Geez... so many ways to say "something" .... in English I can just think of two: Anything and something. In Hebrew also two ("mashehu", "davar"...)
How come there are so many in Russians!? Are there importance differences between them?
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Geez... so many ways to say "something" .... in English I can just think of two: Anything and something. In Hebrew also two ("mashehu", "davar"...)
How come there are so many in Russians!? Are there importance differences between them?
Differences are how they are used. Somethings involved:
кое-что this is like 'a thing or two' => 'He began to understand a thing or two (a certain something or other).' This would use кое-что.
что-нибудь 'anything' These could use что-нибудь => Anything in there? Anything behind the door?
что-либо can act like a place holder, for example in a sample sentence. For example if demonstrating how a verb acts, что-либо is placed for an object in a sample sentence. Reader understands that he puts person/object of interest in place of что-либо, and uses correct declension for the noun actually chosen.
Related examples from book of idioms:
"пройтись по чьему-либо адресу"
"припирать кого-либо к стенке" Just put in person/object with correct declension.
If these are not correct, I'll be happy to be corrected.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqe6Rqu4jtg
Наша служба и опасна и трудна,
И на первый взгляд, как будто не видна.
Если кто-то кое-где у нас порой
Честно жить не хочет.
Значит с ними нам вести незримый бой,
Так назначено судьбой для нас с тобой -
Служба дни и ночи.
Если где-то человек попал в беду
Мы поможем - мы всё время на посту.
Ну а если вдруг кому нибудь из нас
Тоже станет туго -
Что ж, друг друга выручали мы не раз,
И не раз согрело нас в тяжелый час
Сердце, сердце друга.
Часто слышим мы упреки от родных,
Что работаем почти без выходных,
Что разлуки нескончаемы порой,
Встречи ненадолго.
Только снова поднимает нас с зарей
И уводит за собой в незримый бой
Наше чувство долга.
что-то is when neither you nor your interlocutor know what this is
он что-то сказал - you both heard the sound but can't tell what he actually said
кое-что is 1. when you know what this is but your interlocutor doesn't, or 2. you both know what this is and by using this word you point for the other party at the information you share, kind of like a code
он кое-что сказал - he said something you should know or should've paid attention to or i won't tell you what it was (it's the connotation 1)
if we translate что-то as mashehu, кое-что i'd translate as dvar ma
нечто can be synonymous to что-то as well as to кое-что, but it differs by placement within sentence, it's rarely used in colloquial speech and usually accompanies adjectives: нечто большое, нечто синее... and adjectives in comparative: нечто более крупное, нечто покрупнее
что-нибудь/что-либо is anything in negative and interrogative sentences
in positive statements it means something in future tense
i will figure something out - я что-нибудь придумаю
in colloquial speech people frequently replace кое-что by что-то, however lexically it's wrong
A lot of rules for a word that can just mean one thing. Thanks for the detailed explanation, in case I'll ever need to use it I'll use this source for good reference.
Нечто is like "a certain (something)". It exists only in nominative and accusative cases, "нечего" is not its genitive, as one may think, but means "nothing" as in нечего делать. That again is not the same word as ничего. (Bold letters = stress)
And the example sentence "пройтись по чьему-либо адресу" contains yet another word, "чей-либо", which I'd tentatively translate as "someone's, no matter whose".
"пройтись по чьему-либо адресу"
To walk up and down someone's address. idiom for =>
To make a snide remark about someone; to make fun of someone; to make an implied criticism.
Cf. To have a fling at someone; to give someone a bad write-up. idiom