Thread: the sign -

When do you have to use "-"? Is there a difference in meaning between "я девушка" and "я - девушка", for example? Or do you say it differently? And are there situations when you should always use "-"?

Can you translate/understand this ?

Actually, from the point of view of native Russian, there is only non-essential grammatical difference between "я девушка" and "я - девушка". The second way is a little bit more gramatically correct and you should use it

("-" is needed here because "девушка" is a predicate expressed by a subject "я").

The most important rule is to put a dash between the subject and the predicate if they are both nouns.

Originally Posted by синичка

When do you have to use "-"? Is there a difference in meaning between "я девушка" and "я - девушка", for example? Or do you say it differently? And are there situations when you should always use "-"?

The version "я - девушка" is incorrect since you do not use "-" after a pronoun as opposed to after a noun (see and compare examples from § 164 and § 170 of the link above).

Originally Posted by adoc

Originally Posted by синичка

When do you have to use "-"? Is there a difference in meaning between "я девушка" and "я - девушка", for example? Or do you say it differently? And are there situations when you should always use "-"?

Second version is incorrect since you do not use "-" after a pronoun as opposed to after a noun (see and compare examples from § 164 and § 170 of the link above).

this example does not show us an impossibility of using "-" after a pronoun.
But I aint a philologist

Well, it's the rule, I can't help it.

As a fact, dash is found at the place where one can insert the auxiliary verb "есть", now being fallen in disuse. It is simpler to compare that with Englsih, since it employs "to be".

Originally Posted by Funbit

Can you translate/understand this ?
http://www.primavista.ru/pravila/dash.htm

That's a lot of rules! I think I should be able to understand most of it (with the use of a dictionary). But if I will have questions about it, I'll post them here.

Thanks.

From the link mentioned above:

Тире ставится между подлежащим и сказуемым, выраженным существительным в именительном падеже (без связки).

Is this translation right?
"A dash is placed between the subject and the predicate, which is expressed by a noun in the nominative case (without a copula)."
Does выраженным refer only to сказуемым or to подлежащим и сказуемым? In other words, does only the predicate need to be a noun or both the subject and the predicate?

Originally Posted by синичка

From the link mentioned above:

Тире ставится между подлежащим и сказуемым, выраженным существительным в именительном падеже (без связки).

Is this translation right?
"A dash is placed between the subject and the predicate, which is expressed by a noun in the nominative case (without a copula)."
Does выраженным refer only to сказуемым or to подлежащим и сказуемым? In other words, does only the predicate need to be a noun or both the subject and the predicate?

Yes, here выраженным refers only to сказуемое, however, like adoc said, when the subject is a personal pronoun there should be no dash (it may only be used as a part of an author's style). You may read this here for example: http://www.sochin.ru/shpargalki/russkij/index27.htm
A quote from there (they list the cases where the dash shouldn't be used): "если подлежащее выражено личным местоимением (тире в данном случае рассматривается как авторское) (Она балерина.)"

Okay. Thank you!