Thread: Some Questions

How would you translate "Nobody ever told me" Никто никогда не сказал мне? Никто даже не сказал мне? Something else?

Darobat, both sentences are good.

Whoo! Thanks Pioner.

I don't agree with Pioner here. You can't just use these sentances, you need an object here. If you use it "as is", it would mean that nobody has ever talked to you.
"Никто никогда не говорил мне этого". "Никто даже не сказал мне это." It sould be clear from the context what "это" is, or you have to explain it in the sentance.

I agree to disagree with VESH.

- Почему ты не пришел на партсобрание?
- Никто даже не сказал мне

Просто: "Никто мне не сказал", - "даже" лишнее. Но без контекста - никак.

Another example:
-Где Петя?
-Как ты не знаешь? Он же уехал на юг.
-Надо же! А мне никто даже и не сказал.

Originally Posted by Darobat

Никто никогда не сказал мне?

Note that it's wrong to use никогда with a perfective form of a verb, it requires the imperfective form so it should be "Никто никогда не говорил мне"(like Vesh wrote in his post)

Originally Posted by Friendy

Another example:
-Где Петя?
-Как ты не знаешь? Он же уехал на юг.
-Надо же! А мне никто даже и не сказал.

Originally Posted by Darobat

Никто никогда не сказал мне?

Note that it's wrong to use никогда with a perfective form of a verb, it requires the imperfective form so it should be "Никто никогда не говорил мне"(like Vesh wrote in his post)

Correct. "Даже" brings element of surprise here, which doesn't go well with "партсобрание".

большое спасибо все.

So it really depends on context. Is it only никогда that needs the imperfective? And what does партсобрание mean? rambler.ru says nothing.

Another question though. How would one translate "Надо было успеть проводить старый. "? It needed to have time to be seen off. i'm rather confused.

Originally Posted by Darobat

Another question though. How would one translate "Надо было успеть проводить старый. "? It needed to have time to be seen off. i'm rather confused.

старый refers to an old year here (before meeting the New Year there's a tradition to see the old one off). A possible translation of the sentence is: I wish we had time to see the old year off.

Originally Posted by Darobat

Another question though. How would one translate "Надо было успеть проводить старый. "? It needed to have time to be seen off. i'm rather confused.

I would suspect that "старый" means "старый год" here. Correct?

When you celebrate a New Year you first spend some short time saying goodbye to old year. So, I think it is: "You should've given yourselves enough time to say goodbuy to old year."

yes, I have to admit that the first phrase was not totally perfect.

[quote="Darobat"] And what does партсобрание mean? rambler.ru says nothing./quote]

I believe it is a meeting of the party. In the russian language you will see alot of so-called acronyms that are really part of two words put together. Партия and собрание = партсобрание

Ahh, i knew neither of those roots. Thanks.

I seem to keep creating threads which I just flood with questions, as I have another. What is the difference between опять and снова? Also, when do you use a 3rd person pronoun as opposed to это. I'm mainly talking about at the beginning of sentances, like:
Это не большая машина.
Она не большая машина.
Which one is correct?

Originally Posted by Darobat

Ahh, i knew neither of those roots. Thanks.

I seem to keep creating threads which I just flood with questions, as I have another. What is the difference between опять and снова? Also, when do you use a 3rd person pronoun as opposed to это. I'm mainly talking about at the beginning of sentances, like:
Это не большая машина.
Она не большая машина.
Which one is correct?

Not again AGAIN! See this thread : http://masterrussian.net/mforum/view...F1%ED%EE%E2%E0

Sentence one: this is not a big car
Sentence two: it/she is not a big car. Doesn't make sense unless there was a previous sentence mentioning a specific female object or you are talking about a live person (which doesn't make sense either).

If you want to say its a small car: Машина не большая/машина маленькая

I was reading that cheburashka site thingy, and I have a question. " Когда то я жил в густом тропическом лесу". How does the first part work? It seems like it would be a question, but theres no question mark on the end. What does it roughly translate to? "... I live in a thick tropical forest"

Originally Posted by Darobat

I was reading that cheburashka site thingy, and I have a question. " Когда то я жил в густом тропическом лесу". How does the first part work? It seems like it would be a question, but theres no question mark on the end. What does it roughly translate to? "... I live in a thick tropical forest"

Когда-то (the hyphen is needed here) means "sometime in the past" when one doesn't remember when exactly, so the sentence may be translated as "Once I lived in a thick tropical forest"

Originally Posted by Darobat

What is the difference between опять and снова?
Which one is correct?

No difference at all. There is even an old (and not funny) joke. Что опять? Не опять, а снова.

Originally Posted by Darobat

Also, when do you use a 3rd person pronoun as opposed to это. I'm mainly talking about at the beginning of sentances, like:
Это не большая машина.
Она не большая машина.
Which one is correct?

You can use она as a substitute for машина.
Это не большая машина.
Она не большая.
Now both sentences are correct.

Ok, thanks. I suspected a hyphen may have been missing, but there were other hyphens in the rest of the text, so I wasn't sure.