Thread: Various grammar questions

Originally Posted by zorro

In one exercise I need to give the past and future of the given sentence. One sentence is Сегодня туман. I answered Вечра был туман and Завтра будет туман thinking that туман is the subject of the sentence. Is that right or is there no grammatical subject and I should use the neuter of the verbs? (For the future tense I guess the masculine and neuter are the same, будет.)

This is all correct
Except for the typo in вчера

Originally Posted by zorro

Another question: Here I need to answer the question, У вас скоро будет контрольная? I want to answer "no". Is it У меня буду нет? There are no negative examples in the chapter.

you can either answer
нет
or you can use double negative
нет, у меня не будет

Originally Posted by zorro

And then some translations I'm not sure of: Are you sick or simply tired? Вы больны, но только устали?

вы больны, или только устали?

Originally Posted by zorro

They have been resting a long time. Они отдыхают уже давно.

correct

Originally Posted by zorro

How long have you been waiting for Ivan? сколько времени ты здесь ждёшь Ивана?

corect but there is no здесь in the English version, so you can remove it from the Russian sentence too

Thank you for your help.

A couple more translation questions.

Did you rest this morning? Yes, I did.
Ты был отдыхать сегодня утром? Был. Is the syntax correct or should сегодня утром come first. Also the response should be Был, not да?

Is "rock and roll" grammatically singular in Russian? Рок-и-ролл мне не очень нравится.

У нас была машина. Она была красивая, но она не хорошо работала. Should хорошо go here?

If the question is Ты когда-нибудь бьл в Сибири? Is the better negative answer Нет or Не был?

Thanks for any help.

Z

Originally Posted by zorro

Did you rest this morning? Yes, I did.
Ты был отдыхать сегодня утром? Был. Is the syntax correct or should сегодня утром come first. Also the response should be Был, not да?

Ты отдыхал сегодня утром?
If this sentence is pronounced with neutral intonation (with no stress or with stressed "отдыхал"). correct positive answers are:
Да.
Отдыхал.
Да, отдыхал.
Да, я отдыхал.
Да, я отдыхал сегодня утром.

Is the syntax correct or should сегодня утром come first.

In short - both are OK. If you want dive deeply...

Ты отдыхал сегодня утром? - This is neutral word order. Generally word order is more free in Russian than in English. But different order can have a reason, especially in literary style, where you can not use voice stress: at the beginning (and sometimes at the end) of the sentence words that you want to emphasize. So, "сегодня утром ты отдыхал?" can mean the following:
(Usually you rest in morning, but) did you rest this morning? But it is not mandatory.

Is "rock and roll" grammatically singular in Russian? Рок-и-ролл мне не очень нравится.

Рок-н-ролл. No other way I know of. Hyphens used to show grammatical singularity.

У нас была машина. Она была красивая, но она не хорошо работала. Should хорошо go here?

As a first approach will do. The sentence is grammatically correct but strange. Why don't you use "плохо" instead of "не хорошо"?

If the question is Ты когда-нибудь был в Сибири? Is the better negative answer Нет or Не был?

Both are OK unless in the context can be treated ambiguously . "Никогда" also will do.

Originally Posted by it-ogo

As a first approach will do. The sentence is grammatically correct but strange. Why don't you use "плохо" instead of "не хорошо"

I guess I should include the English sentences I was given to translate. "We had a car. It was pretty but it didn't work well." I answered У нас была машина. Она была красивая, но она не хорошо работала.

Thank you for all your help.

Z

I would say:

"We had a car. It was pretty but it didn't work well."
У нас была машина. Она была красивая, но она не очень хорошо работала.