Thread: Разные вопросы по грамматике (by tiudavidharris

how are the prepositions 'из', 'от' and 'с' used with time expressions?

English "since" is almost always translated as "с".

Since I finished school = с тех пор как я окончил школу

Er, do you really expect forum users to come up with a textbook on Russian grammar and word usage?

Without further context I can think of such uses:
ИЗ
из года в год, изо дня в день, из века в век (??; not used with неделя, час, месяц, by the way)
Year after year, day after day and so on: to talk about activities or state of things that repeat/don't change as the time passes by

ОТ
The only examples I can think of is
"Время выполнения заказа - от недели / до недели" (от + Genitive)
"Your order will take a week or more/ a week or less to complete"

"указ от 26 января" (от + Genitive)
the decree of the January 26 (quite a formal way to speak about the date of some document)

"время от времени" ~ now and again, from time to time

С + Genitive
This one is widely used to express a starting point of a prolonged activity in time: "beginning with", "from" "since".
"Аптека открыта с 9 до 17" ~ "The drugstore is open 9am to 5 pm"
"Варит пиво с 1886 года" ~ "Brewing beer from 1886"
"Я с утра тебя жду" ~ "I've been waiting for you since morning"
"У него отпуск с понедельника, заканчивается 4 августа" ~ "He's on vacation beginning from Monday; it will end on the 4th of August"

"с минуты на минуту", "с часу на час" - "any moment now". A set phrase to express the idea that some event is going to happen very soon, maybe this very minute, or the next minute; this hour, of in a few hours (depending on what time scale is typical of such things).

А как знать надо ли использовать "из" или "от" ?
Я выкопал картофель из моего сада.
Почему не "от" моего сада ?

Originally Posted by Simon000001

А как знать надо ли использовать "из" или "от" ?
Я выкопал картофель из моего сада.
Почему не "от" моего сада ?

The basic prepositions for directions are:
"в" (into, motion to inside a location) and "из" (opposite to "в", motion from inside a location);
"на" (onto, motion to the top of a location) and "с" (opposite to "на", motions from the top of a location);
"к" (towards, motion to a location not necessarily entering it) and "от" (opposite to "к", motion from a point near a location to a point far away from it).

There are much more nuances of how to use "в" and "на", of course. I have just provided a simplified mapping.
But anyway, "из" always corresponds to "в" and "с" always corresponds to "на".

У меня в огороде растёт картофель (Potatoes grow in my garden), BTW note, it is "огород" where you grow vegetables, not "сад". "Сад" is usually for fruit trees.
That's why you say: Я выкопал картофель из огорода.

If you say "Я выкопал картофель от огорода", that would sound very strange, as if you started digging potatoes from the edge of your garden and proceeded to somewhere outside of it...

Compare:
Река течёт с горы. - The river flows from the top of the mountain.
Река течёт из горы. - The river flows from inside the mountain (imagine there is some empty cavity inside it). Maybe it flows out of a cave.
Река течёт от горы. - The river flow starts from a point very close to the mountain, not from the mountain itself. Or maybe from the foot of the mountain.

You can think of it this way:
"из" = out of; "с" = from the top of; "от"= starting from.
They are very rough approximations, but they might help to understand the difference.

One more example:
Мы ехали из Самары в Москву 10 часов. = We travelled from Samara to Moscow 10 hours. It means we started the way in Samara and finished it in Moscow. The whole way is assumed.
Мы ехали от Самары до Москвы 10 часов. = We travelled from Samara to Moscow 10 hours. Maybe we started the way much earlier (say, in Yekaterinburg) and continued it after Moscow (maybe to St. Petersburg). But the span between Samara and Moscow took us 10 hours. It is not clear, if the whole way is assumed or a part of it.

Originally Posted by Simon000001

А как знать надо ли использовать "из" или "от" ?
Я выкопал картофель из моего сада.
Почему не "от" моего сада ?

A bad example. Noone speaks like that.
Either it is "Я выкопал картофель в своём саду"
or "Я выкопал картофель из земли".
One single potato is also "картофелина". A more colloquial word for potato is "картошка". You can use these, too.
"От" means rather "away from" than "out of", so it is not suitable for digging objects from the ground.

Originally Posted by Simon000001

Почему не "от" моего сада ?

Because Russian is not English (or French)
The sooner you stop word-by-word translating from English(or French) and start thinking in Russian patterns - the better for your learning