Thread: Usage of Feminine words and suffixes (easy, silly question)

It is new to me to be using specific words due to my gender!
So I'm a bit confused.

When should I (a woman) add the "a" ending to words?

For instance:
I go into a hotel and say: Мне нужен одноместный номер. (???)
I meet a (male) friend: Рада тебя видеть.(???)
I need some time to think: мне надо подумать (???)

Why is this right or wrong?
Is this decided by the gender of the person/thing that I am talking about, or by my own gender?

Hope somebody can explain and help with a couple of easy examples!

Originally Posted by Johanna

For instance:
I go into a hotel and say: Мне нужен одноместный номер. (???)
I meet a (male) friend: Рада тебя видеть.(???)
I need some time to think: мне надо подумать (???)

easy, silly question

It's not easy for a native speaker to give an exhaustive explanation. These are just different grammar cases, three types, so to say.
But I assure you that everything is correct in the examples.

Originally Posted by Johanna

I go into a hotel and say: Мне нужен одноместный номер. (???)
I meet a (male) friend: Рада тебя видеть.(???)
I need some time to think: мне надо подумать (???)

As a native speaker has already said that these are grammatically correct, let me explain:

You, as the speaker of these sentences, are the grammatical subject only in the second. Therefore you use the feminine form. While the first sentence in English means 'I need a room', what it grammatically says is actually 'a room is needed by me' - the gender of the word for 'room', which is male, makes the verb (which technically isn't a verb at all but a short form of нужный) use a masculine ending. If you were the subject you'd use я, but Russian grammar makes you use мне which is dative and therefore makes you the indirect object.

The same goes for the third sentence, and the 'it' subject which practically makes you obliged is missing. It is not 'I have to' rather than 'something is making me obliged', so to speak.

This phenomenon isn't so hard for me as it is similar to certain German phrases. Maybe you could find better examples in your native language. For instance, the German equivalent to 'I am cold' translates literally to 'me is cold'.

Robin

A predicate verb should agree in gender with a subject.

Now there is a problem to detect what is a subject and what is a predicate in each case.

Originally Posted by Johanna

Мне нужен одноместный номер. (???)

Literal translation: a one-person room is needed by me.
номер is a subject and this word is masculine so нужен (is needed) should be in masculine form
номер нужен... = room is needed...

Originally Posted by Johanna

Рада тебя видеть.(???)

Subject - I (feminine in your case)
(Я) рада... I am happy...

Originally Posted by Johanna

мне надо подумать (???)

Bad example: "надо" is undeclinable anyways.
Let us take мне нужно подумать
Literal translation: It is needed to think for me.
нужно... = It is needed...

"It" is missed in Russian in this kind of phrase but is implied. And it is neutral. Impersonal verbs always use neutral gender.

Originally Posted by bitpicker

the German equivalent to 'I am cold'

Let me add this example. (:
Mir ist kalt. — Мне холодно.

Originally Posted by Johanna

I meet a (male) friend: Рада тебя видеть.(???)

It's similar to "I am glad to see you," but "я" is omitted and the word order is a bit different.

I - Я (often omitted)
am - ø
glad - рад (if the speaker is masculine), рада (if the speaker is feminine)
to see - видеть
you - тебя (if you address the person "ты"), вас (if you address the person "вы"), Вас (if you address the person "Вы"), вас (plural)

It doesn't matter, if you meet a male or a female friend. ) In both cases "тебя" will be used.

Originally Posted by it-ogo

Subject - I

Like in English.

Thank you!
I think I get this now... Everybody gave helpful answers, thanks so much!
Now that I understand it, the question seems silly...

I have never studied German but I understand it ok... Don't know grammar though, that's quite different -- it's the words that are very easy due to similarities betw. Swedish and German... Hence I only attempt to speak German as a final resort because my grammar is totally improvised... lol I wanted to study German at the same time as Russian actually, but Russian proved so hard that I wouldn't be able to make sufficient progress if I did another langauge on the side. It's a shame, but I'll get back to that some other time. BIG mistake not to choose German in school...

Johanna, I don't think there are silly questions in language learning.

Should you ever decide to take up learning German, I can help you, if you want.

Robin

I love the way Russian grammar lays out, it's similar to Japanese in some ways. Of course there are a lot of difficult aspects. But I personally like the logic in it..

So I should say "Сколько я должна?" right?

Because it is I, a woman, who owe money.... ?

The reason this is a bit tricky is because most of the example sentences are for men. But obviously for "Я" sentences that I simply memorise, I want to learn the female version....

Originally Posted by Johanna

So I should say "Сколько я должна?" right?

Right.
Сколько я должен?
Сколько я должна?

Thanks Zaya!

The text books ought to do it like that.
Everything they say for a person of one gender they ought to just repeat for the other gender....