Thread: Хватать - Хватить

Здравствуйте,

У меня проблемы и сомнения с глаголом "Хватать".

Should one say "У меня не хватает на такси" или "Мне не хватает на такси"?

Also, may I use "хватит" instead of "хватает" in the above example? Are the verbs usually interchangeable - the only difference being the aspect?

Would you be so kind as to expand a little on the matter so as to clarify the situation? I should like to be quite sure of how and when to use them.

Thanks.

"У меня не хватает [денег] на такси", "Мне не хватает [денег] на такси" = Ok

1. Хватать/схватить, схватывать = to grab, to grasp, to catch etc, when somebody takes/gets/understands something quickly
хватать/схватывать + accusative

Мария схватила сумку и побежала на работу.
Мария хватает сумку и бежит на работу. (the present)
Грабитель схватил пистолет.
Грабитель хватает пистолет. (the present)
Полицейский схватил грабителя.
Полицейский хватает грабителя. (the present)
Полицейский схватит грабителя. (the future)
Мария схватывает правила русского языка на лету. (understands quickly)
Он моментально схватил условие задачи.


2. Хватать/хватить = to suffice, to be enough
хватать + genitive

Ему не хватает денег, чтобы купить телевизор.
Ей не хватит денег, чтобы доехать туда. (the future tense)
Нам не хватает времени, чтобы закончить эту работу.
Ему хватило мужества спасти человека.
Нам всего хватает. (we have everything we need = У нас есть всё [, что нам нужно])

may I use "хватит" instead of "хватает"

"Хватит" is the future tense. If you say "мне не хватит на что-то" it implies you will be out of money and you know it.
Марии не хватало на такси, и она пошла пешком. (describes the situation in the past in general, as a result)
Марии не хватило на такси, и она пошла пешком. (sounds as if Maria found out that she didn't have enough money)
Марии не хватает на такси, у тебя есть 10 евро? (like a part of the conversation, right now)
Марии не хватит на такси, ей придется идти пешком. (the future tense)

Oh salut) Сколько лет, сколько зим))

Хватит and хватает MAY be interchangeable in such examples as:

У тебя еще на одну бутылку хватит?? Да, хватает, не проблема. - the words can replace each other here, they are interchangable.
(A-tu assez d'argent pour acheter encore une bouteille? - Oui, j'en ai assez, pas d'probleme.)

So they are interchangable in a situation when they are talking about availabiliy of 'enough' of something (money, or whatever substantial), the only difference being is pure grammatical tense (хватает - настоящее, хватит - будущее, but in this case this grammar is not important, the fact is important).

Но для лучшего понимания следует привести следующий пример со словом "хватит".
Examples.
1) Хватит болтать. Пора работать. - Enough talking, it's time to work now.
2) Хватит! Молчать! Идет экзамен! - Enough! Silence! The exam is in progress!
3) Ну всё хватит. Я задолбался, пора валить. - It's enough for me, I am pissed off, time to shove off.

In these 3 examples "хватит" (you cant use хватает here)is used as an emotional response, so it has quite a different meaning in Russian.

Would you be so kind as to expand a little on the matter so as to clarify the situation? I should like to be quite sure of how and when to use them.

In many cases, especially when the doer is known from the context or situation, you can safely omit both of them altogether to avoid any confusion on how and what to say.

Ex.
Рулетка! Строго-строго не суди!
Рулетка! Не хватает сил уйти!
Рулетка! Не загадывай вперед!
Наперво всегда везет.

Любэ - Рулетка

Originally Posted by Paul G.

2. Хватать/хватить = to suffice, to be enough
хватать + genitive

Ему не хватает денег, чтобы купить телевизор.
Ей не хватит денег, чтобы доехать туда. (the future tense)
Нам не хватает времени, чтобы закончить эту работу.
Ему хватило мужества спасти человека.
Нам всего хватает. (we have everything we need = У нас есть всё [, что нам нужно])




"Хватит" is the future tense. If you say "мне не хватит на что-то" it implies you will be out of money and you know it.
Марии не хватало на такси, и она пошла пешком. (describes the situation in the past in general, as a result)
Марии не хватило на такси, и она пошла пешком. (sounds as if Maria found out that she didn't have enough money)
Марии не хватает на такси, у тебя есть 10 евро? (like a part of the conversation, right now)
Марии не хватит на такси, ей придется идти пешком. (the future tense)

The word денег is plural but as I noticed Хватать/хватить in all cases is used in third person.
How is explained this grammatically? Why third person?

The word денег is plural but as I noticed Хватать/хватить in all cases is used in third person.
How is explained this grammatically? Why third person?

"Деньги" is an uncountable noun.

You can see a similar problem here. As you know the English construction "I have a car" sounds in Russian like "У меня есть машина". That's because in this grammatical pattern we replace a subject (I = я) with an object (car = машина). So, if in the English phrase the subject is "I", in the Russian variant the subject is "машина". For the English-speaking people it looks like magic, but it's simple. Just a different word order: "У меня есть машина" = "Машина есть у меня" = "A car is belonging to me". The subject is a "car", thus "у меня" is only an object.

The similar situation with "хватать".
"Я хватаю деньги". Here "Я" is a subject, "деньги" is an object in accusative. "I grab money."
"Мне хватает денег" = "Денег хватает мне". "Money is enough for me" = "It's enough money for me." It's a so-called "impersonal sentence", when one describes a situation or a state of someting. It's like a passive event, where something occurs, but you can't determine a subject (for example, when you talk about a natural phenomenon) or just suspect it. A subject must exist in an English sentence, even if it's formal.
For example: "It's raining today" = "Сегодня дождливо" (we describe a situation with the weather). In the English sentence the subject "it" is obligatory. In the Russian one it is not. That's why English-speaking beginners make the very same mistake, for example: "Это дождливо сегодня". They think an every sentence must have the subject and simply add it. Of course, "Это" is not necessary here. And it's not just redundant, it's grammatically incorrect.
In Russian we often omit subjects (by the different grammatical patterns) and use a lot of impersonal sentences. You should understand how it works, because you can't speak fluently without that.

Bonus.
I'm sure you know a famous English idiom "I'm short of money". Also you know that "of" implies the genitive case. That's the point where Russian and English are uniting. "Мне не хватает денег". Денег is genitive.

Originally Posted by Paul G.

"Деньги" is an uncountable noun.

You can see a similar problem here. As you know the English construction "I have a car" sounds in Russian like "У меня есть машина". That's because in this grammatical pattern we replace a subject (I = я) with an object (car = машина). So, if in the English phrase the subject is "I", in the Russian variant the subject is "машина". For the English-speaking people it looks like magic, but it's simple. Just a different word order: "У меня есть машина" = "Машина есть у меня" = "A car is belonging to me". The subject is a "car", thus "у меня" is only an object.

The similar situation with "хватать".
"Я хватаю деньги". Here "Я" is a subject, "деньги" is an object in accusative. "I grab money."
"Мне хватает денег" = "Денег хватает мне". "Money is enough for me" = "It's enough money for me." It's a so-called "impersonal sentence", when one describes a situation or a state of someting. It's like a passive event, where something occurs, but you can't determine a subject (for example, when you talk about a natural phenomenon) or just suspect it. A subject must exist in an English sentence, even if it's formal.
For example: "It's raining today" = "Сегодня дождливо" (we describe a situation with the weather). In the English sentence the subject "it" is obligatory. In the Russian one it is not. That's why English-speaking beginners make the very same mistake, for example: "Это дождливо сегодня". They think an every sentence must have the subject and simply add it. Of course, "Это" is not necessary here. And it's not just redundant, it's grammatically incorrect.
In Russian we often omit subjects (by the different grammatical patterns) and use a lot of impersonal sentences. You should understand how it works, because you can't speak fluently without that.

I will need sometime to understand this is. I understood why we used roditelnyi padezh.