Thread: A single sentence

There are lots of girls.

у мина еств девушка.

Is my Russian sentence correct?

Originally Posted by Gorky

There are lots of girls.

у меня есть девушка.

Is my Russian sentence correct?

There are lots of girls - Там множество девушек/девочек.

У меня есть девушка - I have a girlfriend.

Thanks for the help.
There are lots of girls - Там множество девушек/девочек.

множество ----> Is this a single word?
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How do I say the past tense?

There were a lot of girls. Tam б.....

Originally Posted by Gorky

Thanks for the help.
There are lots of girls - Там множество девушек/девочек.

множество ----> Is this a single word?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do I say the past tense?

There were a lot of girls. Tam б.....

yes, множество is a single word (the exact meaning is multiplicity but is used in this way also)

Там было множество (you can just say много=a lot of, many) девушек

Originally Posted by Gorky

There are lots of girls.

It's slightly ambiguous.

There are lots of girls (indicating position)
Там множество девушек

There are lots of girls. (indicating existence)
есть множество девушек

I'm guessing that Gorky meant the latter, since the former would most likely be expressed differently in English to avoid this ambiguity (e.g. "there are lots of girls over there")

I thank Ramil and Scotcher for the replies.

было

Why cant this be 'былa' ? Because we are talking about girls. So it should be 'былa'
I don't know grammar very well.
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There are lots of girls. (indicating existence)
есть множество девушек
How do you translate the above into the past tense?
[ There were a lot of girls.]

Originally Posted by Gorky

Why cant this be 'былa' ? Because we are talking about girls. So it should be 'былa'

Nope, you are talking about множество. That is the grammatical subject.

Originally Posted by Gorky

There are lots of girls. (indicating existence)
есть множество девушек
How do you translate the above into the past tense?
[ There were a lot of girls.]

было множество девушек

Originally Posted by Gorky

I thank Ramil and Scotcher for the replies.

было

Why cant this be 'былa' ? Because we are talking about girls.

no, we're talking about "lot" from "a lot of..."

So it should be 'былa'
I don't know grammar very well.

было много девушек
were lots of girls

Originally Posted by scotcher

Originally Posted by Gorky

Why cant this be 'былa' ? Because we are talking about girls. So it should be 'былa'

Nope, you are talking about множество. That is the grammatical subject.

Originally Posted by Gorky

There are lots of girls. (indicating existence)
есть множество девушек
How do you translate the above into the past tense?
[ There were a lot of girls.]

было множество девушек

Correct, but maybe много instead of множество? I think it sounds better...

Я написал множество, вместо много, чтобы подчеркнуть разницу между a lot of и lots of. Просто как вариант.

Вообще, здесь лучше использовать общепринятый сленг. Лучше сказать -
там толпы девушек... что-то в этом роде (there're crowds of girls )

Originally Posted by Ramil

Я написал множество, вместо много, чтобы подчеркнуть разницу между a lot of и lots of. Просто как вариант.

Вообще, здесь лучше использовать общепринятый сленг. Лучше сказать -
там толпы девушек... что-то в этом роде (there're crowds of girls )

yeah, sh!tload of girls

This is an old question. I reflected on the answers and decided to ask an additional question.

The Russian word for 'lot' is ' Много '. Why can't we say the following?

There are lots of girls - Там много девушек/девочек.

Originally Posted by Gorky

This is an old question. I reflected on the answers and decided to ask an additional question.

The Russian word for 'lot' is ' Много '. Why can't we say the following?

There are lots of girls - Там много девушек/девочек.

We did that. See above.

You suggested the following:
There are lots of girls (indicating position)
Там множество девушек

There are lots of girls. (indicating existence)
есть множество девушек

-----------------------------------------

So you could easily replace the word ' множество ' with ' много ' .

Originally Posted by Gorky

You suggested the following:
There are lots of girls (indicating position)
Там множество девушек

There are lots of girls. (indicating existence)
есть множество девушек

-----------------------------------------

So you could easily replace the word ' множество ' with ' много ' .

? See my post above: I suggested -"Correct, but maybe много instead of множество? I think it sounds better..."

( Задущевно так поёт): Как много девушек хороших, Как много ласковых имен. А мне досталась с гнусной рожей, И с гадким именем - Антон

Originally Posted by Ramil

Originally Posted by Gorky

There are lots of girls - Там множество девушек/девочек.

Где "там"?
Может, просто "Девушек много", "существует много девушек"?
А то так мы дойдём до того, что "I have a girl" будем переводить как "Я имею девушку".

Originally Posted by Propp

Originally Posted by Ramil

There are lots of girls - Там множество девушек/девочек.

Где "там"?
Может, просто "Девушек много", "существует много девушек"?
А то так мы дойдём до того, что "I have a girl" будем переводить как "Я имею девушку".

"Существует много девушек" - во-первых ты сам никогда так не скажешь. Во-вторых, всё-таки, подразумевается не вообще в мире много девушек, а где-то конкретно - there are - всё-таки "там", а не вообще. Хотя фраза выдернутая из контекста всегда порождает такие споры.