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Thread: Saying the year in Russian

  1. #1
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    Saying the year in Russian

    So the past few days in class we have learned numbers up to миллиард. So to practice with numbers over 1000, we have been doing things with dates, more specifically years. So my question is, is there a short form for years? It seems to me that the years are so long and would be impractical to use in conversation.

    For example,
    Я родился в тысяча девятьсот девяносто первом году.

    Now, I dont know, because I'm not fluent in Russian, but this seems too tedious and long.

    Thanks
    Quote Originally Posted by TATY
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  2. #2
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    Year dates can be shorted: "Я родился в девяносто первом году".
    «И всё, что сейчас происходит внутре — тоже является частью вселенной».

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rtyom
    Year dates can be shorted: "Я родился в девяносто первом году".
    +1
    В девяносто седьмом пошел в школу.
    С две тысячи девятого по две тысячи одиннадцатый служил в армии.
    =)

  4. #4
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    In short, you can often omit words "год/лет", especially in informal conversation, and century numbers, when it's obvious what century you're talking about.

    Ex.:
    - Когда ты закончил школу?
    - В девяносто седьмом. (The meaning is obvious - it's 1997).

    - Когда закончилась Столетняя война?
    - В тысяча четыреста пятьдесят третьем году.

    The answer "В пятьдесят третьем" is ok if the other person knows what century it was in, but it's bad, if he/she doesn't. Don't make people guess. Say the full date.
    But in the following example shortened version is appropriate:
    - Когда закончилась Столетняя война - в пятьдесят втором или пятьдесят третьем?
    - В пятьдесят третьем.



    Note that when talking about current century people use full dates (for example, "В две тысячи четвертом году..."), because the alternative ("В четвертом году...") sounds very weird.

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