Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Russian words for “both”

  There are two words (or rather, two forms of a word) for “both” in Russian language:
оба — for masculine and neutral nouns
обе — for feminine nouns.

Examples:
masc.
оба носка — both socks
оба друга — both friends

neutral
оба ведра — both buckets
оба солнца — both suns

fem.
обе девушки — both girls
обе стороны — both sides

Sentences:

Thursday, February 9, 2012

When Russian prepositions are in love...

  What happens when two prepositions meet and fall in love? They want to stay together!

That's what happened a long time ago when two Russian prepositions из (from) met за (behind) and под (under). They liked each other so much that they merged into new prepositions — из-за (from behind) and из-под (from under). Let's see how they are used nowadays.

ИЗ-ЗА


Кот вытащил игрушку из-за дивана.
The cat pulled its toy from behind the sofa.

Из-за горы показалось солнце.
Sun appeared from behind a mountain.

This preposition also has another meaning – из-за can mean 'because'.
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