Thread: Sentence Structure and Что

Ok, just a quick question, in russian, how exactly does general sentence structure work? I have seen a lot of subject-verb-object, but occasionally I have seen subject-object-verb and occasionally object-verb-subject. Compared to english, I'm a little lost...

also the use of "что" kinda throws me off, such as the sentence "Антон сказал, что он сегодня придёт играть в шахматы" (it's hard for me to get a rough translation other than "Anton said, what he came today to play chess" which is obviously a little close to right, but not quite there.

Any ideas?

Originally Posted by Wyrm

Ok, just a quick question, in russian, how exactly does general sentence structure work? I have seen a lot of subject-verb-object, but occasionally I have seen subject-object-verb and occasionally object-verb-subject. Compared to english, I'm a little lost...

In Russian, the sentence structure is VERY free. I don't think you need to learn theory here.

also the use of "что" kinda throws me off, such as the sentence "Антон сказал, что он сегодня придёт играть в шахматы" (it's hard for me to get a rough translation other than "Anton said, [s:172gvaag]what[/s:172gvaag] he came today to play chess" which is obviously a little close to right, but not quite there.

Anton said that he'll come today to play chess.

As far I as understand, in proper English it should be "Anton said that he'd come today to play chess". But in Russian we say "he said (past tense) that ... [we can use the future tense here]".

Mmmk, gonna hijack this thread - I appreciate the answer, btw Оля. However, I have a new question.

Я не покупаю книгу вчера = I did not buy the book yesterday (according to google)

It has a perfective prefix with a regularly conjugated suffix. Isn't that pefective future tense? Wouldn't past tense be...

Я не покупал книгу вчера?

I'm doing some homework and using google translate to double check, but I got the result above which confused me a little.

Another question: after watching this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nClraVPPOts), the guy said at 4:15 and again at 7:30 that you could pick and choose any prefix (-за, -при, -по, etc.) for your verbs. Is there any truth to this?

Я не *покупаю* книгу вчера

Very bad grammar!

with a slight difference in nuance it would be either :
Я не покупал эту книгу вчера
or
Я не купил эту книгу вчера.

(both require quite a specific context, I can't even think of one right off the bat)

Originally Posted by Wyrm

Another question: after watching this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nClraVPPOts), the guy said at 4:15 and again at 7:30 that you could pick and choose any prefix (-за, -при, -по, etc.) for your verbs. Is there any truth to this?

I think you can but it does not imply the sence of the verb remains the same. It changes, sometimes a lot.
I can’t figure out, btw, where the guy is from. He speaks too good an English to be from Russia and seemingly good Russian, at least as far as I can judge from what little and slow he says here.
But then again, no, he’s not Russian; there are some sounds that betray a stranger in him.

Originally Posted by Wyrm

Я не покупаю книгу вчера = I did not buy the book yesterday (according to google)

As already was said it is incorrect.

It has a perfective prefix with a regularly conjugated suffix. Isn't that pefective future tense?

No, "покупаю" is imperfective present (1st person, single). Prefix does not guarantee perfection...

купить - покупать (perfective - imperfective)

I think when there is suffix а in a verb and it is stressed, the verb should be imperfective no matter of prefixes.

Я не купил вчера книгу. I did not buy the book yesterday. (perf)
Я не покупал вчера книгу. I did not buy any book yesterday. (imperf.)
Я не покупал вчера книг. I did not buy any book yesterday. (imperf.)