Thread: Particle "же"

Originally Posted by kidkboom

For the purposes of this question, I decided же would be a "he."

IDK if you joking but if not
же is not "he", it's more like "zhe" or "dze" or "je"
"he" will be хе

Originally Posted by kidkboom

Что же вовремя не писали, на приёме?

Why you wouldn't have written it before, on the appointment?

Что вовремя не писали, на приёме? Why you didn't write it before, on the appointment?

Originally Posted by kidkboom

Thanks a lot, your help is needed AND invaluable to me.
большое спасибо - твое помочь очень нужно

Большое спасибо, ваша помощь мне очень нужна и она бесценна.

"ты" can only be used if you are talking to one person (and usually you know who exactly)

Originally Posted by Doomer

Why you wouldn't have written it before, on the appointment?

Why you didn't write it before, on the appointment?

I'm not good enough at English to completely understand the difference between the two sentences, but I think it's about politeness. If so, Doomer is quite right. The Russian sentence with 'же' sounds like a gentle reproach with a bit of perplexity. But that's what is usually implicated, the most obvious meaning of this phrase. One can say it sarcastically or in much more other ways. The sentence "Что вовремя не писали, на приёме?" - especially with что like чё - is just rude. So 'же' here is an intensifying particle (усилительная частица) for что (which means why in this case).

Why you wouldn't have written it before, on the appointment?

Why you didn't write it before, at the appointment?

Both these questions have inverted word order. "you wouldn't" and "you didn't" should be "wouldn't you" and "didn't you" in these questions as written. =>

"Why wouldn't you have written it before, at the appointment?

Why didn't you write it before, at the appointment?"

The inverted word order in "Why you didn't write it before, on the appointment?" is almost always used with an additional phrase:

Why you didn't (do something or other), I don't know.

There are several such added phrases 'is a mystery to me' or 'is neither here nor there' and some other types of such things.

Asking the question requires the word order "why didn't you...?"

Inverting the word order has the effect of changing the function of the phrase. It changes to a statement that has some more content at the end usually. And no question mark is used in that construction.


"Why is the elevator out of service today?"
"Why the elevator is out of service today is beyond me!"

Originally Posted by Seraph

Both these questions have inverted word order. "you wouldn't" and "you didn't" should be "wouldn't you" and "didn't you" in these questions as written. =>

"Why wouldn't you have written it before, at the appointment?

Thank you
I did write it that way first time but it seemed so weird to me that I formed it as of above
I should have stuck to the grammar no matter how weird it seemed