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Thread: Кот versus Котэ

  1. #1
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    Question Кот versus Котэ

    Hello, I would like to know the difference between these 2 words: Кот and Котэ.
    I found several times on internet some words which have the letter Э at the end, sometimes written in uppercase, for exemple: пёсЭ. For me, as a beginner, this is quite confusing.
    Thank you in advance for your time to enlighten me!
    Gabriela

  2. #2
    Властелин iCake's Avatar
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    The котэ is internet slang for кот (as пёс for пёсэ). Somehow котэ, пёсэ (whichever animal + э ending) is supposed to be funny. However, as I said, it's internet slang and is not normally used in daily conversations and never (at least as far as I know) in literature.
    I do not claim that my opinion is absolutely true.
    If you've spotted any mistake in my English, please, correct it. I want to be aware of any mistakes to efficiently eliminate them before they become a habit.

  3. #3
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    yes.. it is only supposed to be funny... i have never seen it before (maybe such words occur somewhere in teenager chats)...

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    Thank you very much for your quick response!
    One more question, though: is there any difference in the pronunciation of these two forms? I mean, the э at the end of the word is pronounceable?

  5. #5
    Старший оракул
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    Actually, "Котэ" is a Georgian name. The full version is Konstantine Константинэ (კონსტანტინე), and the short informal version is Kote Котэ (კოტე). And yes, "э" is pronounceable. There was a famous sports commentator Котэ Махарадзе (Kote Makharadze - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

    I believe, that is the reason why some people started writing "котэ" instead of "кот" to make it funny, as if it were a Georgian person's name.
    it-ogo likes this.

  6. #6
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    Now I understand.
    Большое спасибо!

  7. #7
    Почтенный гражданин pushvv's Avatar
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    Котэ - буква "Э" расположена около клавиши Enter, стало быть является очень частой и распространенной ошибкой, ну и забавы ради некоторые люди специально добавляют ее в конец слов. А кто-то заметил слово котэ и начал бездумно использовать (более того даже в разговорной речи, что, ей богу, раздражает нешуточно). Есть еще довольно много похожих примеров
    Doomer likes this.

  8. #8
    Paul G.
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    Even Medvedev once used "котэ" as a word for the cat which lives in the president's house. But what can we do if Medvedev uses Twitter, a typical teenage chat where such slang is completely Ok?

  9. #9
    car
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    I think it actually stems from that famous Chinese brick set for kids which was supposed to teach the alphabet, where the Chinese confused the letter З with the letter Э, and wrote АРБУЭ instead of АРБУЗ (watermelon); the ending -БУЭ is a bit funny because it sounds like a vomit sound, so it became popular on the Internet to attach -УЭ or -Э to the end of words, I think this is why people write котэ instead of кот.

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