Thread: Translation of a very little poem

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

I would tend to guess that shrimp are treated as a "mass noun" (like изюм, "a pile of raisins"), rather than a "count noun" (like арбуз, "a watermelon"). And from Googling, it seems that LIVE shrimp are "count," but COOKED shrimp are "mass". Thus, in the context of eating in a seafood restaurant:

No. That’s true for рыба, but not for креветка.
Креветки are usually plural. They can be either animate or inanimate — both variants are OK.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

В ресторане я покушал креветку.
--- At the restaurant, I ate (a big pile of many) shrimp. (NOT "exactly one individual shrimp").

Incorrect. Креветку here can mean ‘a single shrimp’ only.
Should be «В ресторане я покушал креветки» (inanim. pl. acc) or «…креветок» (anim. pl. acc. or pl. gen.)

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

В ресторане я покушал креветки, потом попросил у официанта, "Можно «doggy bag», чтобы взять остатки с собой?"
--- At the restaurant, I ate some (of the big pile of many) shrimp, then asked the waiter, "Can I have a «doggy bag» to take the leftovers with me?"

Actually, this sentence doesn’t differ from the previous one.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

На море я пытался ловить креветок, а в конце концов я поймал лишь одну креветку.
--- At the seashore I tried to catch shrimp (anim. acc. pl.), but in the end, I caught only one shrimp (acc. sg.).

OK here.

Originally Posted by Soft sign

No. That’s true for рыба, but not for креветка.
Креветки are usually plural. They can be either animate or inanimate — both variants are OK.

Блин, йа креведко!

Krivetko.jpg

jacksparrow_krivetko.jpg

cthulhu_krevedko.jpg

Just in case you've never seen this Ru.net meme, the deliberately misspelled "Йа креветко!" could be translated something like "D'oh, I is such a stoopid shremp!" (Meaning, basically, "Извини, я не в курсе" -- "Sorry, I'm not up to speed; I don't understand the situation/discussion.")

And the phrase is very often seen together with two other memes: parodies of Lovecraft's "Cthulhu", and "Preved Medved!!", as in the third image.