Фамилия мне твоя ни о чем не говорит......
when I first read this, i was like " WTF!@!# I don't understand!
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Фамилия мне твоя ни о чем не говорит......
when I first read this, i was like " WTF!@!# I don't understand!
Yeah, no kidding; any native speakers want to tell us why the heck you phrase it that way?
You understand it now? Just in case you don't: Your surname doesn't tell me anything/doesn't mean anything to meQuote:
Originally Posted by Mordan
He-he, welcome to the world of the language of freedom, where you are able to choose a word order you prefer :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Mordan
Why is твоя not next to фамилия?Quote:
Originally Posted by Mordan
How do these sound?
Твоя фамилия мне ни о чем не говорит......
or
Фамилия твоя мне ни о чем не говорит......
A striking example of that word order doesn't play an important part in Russian. All the phrases (including Mordan's one) look fine :)Quote:
Originally Posted by kwatts59
P.S. I definitely made a mistake in my first sentence, but I don't know how to say it correctly ("яркий пример того, что порядок слов не играет важной роли в русском языке") :oops:
Only a very small mistake. No "of"... oh and maybe part should be role.Quote:
Originally Posted by pranki
A striking example that word order doesn't play an important role in Russian.
What about these variants:
Не говорит фамилия мне твоя ни о чём.
Ни о чём фамилия твоя не говорит мне.
BTW Are you sure "of that" is incorrect? I'm pretty sure some people say that.
It was completely unintelligible to me until kalinka pointed out that the "of" was extraneous. You could say "A striking example of the small part word order plays in Russian," but "of that" doesn't make any sense.Quote:
Originally Posted by basurero
Five "bricks' of that sentence ("твоя", "фамилия", "не говорит", "мне", "ни о чём") can be rearranged in any order and still result an uderstandable and grammaticlly correct phrase, though some variants will be twisted and stylistically poor.Quote:
Originally Posted by basurero
:)Quote:
Originally Posted by basurero
Actually, these variants are more weird (look like Master Yoda's speech), but, anyway, they make sense :)
And I am pretty sure some people don't speak grammatically correct English. If you I mean get what! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by basurero
and I am one of them...
LOL
What about
Твоя ни о чём не мне говорит фамилия.
or
не твоя фамилия мне говорит ни о чем
Isn't that a whole different meaning?
Cheater! You've broken the "bricks"! (and Kalinka too) :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by kwatts59
Actually, it doesn't make sense at all. It's because говорит has an affirmative sense, and ни о чем has a negative one. In English such phrases are common (for example, "says nothing"), but not in Russian. You have to put не before говоритQuote:
Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie
"не говорит" must be used like singe "brick", imho
Well, it does make some (very weird) sense -- in a proper context it would mean "the name, which is not yours, tells me about nothing". There is also an expression "govorit' ni o chem" meaning "talk about nothing [important]".Quote:
Originally Posted by pranki
wow! :o
Word order is very important in Russian. I can't elucidate the particular nuances of the initial phrase, which does sound pretty unusual, but here are some simple examples, all of which convey to the listener different information. The basic concept of John reading a book is there, but there are big differences otherwise.
Иван читает книгу. John is reading a/the book.
Книгу читает Иван. It's John who is reading a/the book.
Иван книгу читает. ??
Читает Иван книгу. What's John reading? -A book.
Читает книгу Иван. Who's reading a/the book?
Each of these sentences conveys additional information beyond John reading a book.
And we're not even going to mention Книга читается Иваном (he said, mentioning).
So, native speakers, what can you say about this to convince us poor Americans, locked into such a rigid word order that we have to jump through hoops to circumlocute, that Russian word order, as Mr. pranki said above, "doesn't play an important part in Russian."