Grammar and translation: падежи, вид, движение и два направления перевода

Put this into Russian and justify each case: Yesterday my brother's friend gave the students a book about Moscow.

1. 01Find the subject: nominative

   The person who gave is the friend, so друг stands in the nominative and everything else arranges itself around it. Note that English word order hides this: my brother's friend has the possessor first, and Russian will reverse the order to друг моего брата. Ask кто? — друг. That is the nominative and there is exactly one per clause.

2. 02The possessor: genitive

   Whose friend? My brother's. Possession is the genitive, and in Russian the possessor follows the thing possessed: друг моего брата. Both the possessive pronoun and the noun decline together — моего брата, masculine animate genitive singular. Writing друг мой брат is the commonest single error learners make with possession, because English marks it with an apostrophe and Russian with an ending.

3. 03The recipient: dative

   Gave to whom? To the students. The recipient of giving is the dative: студентам, dative plural. Дать is one of a family of verbs — дать, сказать, показать, помочь, звонить, отвечать — that take a dative of the person, and learning them as a family is more efficient than learning them one at a time.

4. 04The thing given: accusative

   Gave what? A book. The direct object of a transitive verb is the accusative: книгу, feminine accusative singular. Because книга is inanimate the question of the animate accusative does not arise; had the object been студента it would have taken the genitive form. Note that the accusative here is not marked by any preposition — the ending alone carries the role, which is why the ending cannot be skipped.

5. 05The topic: prepositional after о

   About Moscow. О is one of the prepositions that take only the prepositional case, so о Москве. Москва is feminine and its prepositional is Москве, identical in form to the dative — a coincidence of the paradigm, not a meaning. Note also that о becomes об before a vowel: об окне, об этом.

6. 06Assemble, and check the past tense agreement

   Вчера друг моего брата дал студентам книгу о Москве. One last check that costs three seconds and saves a mark: the past-tense verb agrees in gender and number with the subject, and the subject is друг, masculine singular, so дал. Had the subject been подруга the verb would be дала. In Russian the past tense agrees with its subject like an adjective, which is the single most reliable place for a hurried candidate to leak a mark.

Result: Вчера друг моего брата дал студентам книгу о Москве. Именительный — друг; родительный — моего брата; дательный — студентам; винительный — книгу; предложный — о Москве; сказуемое дал согласовано с подлежащим в мужском роде единственного числа.

Translate into Russian. In our city there are three new museums and twenty-two large libraries. Last year the mayor opened two more, and in five years there will not be a single district without its own library.

1. 01In our city there are three new museums

   В нашем городе три новых музея. В plus the prepositional for location, so нашем городе, with the possessive agreeing. Три takes the two-to-four pattern: the noun goes into the genitive singular, музея, and because музей is masculine the adjective goes into the genitive plural, новых. Russian needs no verb for there are; the bare noun phrase after the locative is the natural construction, and inserting есть would be possible but heavier.

2. 02and twenty-two large libraries

   и двадцать две большие библиотеки. A compound numeral is governed by its last element, so двадцать два behaves like два. Библиотека is feminine, so два takes its feminine form две — this is one of only two numerals in Russian with a gender distinction, the other being оба and обе. The noun is genitive singular, библиотеки, and with a feminine noun the traditional norm puts the adjective in the nominative plural: большие. Compare the masculine case in the previous clause and the contrast becomes memorable.

3. 03Last year the mayor opened two more

   В прошлом году мэр открыл ещё две. В прошлом году is в plus the prepositional with the adjective agreeing. Открыл is perfective past, because the opening is a completed act, and it agrees with мэр in the masculine singular. Ещё две means two more, and две keeps its feminine form because the understood noun is библиотеки — the gender survives the ellipsis, which is a small point that catches almost everyone.

4. 04and in five years

   а через пять лет. Через plus the accusative expresses in, after a period of time in the future. After пять everything goes into the genitive plural, and год has the irregular genitive plural лет borrowed from лето — five years is пять лет, never пять годов. This is one of the very few noun irregularities worth memorising outright because it appears in every third sentence about time.

5. 05there will not be a single district without its own library

   не останется ни одного района без собственной библиотеки. The negated existential future puts the absent thing in the genitive: не останется района. Ни одного intensifies the negation and is itself genitive. Без governs the genitive, so без собственной библиотеки, with the adjective agreeing in the genitive feminine. Собственный is one's own in a general statement; свой would also be possible but ties the possession more tightly to a subject, and here there is no subject to tie it to.

Result: В нашем городе три новых музея и двадцать две большие библиотеки. В прошлом году мэр открыл ещё две, а через пять лет не останется ни одного района без собственной библиотеки.

Put this into Russian and justify the aspect of each verb. Yesterday I was writing an essay all evening. At eleven o'clock I finally finished it, sent it to my teacher and went to bed. I usually write essays in the morning, but this time I had no choice.

1. 01Yesterday I was writing an essay all evening — imperfective

   Вчера я весь вечер писал сочинение. Two signals point the same way: the English past continuous and the phrase all evening. Duration takes the imperfective, so писал. Весь вечер is a bare accusative of duration with no preposition. Note that the past tense agrees with the speaker's gender — писал for a man, писала for a woman — which is the one place in Russian where the writer's own gender is grammatically visible.

2. 02At eleven o'clock I finally finished it — perfective

   В одиннадцать часов я наконец его дописал. Наконец is one of the reliable perfective signals, along with вдруг, сразу and уже. Дописать, with the prefix до-, means to finish writing, which is more precise than закончить писать and shows the prefix system doing real work. В одиннадцать часов uses в plus the accusative for clock time. Его is the pronoun object, standing before the verb, which is normal Russian order for a short pronoun.

3. 03sent it to my teacher and went to bed — perfective, twice

   отправил учителю и лёг спать. Both are single completed acts. Отправить takes a dative of the recipient, учителю. Лечь спать is a fixed expression, literally to lie down to sleep, and лёг is the irregular past of лечь; note the ё, which is written and stressed. All three perfectives in this sentence share one subject and one time frame, which is why Russian happily strings them without repeating the pronoun.

4. 04I usually write essays in the morning — imperfective

   Обычно я пишу сочинения утром. Обычно is a habit marker and habits take the imperfective, here in the present tense. Утром is the bare instrumental used adverbially for a time of day — утром, днём, вечером, ночью — which is a small closed set worth learning as a block. Сочинения is the accusative plural, identical to the nominative because the noun is inanimate.

5. 05but this time I had no choice — negated existential

   но на этот раз выбора у меня не было. На этот раз takes на plus the accusative. The negated existential in the past is не было, invariable, with the absent thing in the genitive: выбора. Fronting выбора before the possessor throws the emphasis onto what was missing. Compare у меня не было выбора, which is equally correct and slightly flatter — the choice of order is itself a small stylistic decision the range grid can notice.

Result: Вчера я весь вечер писал сочинение. В одиннадцать часов я наконец его дописал, отправил учителю и лёг спать. Обычно я пишу сочинения утром, но на этот раз выбора у меня не было.

Translate into English. Каждое утро она ездит на работу на метро, но сегодня поезда не ходили, и ей пришлось идти пешком. Она вышла из дома в семь, перешла через мост, зашла за коллегой и всё-таки пришла вовремя. Обратно они поехали на такси.

1. 01Каждое утро она ездит на работу на метро

   Каждое утро is a habit marker, and the habit selects the multidirectional ездит — she goes and comes back, repeatedly. На работу is на plus the accusative for direction to a workplace, one of the small set of nouns that take на rather than в. На метро is на plus the prepositional for the means of transport. English collapses all of this into goes to work by metro, which is why the Russian distinctions have to be seen rather than inferred from the English.

2. 02но сегодня поезда не ходили

   Here the multidirectional appears for a different reason: ходить is the verb used of scheduled services running, so поезда ходят means the trains run and поезда не ходили means the trains were not running. Using ехать here would describe one specific train on one specific journey, which is not what the sentence means. Rendering it as the trains did not go loses the sense; the English idiom is were not running.

3. 03и ей пришлось идти пешком

   Пришлось is the impersonal past of приходиться, taking a dative of the person obliged: ей пришлось, she had to. Now the verb switches to the unidirectional идти, because this is one specific journey in one direction on this one morning. Пешком, on foot, is redundant in Russian after идти but is added for emphasis, and English keeps it as walk rather than go on foot.

4. 04Она вышла из дома в семь, перешла через мост

   Two prefixed perfectives. Вы- is exit, so выйти из plus the genitive is to leave, to go out of. В семь is в plus the accusative for clock time. Пере- is crossing, and перейти is regularly reinforced by через plus the accusative — перейти через мост, to cross the bridge. English uses a single transitive verb, crossed, where Russian uses a prefix and a preposition together.

5. 05зашла за коллегой и всё-таки пришла вовремя

   За- has two meanings with motion verbs and both appear in ordinary Russian: to drop in somewhere, зайти в магазин, and to call for somebody, зайти за кем-либо with the instrumental. Here it is the second: зашла за коллегой, called for a colleague. При- is arrival, so пришла is arrived — on foot, which the verb still tells us. Всё-таки is nevertheless, still, and belongs before the verb.

6. 06Обратно они поехали на такси

   По- added to a unidirectional verb marks the setting off, so поехали is they set off, they went. Обратно is back, in the sense of the return journey. На такси is again на with the means of transport. Six prefixed and unprefixed motion verbs in three sentences, each carrying information that English distributes across verbs, prepositions and adverbs — which is exactly why this passage is worth working through slowly once.

Result: Every morning she goes to work by metro, but today the trains were not running and she had to walk. She left the house at seven, crossed the bridge, called for a colleague on the way and still arrived on time. They went back by taxi.

A candidate has translated the English sentence In our city young people often go to the new library, where they read Russian newspapers and discuss the articles with their friends, and has produced: В наш город молодые люди часто идут в новая библиотека, где они читают русские газеты и обсуждают статьи с их друзьями. Run the five sweeps.

1. 01Sweep one — case after every preposition

   В наш город is в plus the accusative, which expresses direction; the sentence means in our city, a location, so it needs в plus the prepositional: в нашем городе. В новая библиотека after a verb of motion does need the accusative but the phrase has been left in the nominative: в новую библиотеку. С их друзьями correctly uses с plus the instrumental. One preposition wrong in case, one right preposition with an uninflected noun phrase: two segments recovered.

2. 02Sweep two — agreement of every adjective

   Наш must agree with город in whatever case the first sweep chose: нашем. Новая must agree with библиотеку: новую. Русские газеты is correct, accusative plural inanimate. This sweep normally finds errors that the first sweep created, which is why the order matters — fix the case first, then make the adjectives follow it.

3. 03Sweep three — aspect and the choice of verb

   Часто идут is wrong twice over. Часто is a habit marker, so the verb must be imperfective, which идти already is — but идти is unidirectional and a habit takes the multidirectional: часто ходят. Читают and обсуждают are imperfective presents describing repeated activity, which is right. One verb corrected, and the correction is of a kind that only a candidate who has drilled the motion verbs will make.

4. 04Sweep four — past-tense agreement

   There is no past tense in this sentence, so this sweep costs five seconds and finds nothing. Do not skip it on that account: the sweeps are worth running mechanically precisely because you cannot predict which one will pay, and the discipline of running all five in the same order every time is what makes them fast enough to be worth doing.

5. 05Sweep five — animacy, plus one idiom check

   Библиотеку is inanimate, so its accusative is regular; друзьями is instrumental and animacy does not arise. But one thing remains: с их друзьями. When the possessor is the subject of the same clause Russian requires the reflexive possessive свой, so со своими друзьями — and note со rather than с before the consonant cluster. This is not one of the five sweeps but it is the single commonest remaining error after them, so add it as a sixth glance whenever a possessive appears.

Result: В нашем городе молодые люди часто ходят в новую библиотеку, где они читают русские газеты и обсуждают статьи со своими друзьями. Исправлено четыре ошибки в семи словоформах: падеж после «в» при обозначении места, падеж после «в» при обозначении направления, выбор глагола движения и притяжательное местоимение «свой» вместо «их».