Thread: Native english speaker looking for Russian help.

Ok im very new at Russian and a few grammatical aspects confuse me, and im stll in need of help wih pronunciation.
In exchange for this I can help with your english. Although I am an American so I have American english dialect.
I dont currently use skype or msn but I have those programs on my computer so i can use them lol.

skype" vernadead

Welcome!

The forum is full of helpful people ready to answer all of your questions.
Btw, what eactly did you want to say by your Russian signature (нет я оселдурак)? I guess there is a need to rephrase it.

Пиши icq 474733862
буду рад помочь чем смогу

I fixed my signature and hopefully it makes sense.
оселдурак means Jackass (atleast thats what my dictionary says...although i did look in the english-russian section so maybe ts just expainin it to russians

and to those who offered...im not quite so good at russian yet
Ill reply back but it will take me a bit to flip through dictionaries and decipher

Originally Posted by spectator

буду рад помочь чем смогу

care to rephrase that?
looks like "will be glad to rather than able to"
?

Originally Posted by Vernadead

оселдурак means Jackass

Well, if you want your signature to be written in pure Russian language, I advise you to edit it. Болван is a better translation for Jackass. There's no such a word as "оселдурак" in Russian, either "осел" or "дурак".

Originally Posted by Vernadead

Originally Posted by spectator

буду рад помочь чем смогу

care to rephrase that?
looks like "will be glad to rather than able to"?

Буду рад помочь, чем смогу = will be glad to do my best to help you.
So will I >> Буду рада помочь! Do not hesitate to contact me if you need help.

Рад - sg., male
Рада - sg., female

For example, If spectator wanted to say "will be glad to rather than able to", he would say: "буду скорее рад помочь, нежели на самом деле смогу".

Нежели is a little bit obsolete and high-flown word which means "rather". Still it is widely used in books and by literate people. That means you will not sound like a wierdo if you ever say нежели, but quite the contrary - you will sound respectable.

Скорее followed by "..., чем + noun / pronoun / verb" would quite often mean rather.

Originally Posted by Mist

Originally Posted by Vernadead

оселдурак means Jackass

Well, if you want your signature to be written in pure Russian language, I advise you to edit it. Болван is a better translation for Jackass. There's no such a word as "оселдурак" in Russian, either "осел" or "дурак".

Originally Posted by Vernadead

Originally Posted by spectator

буду рад помочь чем смогу

care to rephrase that?
looks like "will be glad to rather than able to"?

Буду рад помочь, чем смогу = will be glad to do my best to help you.
So will I >> Буду рада помочь! Do not hesitate to contact me if you need help.

Рад - sg., male
Рада - sg., female

For example, If spectator wanted to say "will be glad to rather than able to", he would say: "буду скорее рад помочь, нежели на самом деле смогу".

Нежели is a little bit obsolete and high-flown word which means "rather". Still it is widely used in books and by literate people. That means you will not sound like a wierdo if you ever say нежели, but quite the contrary - you will sound respectable.

Скорее followed by "..., чем + noun / pronoun / verb" would quite often mean rather.

Thanks! Ill change my signature again. and thanks for translating, I will add you to skype. Looks like I need alot of help lol.

Originally Posted by Vernadead

Originally Posted by spectator

буду рад помочь чем смогу

care to rephrase that?
looks like "will be glad to rather than able to"
?

It's fixed word combination. If you want to help smb., but realize that your abilities are limited, you may say it =) i.e. you will do all you can and will be glad of it =)

hehe ))))) really, this gives you something to think about. I thought up what you meant not at once =) Because I see this text being russian native speaker, and it's hard for me to think up that you see this text and the word "чем" as comparison. Here the word "чем" instrumental (case) of the word "что".

For instance: I have (что?) - I have a book. (книгу)
I am proud of (чем?) - book. (книгой)

So, the word "чем" isn't used only for comparison of things.

but realize that your abilities are limited

That's it! Everybody's knowledge and abilities are limited, so the person who says it is just reasonable, it doesn't means he/she is not able to help you. (: It means "I will be glad to help you, I'll try to solve your problems* concerning Russian, but I don't guarantee I know answers to all of your questions/can solve all the problems, I'm not an all-knowing and all-powerful person."

* I think there is a better way to express it but I don't remember the proper phrase