{"id":2161,"date":"2011-07-11T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T08:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2014-07-17T14:54:07","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T14:54:07","slug":"how-i-ended-this-summer-with-russian-grammar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/how-i-ended-this-summer-with-russian-grammar\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Ended This Summer With Russian Grammar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you watched a great movie lately? How about a great Russian movie? Did I just give the subject of this post away? Not really because while it will be about a really good movie, it will also be about \u00ab<\/strong>\u0430\u043d\u0430\u043a\u043e\u043b\u0443<\/span>\u0444\u00bb<\/strong> [anacoluthon] and grammar.<\/p>\n

The movie I watched a couple of days ago was called \u00ab<\/strong>\u041a\u0430\u043a <\/strong>\u044f <\/strong>\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0435<\/span>\u043b <\/strong>\u044d<\/span><\/strong>\u0442\u0438\u043c <\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u043c\u00bb<\/strong> [How I Ended This Summer]. I first read a review of it in the latest issue of The Russian Life magazine. It was the movie title that caught my attention. It just didn\u2019t sound right.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s start with the verb \u00ab<\/strong>\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0434\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c\u00bb<\/strong>. It can be translated as \u201cto conduct\u201d, \u201cto spend time\u201d or \u201cto play a joke\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u041e\u0431\u0435\u0437\u044c\u044f<\/span>\u043d\u0430 \u0443\u043a\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u043b\u0430 \u043a\u0430<\/span>\u043c\u0435\u0440\u0443 \u0438 \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0435\u043b\u0430<\/span> \u0444\u043e\u0442\u043e\u0441\u0435<\/span>\u0441\u0441\u0438\u044e.\u00bb<\/strong> [A monkey<\/a> stole a camera and conducted a photoshoot]<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u0421\u0432\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u0430 \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0435\u043b\u0430<\/span> \u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e \u0443 \u0431\u0430<\/span>\u0431\u0443\u0448\u043a\u0438 \u0432 \u0434\u0435\u0440\u0435<\/span>\u0432\u043d\u0435.\u00bb<\/strong> [Sveta spent the summer with her grandmother in the village]<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u041f\u0430<\/span>\u0448\u0430 \u0434\u0443<\/span>\u043c\u0430\u043b, \u0447\u0442\u043e \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0435<\/span>\u043b \u043d\u0430\u043f\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430, \u043f\u043e\u0434\u043c\u0435\u043d\u0438<\/span>\u0432 \u0434\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0435 \u043c\u0435\u0442\u0435\u043e\u0440\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0433\u0438<\/span>\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0445 \u043f\u0440\u0438\u0431\u043e<\/span>\u0440\u043e\u0432 \u043d\u0430 \u043f\u043e\u043a\u0430\u0437\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u0438\u044f \u0442\u0435\u043b\u0435\u043c\u0435\u0442\u0440\u0438<\/span>\u0438.\u00bb<\/strong> [Pasha thought he fooled his partner by substituting telemetry data for the data from the meteorological instruments]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As you can see, the objects in each of these sentences are in accusative case:<\/p>\n

\u00ab<\/strong>\u043a\u0430<\/span>\u043c\u0435\u0440\u0430\u00bb – \u00ab<\/strong>\u043a\u0430<\/span>\u043c\u0435\u0440\u0443\u00bb<\/strong> (\u00ab<\/strong>\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> ending changes to \u00ab<\/strong>\u0443\u00bb<\/strong> for feminine nouns)<\/p>\n

\u00ab<\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u00bb – \u00ab<\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u00bb<\/strong> (the ending doesn\u2019t change for inanimate neuter nouns)<\/p>\n

\u00ab<\/strong>\u043d\u0430\u043f\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u043d\u0438\u043a\u00bb – \u00ab<\/strong>\u043d\u0430\u043f\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> (\u00ab<\/strong>\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> is added to the consonant ending of animate masculine nouns)<\/p>\n

Yet in the title of the movie the noun \u00ab<\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u00bb<\/strong> is not in accusative case, but is in instrumental case (in which \u00ab<\/strong>\u043c\u00bb<\/strong> is added to the ending of the neuter nouns).<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the grammatically correct sentence, \u00ab<\/strong>\u041a\u0430\u043a <\/strong>\u044f <\/strong>\u043f\u0440\u043e\u0432\u0435<\/span>\u043b <\/strong>\u044d<\/span><\/strong>\u0442\u043e <\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u00bb<\/strong> [How I spent the summer], is oftentimes used in schools as an essay subject. There\u2019s also an alternative phrase that relies on instrumental case: \u00ab<\/strong>\u0427\u0442\u043e <\/strong>\u044f <\/strong>\u0434\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u0430\u043b <\/strong>\u044d<\/span><\/strong>\u0442\u0438\u043c <\/strong>\u043b\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u043e\u043c\u00bb<\/strong> [What I was doing this summer].<\/p>\n

Naturally, my first thought was that there was a typo in the magazine. I was just about to e-mail the editor, but got sidetracked watching the movie first (it\u2019s available for instant download on Netflix). Turns out, the typo wasn\u2019t a typo after all.<\/p>\n

Instead, it was an example of \u00ab<\/strong>\u0430\u043d\u0430\u043a\u043e\u043b\u0443<\/span>\u0444\u00bb<\/strong> [anacoluthon], a rhetorical device<\/a> in which sentence structure changes abruptly. We use this rhetorical device \u00ab<\/strong>\u043d\u0430 <\/strong>\u043a\u0430<\/span>\u0436\u0434\u043e\u043c <\/strong>\u0448\u0430\u0433\u0443<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [at every turn] in our daily informal conversations. We just don\u2019t think much about it. Yet it becomes very noticeable in print or in formal conversations, such as interviews. In fact, anacoluthon is frequently used by \u00ab<\/strong>\u043f\u043e\u043b\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [politicians] trying to prove that they are \u00ab<\/strong>\u0438\u0437 <\/strong>\u043d\u0430\u0440\u043e<\/span>\u0434\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [men (or women) of the people].<\/p>\n

With so much language learning in the title alone, it is a must-see. In fact, it\u2019s a good intro to the everyday informal Russian language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Have you watched a great movie lately? How about a great Russian movie? Did I just give the subject of this post away? Not really because while it will be about a really good movie, it will also be about \u00ab\u0430\u043d\u0430\u043a\u043e\u043b\u0443\u0444\u00bb [anacoluthon] and grammar. The movie I watched a couple of days ago was called…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":2162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8,7828],"tags":[3794,60738,8152,1237,1248,385642],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","category-russian-for-beginners","tag-accusative-case","tag-how-i-ended-this-summer","tag-instrumental-case","tag-russian-grammar","tag-russian-language","tag-russian-movies"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11283,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/11283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}