Thread: Chapter 27 questions

Originally Posted by maxmixiv

The question seems awkward, I'd say "почему ты не прочитал мне письмо, которое....
From some very old book, may be...

Thanks for the help.

Wouldn't письмо have to be in the genitive письма because it's the direct object of a negated verb?

Z

Originally Posted by zorro

Thanks for the help.

Wouldn't письмо have to be in the genitive письма because it's the direct object of a negated verb?

Z

I understand your frustration. I think we have a bit of confusion on both sides in here.

Take a look at this:

письма - if the и sound is stressed it means letters.
письма - if the а sound is stressed it means it's a letter in the genetive

So, yes, you can say почему ты не читал мне письма, которое было получено тобой вчера от Ивана?

but it's kind of uncommon to speak like that nowadays, so maxmixiv figured it was actually письма in there

So given that I can say that you can say both я не читал письма and я не читал письмо. The last one is better and sounds more natural.

If you still want to go with the first one just don't forget to stress the right syllable. The stress does matter, doesn't it?

Originally Posted by zorro

Wouldn't письмо have to be in the genitive письма because it's the direct object of a negated verb?

The rules of using genitive and accusative with negated verbs are somewhat complicated.
In that particular case, there should be accusative, because the direct object is definite ("the letter").
Here is a detailed description: http://www.evartist.narod.ru/text1/66.htm#%D0%B7_04
Hope it helps.

RedFox,

Thanks for the link. That's really a great resource for detailed explanations of grammar. "Zorro" means "fox" in Spanish. Did you know that?

Z

Originally Posted by zorro

"Zorro" means "fox" in Spanish. Did you know that?

Нет, не знал об этом.