Thread: Я все ждал минуты

Good evening
I'm reading a Russian-French version of Russian tales. Precisely, Dostoevsky's Сон смешного человека.
Here a man is thinking about killing himself. And says "every night when I was coming home I thought on killing myself. Я все ждал минуты." What is translated as: "I was waiting continuously the moment / J'attendais sans cesse le moment". In a grammatical explanation says that after ждал goes a genitive. OK. My problem is with все whose meaning fitting the translation (continously / sans cesse) I don't find in my dictionaries.
Can you make it clear for me? Thanks.

One of the meaning of "всё" is always, constantly, or continuously. Please note that it is всё rather than все, although most Russian books use the character e for both sounds, which presents no difficulty for most native Russian speakers, but may be a problem for language learners.

Originally Posted by translationsnmru

One of the meaning of "всё" is always, constantly, or continuously. Please note that it is всё rather than все, although most Russian books use the character e for both sounds, which presents no difficulty for most native Russian speakers, but may be a problem for language learners.

Thank you.

я всё ждал минуты means - I has been waiting for a right time

Originally Posted by translationsnmru

One of the meaning of "всё" is always, constantly, or continuously.

When всё has this meaning, it's generally understood as being "short" for всё время, isn't it? Or are there contexts where всё is possible (with the meaning "always" or "continuously"), but всё время is not?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

When всё has this meaning, it's generally understood as being "short" for всё время, isn't it? Or are there contexts where всё is possible (with the meaning "always" or "continuously"), but всё время is not?

Я всё ждал удобной минуты сказать, что я о нём думаю.
Я всё ждал и ждал....
Я всё думал и думал...
Я всё надеялся и надеялся...

Я думаю, что здесь всё указывает на продолжительное, непрерывное действие, не на время..

Originally Posted by Lampada

Я всё ждал удобной минуты сказать, что я о нём думаю.
Я всё ждал и ждал....
Я всё думал и думал...
Я всё надеялся и надеялся...

Я думаю, что здесь всё указывает на продолжительное, непрерывное действие, не на время..

Thanks. Very interesting your answers.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

When всё has this meaning, it's generally understood as being "short" for всё время, isn't it? Or are there contexts where всё is possible (with the meaning "always" or "continuously"), but всё время is not?

I think you can use this substitution but it will slightly change the meaning. You can also sometimes substitute "всё ещё":

Я всё надеялся = Я всё ещё надеялся.

"Я всё время надеялся" has different meaning. "Я всё ещё надеялся" means "I was still hoping" that is I was hoping even though there was no real chance already (chance has gone). "Я всё время надеялся" simply means that "I was hoping all the time" (the chance still existed, it has not gone yet). For example "Я каждый вечер встречал любимую актрису у выхода из театра и все время надеялся, что она на меня посмотрит". versus "Я каждый вечер встречал её у выхода, и всё ещё надеялся, что она обратит на меня внимание, не смотря на то, что она просила меня за ней не ходить".