Thread: adjective or genative

G'day all,
Just wondering which of the following sentance structures is more formal or is there no difference.

1. Using an adjective eg апельсинная долька, книжный шкаф
2. Genative construction eg долька апельсина, шкаф книг

spasibo

I would say долька апельсина, книжный шкаф (piece of furniture) and шкаф полный книг (the books inside).

Originally Posted by basurero

G'day all,
Just wondering which of the following sentance structures is more formal or is there no difference.

1. Using an adjective eg апельсинная долька, книжный шкаф
2. Genative construction eg долька апельсина, шкаф книг

spasibo

шкаф книг sounds weird and is never used, you can say шкаф полный книг but it is not the same as simply книжный шкаф.

I don't think there is a big difference between апельсиновая долька and долька апельсина. Personally I prefer the former. The latter I believe is mostly used in culinary books...

шкаф книг sounds to me like the books' closet, rather than the closet which contains books.

cool but i mainly wanted to know the difference between the constructions, the particular words i chose were merely examples. however from what you've said i'm getting the idea that it depends on the words?

Originally Posted by BlackMage

шкаф книг sounds to me like the books' closet, rather than the closet which contains books.

It's bookcase, NOT book closet!

Originally Posted by basurero

cool but i mainly wanted to know the difference between the constructions, the particular words i chose were merely examples. however from what you've said i'm getting the idea that it depends on the words?

Yes. But I think, elementary logic can help you to realize when you are allowed to use both word orders and when you aren't. Notice, that долька апельсина is a part of апельсин, but шкаф isn't a part of книга, so шкаф книг sounds weird and has unexpected meaning

If my books worked at a factory for 30 rubles an hour for 10 hours and used their earnings to buy a nice shelf, then I'd call it шкаф книг.
Чей этот шкаф?
Это шкаф книг.

Also, if someone has a whole bookcase of books, you may say smth like "у него дома (целый) шкаф книг".

I would say that a noun in genitive is used as a measure

Ложка дёгтя в бочке мёда

У меня дома одна полка книг по русской грамматике и три шкафа книг по английской.