Thread: Help translate

What is the difference between “должно быть что то большее” and “должно быть что-то большее”? What does the “-“ change?

The second sentence is the only correct one.
Должно́ быть что́-то бо́льшее — ‘There must be something greater’.
The word что-то means ‘something’.
While there exist words что ‘what’ and то ‘that’, they make no sense here.

Hallo. First sentence has another mean than second and coud be translate as: There must be that that is greater. There is a
comparison. But in this case russian sentence need a comma: должно быть, что то́ большее.

Why did actress, Nikki Reed get this tattooed as “должно быть чтото большее”? Did she get it wrong? I tried to insert the picture of her tattoo.

Originally Posted by colapa

Hallo. First sentence has another mean than second and coud be translate as: There must be that that is greater. There is a
comparison. But in this case russian sentence need a comma: должно быть, что то́ большее.

I tried to fit that sentence in my head, but I ultimately couldn't. IMO, this doesn't make sense and will throw off any Russian speaker who'd hear that. If I wanted to convey the meaning you gave us there, I'd say "должно быть то, что большее", but even that sounds quite awkward.

Originally Posted by Svet24

Why did actress, Nikki Reed get this tattooed as “должно быть чтото большее”? Did she get it wrong? I tried to insert the picture of her tattoo.

I googled the tattoo and saw that she has "должно быть" as the first line and "чтотобольшее" right beneath it, yes, exactly like that "чтотобольшее", as one word, no spaces. I've also noticed that both lines are pretty much the same length and they're almost perfectly aligned. So I think it was just a style choice. But again, her "д" in "должно" looks a lot like "а", so I'm not ready to write off the theory that she just got it all wrong.