Thread: love letter translation

I have a Russian penfriend who often confuses "you" and "your", though I have no idea why. I've repeated that "your" is ALWAYS a possessive pronoun and that "you" is used for, well, everything else. But they continue to say "I am very glad to write to your", etc. Do any Russians here have that problem?

Originally Posted by Pravit

I have a Russian penfriend who often confuses "you" and "your", though I have no idea why. I've repeated that "your" is ALWAYS a possessive pronoun and that "you" is used for, well, everything else. But they continue to say "I am very glad to write to your", etc. Do any Russians here have that problem?

I personally don't have this problem, but I think every learner has his own 'set of common mistakes'

I hate to bring up an old argument, but i just got a new idea! By this logic you say it's OK to write Моя время, because it sounds that way, even though it's nueter ??


OK I'M DONE!

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

I hate to bring up an old argument, but i just got a new idea! By this logic you say it's OK to write Моя время, because it sounds that way, even though it's nueter ??


OK I'M DONE!

It may be strange, but to the "Russian ears", despite its ending, "время" sounds definitely neuter.

Originally Posted by al

Native speaker of English is likely to confuse there and their, your and you're, its and it's, etc. For me, as a non-native speaker, it is strange to see this kind of mistakes, since I would never make such a mistake.

I actually confuse there-their and its-it's sometimes and then-than, but not your and you're. Though I usually check my spelling before posting.

Originally Posted by Friendy

Originally Posted by al

Native speaker of English is likely to confuse there and their, your and you're, its and it's, etc. For me, as a non-native speaker, it is strange to see this kind of mistakes, since I would never make such a mistake.

I actually confuse there-their and its-it's sometimes and then-than, but not your and you're. Though I usually check my spelling before posting.

Interesting stuff. You're right Al, about those pairs of words with identical pronunciation. Some native speakers never seem to get it right I suspect it's just that some people are primarily speakers and listeners, and not readers and writers - these people are generally poor at spelling.

About non-native speakers, I'd say that by far the most common mistake, amongst those who are basically proficient or fluent in English, relates to the use of definite and indefinite articles. As you say, native speakers *never* make mistakes with that.

Originally Posted by Friendy

It may be strange, but to the "Russian ears", despite its ending, "время" sounds definitely neuter.

I can believe that. Sometimes when reading russian, i will find a word i don't know, but my brain will just automatically fill it in; and it will be right... I don't know how this happens, and it has happend more than a few times. One time in perticular i read some sentence and was like like "Wait... i don't know that пускай means "let"... It must be the imparative of the verb пускать... So i will go look up that word puskat'... and right under it, it says Пускай, see пусть(w00t!) to good to be true! So, i get there and bam, i was right somehow!

So i can understand how a russian, without even knowing it, would know that it is nueter.

Originally Posted by waxwing

About non-native speakers, I'd say that by far the most common mistake, amongst those who are basically proficient or fluent in English, relates to the use of definite and indefinite articles. As you say, native speakers *never* make mistakes with that.

Yes, that's right... I still do mistakes with articles It's getting better though.

Originally Posted by Dogboy182

Originally Posted by Friendy

It may be strange, but to the "Russian ears", despite its ending, "время" sounds definitely neuter.

I can believe that. Sometimes when reading russian, i will find a word i don't know, but my brain will just automatically fill it in; and it will be right... I don't know how this happens, and it has happend more than a few times. One time in perticular i read some sentence and was like like "Wait... i don't know that пускай means "let"... It must be the imparative of the verb пускать... So i will go look up that word puskat'... and right under it, it says Пускай, see пусть(w00t!) to good to be true! So, i get there and bam, i was right somehow!

So i can understand how a russian, without even knowing it, would know that it is nueter.

I think that's so because there's a particular set of more or less frequent words
племя
бремя
время
имя
семя
знамя
пламя
стремя
темя

which are neuter and have very special way of declining (время-времени). All native speakers know them subconsciously.

By the way, are there any words ending with "мя" that are feminine?
I think there aren't, but maybe I've missed something.