Thread: question about a phrase

Okay, i tried to say "You can't think of a single russian joke?" and this is what I said:

не знаешь одну русскую шутку?

But I was corrected, and apparently the right way to say this is:

не знаешь ни одной русской шутки?

My question is, it seems like одной и русской are in the prepositional, but шутки is in just plural (or accusative plural). Why is this? I thought adjectives always had to agree in case, but it doesn't seem like that here. What am I missing? Thanks,

tdk

In this context ни takes the genitive:

-ой is the (hard) female adjectival endings for Genitive, Dative, Instrumental, and Prepositional.


не знаешь ни одной русской шутки?

одной - genitive of одна
русской - genitive of русская
шутки - genitive of шутка

thanks for the quick reply, it makes sense now!

What's the particle ни doing there?

If there is a не infront of the verb, you have to use ни when saying 'not'. IE:

Я не купил машины - I didn't buy a car
я не кпуил ни одной машины - I didn't buy not one car
я не купил ни машины, ни автобуса - I didn't buy a car or a bus

It has a particular meaning and is essential to the question, I think:

Не знаешь ни одной русской шутки?
You don't know a single Russian joke?

Without ни, the question would probably have to be something like this:

Не знаешь никаких русских шуток?
You don't know any Russian jokes?

possible n00b question..but why wouldn't the verb be думаешь?

думать = to think
знать = to know

Не думаешь ни одной русской шутки?
You are not thinking of a single russian joke?

Originally Posted by kwatts59

Не думаешь ни одной русской шутки?
You are not thinking of a single russian joke?

think of = думать о (о + prep. case)
Не думаешь ни об одной русской шутке?

"think of something" could also mean "to remember something"
думать о шутке sounds weird

Originally Posted by net surfer

"think of something" could also mean "to remember something"
думать о шутке sounds weird

Yes, net surfer is right.
So in this context the sentence "You can't think of a single russian joke?" should be translated into Russian as "Не можешь (or не можете) вспомнить ни одной русской шутки?"