Thread: Word of the day

Today's word of the day is 'ворота', and the example is: 'Хозяин закрыл ворота.'

It's probably just me being stupid, but I thought that it would be: 'Хозяин закрыл воротy', because 'ворота' is the direct object and so would be in the accusative case.

Can someone tell me why it isn't please?

Originally Posted by начало

Today's word of the day is 'ворота', and the example is: 'Хозяин закрыл ворота.'

It's probably just me being stupid, but I thought that it would be: 'Хозяин закрыл воротy', because 'ворота' is the direct object and so would be in the accusative case.

Can someone tell me why it isn't please?

cause ворота is plural

ahh....I knew it would be something like that lol. Thanks. What is the singular then? Cos my dictionary only has 'ворота'.

Originally Posted by начало

ahh....I knew it would be something like that lol. Thanks. What is the singular then? Cos my dictionary only has 'ворота'.

It doesn't have singular form, like scissors etc.

Ворота usually implies two door gate.
One door of ворота is створка [ворот]

Пришла беда - отворяй ворота

It's a saying about misfortunes coming one after another. The stress here is on the last syllable of "ворота" (it's an archaic version) for rhyme.

Thanks Alware, that does make sense. So 'ворота' is a double gate (one with 2 doors), and 'створка' is a single gate (one door) yeah?

And thanks Vadim84 thats really useful, I want to learn more proverbs and sayings like that. 'Пришла беда - отворяй ворота' is the same as 'when it rains it poors' in English

дать от ворот поворот — to give smb. a gate, to brush smb. off

ooo more, thanks gRomoZeka!!

Originally Posted by начало

ooo more, thanks gRomoZeka!!

смотреть как баран на новые ворота - to stare like a stuck pig

I am definitly going to learn that one!!!

Originally Posted by начало

Thanks Alware, that does make sense. So 'ворота' is a double gate (one with 2 doors),

Take note of the word "usually" in Alware's message, because these, for example, are ворота too:
http://www.rusdol.ru/img_add/000003_B.jpg
http://www.vorota2000.ru/doors/angar/image/big/180.jpg

Oh, ok, thanks. Is there anyway to tell when to use 'ворота' and when to use 'створка' or 'ворот'?

Just in case - 'ворота' is always plural, regardless of how many leaves it consists of.

I don't think 'створка' will be of much use to you. For example, if one of the gate leaves is open and you want someone to close it, you would rather say "Закрой ворота" than "Закрой створку ворот".

Well, you need 'створка' if you want only one of the leaves to be opened or closed:
"Закрой левую створку ворот." (правую оставь открытой)
"Открой правую створку." (левую оставь закрытой)

These are also ворота:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image ... _gates.jpg

ств

And [i]в

Originally Posted by начало

'Пришла беда - отворяй ворота' is the same as 'when it rains it poors' in English

Да, у обеих пословиц одно и тоже значение. Есть ещё одна синонимичная: Беда не приходит одна.

Thanks everyone.

This shows both the best and worst parts of learning a language. I hate it because something that seems so simple ends up being way more complicated than you think; But I love learning language because it's just so much fun to see how it all comes together.