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Genitive Case - a question...

Way to Russia Talk Lounge Forum Index -> Practise Your Russian

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YellowMelon Frequent Guest Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 67	Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:24 pm    Post subject: Genitive Case - a question... Throughout my course which now is coming to its end we've always been told that in order to express the owner of something using Genitive Case you put the owner in the very end of the sentence, with the appropriate Genitive ending. So, for example "Natasha's book" would be "книга Наташи". But someone mentioned that you may alternatively say "Наташина книга". Is the latter as widespread in Russian speaking countries as the first one?
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Ender WayToRussified Joined: 23 Aug 2006 Posts: 498 Location: Urals	Posted: Tue May 12, 2009 8:17 am    Post subject: Re: Genitive Case - a question... YellowMelon wrote: Throughout my course which now is coming to its end we've always been told that in order to express the owner of something using Genitive Case you put the owner in the very end of the sentence, with the appropriate Genitive ending. So, for example "Natasha's book" would be "книга Наташи". But someone mentioned that you may alternatively say "Наташина книга". Is the latter as widespread in Russian speaking countries as the first one? I don't know if it widespread or not in countries other than Russia but in Russia they are roughly equal. Usage depends on taste and context. First one sounds more official. Second one often used in spoken Russian. In some cases first variant will be incorrect or will sound weird. For example: German's car. 1: "автомобиль Германии" (incorrect). 2: "немецкий автомобиль" (correct). American dream. 1: "мечта Америки" (incorrect). 2: "американская мечта" (correct). Men clothes: 1: "одежда мужчин" (correct, but a little weird). 2: "мужская одежда" (correct and commonly used). I think "Natasha's book" = "Наташина книга" and "Book of Natasha" = "книга Наташи".
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YellowMelon Frequent Guest Joined: 28 Nov 2008 Posts: 67	Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 12:23 am    Post subject: Ok, cool. Thank you. I will try to use the second version a little more, for a change.
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id027 Frequent Guest Joined: 16 May 2009 Posts: 12 Location: Czech Republic	Posted: Sun May 17, 2009 12:03 am    Post subject: Ender wrote: German's car. 1: "автомобиль Германии" (incorrect). 2: "немецкий автомобиль" (correct). American dream. 1: "мечта Америки" (incorrect). 2: "американская мечта" (correct). Men clothes: 1: "одежда мужчин" (correct, but a little weird). 2: "мужская одежда" (correct and commonly used). I think "Natasha's book" = "Наташина книга" and "Book of Natasha" = "книга Наташи". It's not right. "Автомобиль Германии" means car which belongs to Germany. Not the one that was made there. Right one would be "немецкий автомобиль", as you have mentioned, but you can use sometimes shortened "автомобиль - немецкий" in the meaning "this car is german". Pay attention to the dash. "Одежда мужчин" - in some cases not weird at all. E.g. "Сомбреро, презерватив и пистолет - вот одежда мужчин!" (Sombrero, condom and a gun are men's clothes). "Мечта Америки" - it's correct. But it doesn't mean american dream ) It means a dream of America as a whole. Like if America was a one living creature or in political meaning (e.g. America dreams to make the rest of the world escape from the planet).
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