football?

да,вот про футбол я как раз и не поняла,что человек имеет ввиду

No - it was just the first object that came to my head. But I guess I meant 'have you seen my football, as in have you seen the football belonging to me anywhere? Like a child may say to another child in a playground. As I said though, just a randokm object for my example.

Andy

Oh! Thanks for the explanation! I get it now! I was somehow surprised when I saw that sentence. I thought that I probably didn't know English well enough to grasp the meaning of that sentence. I guess it's pretty idiomatic, isn't it? In Russian I would probably say:
-Ты видела, как я играю(present)/играл (past) в футбол?

Is it what you wanted?

как я играю(present)/играл (past)

What does this part mean exactly?

Andy

Have you seen the way I play football? Have you seen my skill of playing football? How well/badly do I play football in your opinion? (sometimes)

That's how I see it.

What you are after is:

Ты не знаешь, где мой футбол?

или

знаешь ли ты, где мой футбол?

"Have you seen X?" in English is a colloquial(-ish) way of asking "Do you know where X is now?".

Andrew, you'll get on better if you think about the fundemental meaning of the sentence you are trying to translate, instead of trying to translate the structure of the sentence.

"Have you seen X?" in English is a colloquial(-ish) way of asking "Do you know where X is now?".

We use the same structure in Russian but that sentence of Andrew's doesn't make much sense to me all the same. As for your Russian examples, they are correct but still, there's hardly any sense in them.

In English, "football" can refer to both the sport, and the ball itself.

мы играем в футбол с(?) шаром - We play football with a football.

Is that where the missunderstanding lies, and if so, does that mean that футбол in Russian refers only to the sport, not the spherical leather object filled with air used to play the sport?

If that is the case, Andrew's sentence should have read "have you seen my ball?"

Yes, in Russian, "футбол" refers only to the game, never to the ball. So in Andrewsco's example "football" means "футбольный мяч".

Cool, you learn something new every day.

мы играем в футбол с(?) шаром - We play football with a football.

You don't need "с". с шаром would be you playing WITH the ball, as in it's alive and throwing the ball.

Ah, I think that might be where the misunderstanding lies. Trust me to think up a (totally random) problem object!

Thanks for your help

Andrew

'ta Saibot.

You don't need "с". с шаром would be you playing WITH the ball, as in it's alive and throwing the ball.

Sometimes 'c' is required. For example, if you want to emphasize that you mean ice hockey, not hockey you say: хоккей с шайбой. If you mean common hockey you say хоккей с мячом.

Ты не знаешь, где мой футбол?

In this sentence, which I know understand to mean 'do you know where my football is?' why is there an 'не'? What exactly is it negating? Well, actually why is it?

Ты знаешь, где мой футбол? Could you not just put this? As in if you were to ask Do you speak russian you would say:

vui gavareetye pa-ruskee - there is no не in that sentence?

Thanks
Andrew

Ты знаешь, где мой футбол? Sounds like the one who asks knows the answer.

- Знаешь где мой футбольный мяч?
- Нет.
- Его нашли в канаве за футбольным полем! Я же тебя просил положить его на место!

- Знаешь сколько сейчас время?
- 17:30
- Мы же договорились встретиться в 17:00, где тебя черти носят!?

With не it sounds like the one who asks really wants to know.

- Не знаешь сколько время?
- 12:15
- Спасибо.

As for "do you speak russian" and other abilities, I think it's about possibility, if you're pretty sure that a person speaks Russian you can ask "Вы говорите по-русски?", if you're not sure you ask "Вы (случайно) не говорите по-русски?".

Originally Posted by andrewsco

Ты не знаешь, где мой футбол?

In this sentence, which I know understand to mean 'do you know where my football is?' why is there an 'не'? What exactly is it negating? Well, actually why is it?
...

You could also translate this way, "you don't know where my football is, do you?" or "do you happen to know where my football is?"