Thread: Chapter 23 questions

There is a section on indirect speech in this chapter with some exercises. Are these sentences grammatically correct?

Мы пообещали, что будем дома без двадцати восемь. (We promised we would be home at 7:40.)
Они пообещали, что вернутся сюда через двадцать минут. (They promised they would return here in twenty minutes.)
Экскурсовод пообещал, что угостит нас мороженым. (The tour guide promised he would treat us to ice cream.)

Then there's another exercise, where I need to choose imperfective or perfective aspect. There are a few I'm not sure of.

оставаться/остаться
Наша группа (will stay) в Тбилиси до вторника.
Is it будет оставаться?

приглашать/пригласить
Маша (invited) меня на дачу, но я не мог ехать.
Is it the imperfective, приглашала, because the invitation wasn't accepted?

Thanks for any help,
Z

Originally Posted by zorro

There is a section on indirect speech in this chapter with some exercises. Are these sentences grammatically correct?

Мы пообещали, что будем дома без двадцати восемь. (We promised we would be home at 7:40.)
Они пообещали, что вернутся сюда через двадцать минут. (They promised they would return here in twenty minutes.)
Экскурсовод пообещал, что угостит нас мороженым. (The tour guide promised he would treat us to ice cream.)

Yes, they are.

Originally Posted by zorro

Then there's another exercise, where I need to choose imperfective or perfective aspect. There are a few I'm not sure of.

оставаться/остаться
Наша группа (will stay) в Тбилиси до вторника.
Is it будет оставаться?

приглашать/пригласить
Маша (invited) меня на дачу, но я не мог ехать.
Is it the imperfective, приглашала, because the invitation wasn't accepted?

Наша группа останется (perfective - future tense) в Тбилиси до вторника. - I would use this one to just convey the fact that the group stays in Tbilisy till Tuesday.
Наша группа остаётся (imperfective - present tense) в Тбилиси до вторника - I'd use this one to do the same thing as written above but this phrase also implies that this stay till Tuesday is planned.

But those two are kind of grey area, because they can be used interchangably I suppose. Depends on a particular person I guess

Маша пригласила меня на дачу, но я не мог поехать. Пригласила is used because you just imply the fact of being invited, that doesn't matter if you accepted it or not.
Не мог поехать is used because не мог ехать sounds like you didn't have the ability (not possibility!) to ехать at that moment

One more thing, I think your Russian is already good enough to tell you this. I hope it won't confuse you. If it does, just ignore the following:

Маша приглашала меня на дачу, но я не мог поехать - this one is also possible but it carries a little bit different meaning. Here it sounds like Masha was inviting you to the dacha very persistenly, in other words she did it more than one time.

I imagine it like that:

Masha: Let's go to the dacha, shall we?
You: I'd love to but I can't
Masha: Maybe you can after all?
You: No, I can't
Masha: Please, let's go to the dacha...



I hope this helps