First of many very small questions.
Hi friends and sorry to bother you with what is a very small question. I am translating a song, and in a wonderful display of reflexive irony that song uses the word "song" several times. So - "песня" and "песню" - what I'm reading is telling me they arew interchangeable, but I don't want to be fooled by an autobot translator... can anyone tell me, is this right? Is there any "real" difference between these two terms or is it just a different way of pronouncing the same word? And again, sorry for asking a very small little question. =)
Re: First of many very small questions.
It's the same word, but in different cases. "Песня" and "песню" (as well as "песней", "песне", etc.) all mean 'a song', but they are NOT interchangable. If you have a textbook, you should read the chapter about cases, because they are what Russian has to replace a strict word order in English. Cases show you who did what and to whom, etc.
For example, Кот увидел птицу = Cat saw a bird. If you change a word order in Russian phrase in any way possible the meaning would not change, because the case of the word "птица" (with у on end) shows us that it was a bird who was seen, regardless of the word order.
Examples with the word song:
Это хорошая песня - This is a good song.
Я пою песню - I sing a song
Re: First of many very small questions.
Oh man! I should *totally* have known that! For some reason I was not thinking about the word the same... I think because I was picturing it as an inanimate thing.... thanks gr and sorry for my moment of stupidity... man that should have been obvious to me :oops: :wall: