Thread: A Few More Questions about Grammar

Originally Posted by Astrum

Ok, so in cases where it wouldn't be right to say something like "Я (глагол), что", we say "Я (глагол), как"?

It would really depend on what the verb is. As Shady_arc said, как is often used after verbs that mean "to perceive" or "to observe" or "to sense", etc. Thus видеть ("to see"), смотреть ("to watch"), слышать ("to hear"), слушать ("to listen"), чувствовать ("to feel"), etc. (Note that in English, we can sometimes use "as" after such verbs -- "to listen as the birds sang" -- but we wouldn't normally say "to hear as the birds sang"; we'd say "to hear the birds sing[ing]".)

Also, compare these three sentences:

1. "Yesterday I heard that canaries sing." (Someone informed me of the fact that canaries have this ability -- something I learned for the first time only yesterday!)
2. "Yesterday I heard the canaries singing." (I personally witnessed this singing as it was occurring yesterday.)
3. "Yesterday I listened while the canaries sang." (Basically same as #2, but with "listen" instead of "hear", to emphasize that you were actively paying attention to the birdies' songs.)

The first could be translated:
Вчера я слышал, что канарейки поют.

And the second:
Вчера я слышал, как канарейки поют.

And the third:
Вчера я слушал, как канарейки поют.

Notice (to reiterate Shady_arc's point) that the verb поют is present-tense in all three sentences ("they are singing") -- even though я слышал and я слушал are past-tense, and despite the fact that in the second and third sentence, you're describing something that the birds did in the past, not something that they're doing right now (or that canaries "do in general," like in #1).

You can think of it this way: in #2 and #3, the act of "singing" WAS in the present with respect to the act of hearing/listening. (For more info, Google on "sequence of tenses" -- English, in general, features so-called "sequence of tenses," but Russian often does not.)

The question about the prepositional dative case with "холодом", I just should remember that, right? It applies to all nouns when you're trying to say "the end of (noun)"?

Nope! Usually, "the end of (noun)" would take the (noun) in the genitive case. "A movie" is фильм; and конец фильма means "the end of the movie" (it's also used in movies to mean "The End", right before the closing credits).

Note that in конец холодам, the word холодам is actually the dative plural. (Prepositional plural would be холодах and prep. sing. холоде.)

The noun холод is "coldness", but when used in the plural, it's translatable as "cold weather" (not "coldnesses"!). The nominative pl. is холода, and thus you could say первые холода этого года, "the first cold weather of this year."

So the expression конец холодам literally means "end TO cold weather" (dative). And you could also use the genitive of the plural конец холодов ("end OF cold weather"). I think the dative form холодам was used just for stylistic reasons in your example.

Thanks once again, it's really helpful to me.

And I didn't realize that it was the noun form of "холодный", thanks again, I'm sure that I'll have more questions in the near future.

Originally Posted by Throbert McGee

So the expression конец холодам literally means "end TO cold weather" (dative). And you could also use the genitive of the plural конец холодов ("end OF cold weather"). I think the dative form холодам was used just for stylistic reasons in your example.

Not for stylistic reasons, but rather to express a certain thought. Something like "Here comes the end to cold weather". Just stating "End of the cold weather" wouldn't be the same. You may use it the same with people "Тебе конец" would be something like "You are done for" (correct me if I got it wrong). "Конец тебя" looks weird, even ungrammatical, and "твой конец" with current usage will remind of one's rod.

As for sequence of tenses, you may use the verb in a subordinate clause in Past, "Вчера я слушал, как канарейки пели". It is just you don't have to.

Originally Posted by Shady_arc

"Тебе конец" would be something like "You are done for" (correct me if I got it wrong).

Wait, the word is К-О-Н-е-ц?!?! All these years I've been spelling and pronouncing it TOTALLY wrong, with 6 letters. (But at least I got the -е-ц part correct!)

Just kidding -- and "You're done for" is correct.

and "твой конец" with current usage will remind of one's rod.

Век живи, век учись!