Thread: "... меньше чем за сутки"

From vesti.com:

Визит Медведев в Чехию: 14 соглашений меньше чем за сутки.

Does the final phrase mean "in less than a day"?

Medvedev's visit to Czech Republic: 14 agreements in less than a day.

Or is it more like

14 agreements less than (some other day that had more than 14 agreements)

It's confusing to me, because if I were translating "in less than a day" from English into Russian, I would say something like:

... за меньше чем сутка

Originally Posted by Tom

Does the final phrase mean "in less than a day"?

Medvedev's visit to Czech Republic: 14 agreements in less than a day.

Yes.

It's confusing to me, because if I were translating "in less than a day" from English into Russian, I would say something like:

... за меньше чем сутка

"сутки" is plural only. It means "day and night", "24 hours" or "day".

It would be more accurate to say "in less than 24 hours"

it is also possible to say "меньше чем за сутку" - with сутка in the accusative case

it is also possible to say "меньше чем за сутку" - with сутка in the accusative case

Where did you find the word сутка? There is no such word in Russian, as far as I know. There is a word сутки (always plural) acc=nom.

ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сутка

Су́тка — река в Ярославской области Российской Федерации, впадает в Рыбинское водохранилище в 2764 км от устья Волги.

What's the connection between the word "day" and the name of a river?

Originally Posted by John_Douglas

ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сутка

LOL! Well, native speakers can correct me if I'm wrong, but I suppose that in theory, it would be possible to construct a sentence like:

Перевозить посылку за границу вообще стоит меньше, чем за Сутку.
Meaning, "Transporting a package across the border generally costs less than (transporting it) across the Sutka river."

So, the combination of words меньше чем за Сутку is not totally impossible, but it's rather unusual, and means "less than (going) beyond the Sutka (river)."

But as already had been said, if you mean "in less than 24 hours", it would be меньше чем за сутки, using the accusative plural, because сутки ("a timespan of 24 hours") is a word like ножницы ("scissors") that is never used in a singular form.

My example "меньше чем за сутку" was referring to the name of the river. Олигарх купил несколько рек - он заплатил за оку меньше чем за сутку.

Originally Posted by Marcus

Су́тка — река в Ярославской области Российской Федерации, впадает в Рыбинское водохранилище в 2764 км от устья Волги.

For anyone who's curious, the sentence translates: "The Sutka is a river in the Yaroslavl Oblast of the Russian Federation, flowing into the Rybinsk Reservoir 2764 km from the mouth of the Volga."

Also, according to the Википедия article, the Sutka is a rather small river -- just over 80 km (50 miles) in length, 25 meters in width at its widest point (i.e., the length of a typical public swimming pool), and a maximum depth of less than 5 meters (<15 feet).

So you probably wouldn't find it on most maps of Russia (only on detailed maps of the Rybinsk Reservoir area), and most Russians probably have never heard of it.

Originally Posted by John_Douglas

My example "меньше чем за сутку" was referring to the name of the river. Олигарх купил несколько рек - он заплатил за оку меньше чем за сутку.

Well, I certainly give you points for a clever response!

However, note that names of rivers are properly capitalized -- it should be "за Оку, за Сутку".

Also note that at 1500 km in length, the Oka is nearly 20 times longer than the Sutka, and connects the Moscow river to the Volga -- thus it can be used for boat transport between the two major cities of Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. But the Sutka connects swampland with a large dam-reservoir. So it seems rather unlikely that the oligarch would've paid more for the Sutka!

(But admittedly, my example about shipping packages "across the Sutka"' didn't make geographic or economic sense, either.)