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Grammar.
— As far as it is possible, we shall endeavour not to overwhelm you with
grammatical rules.
Our notes are indispensable explanations rather than rules.
However, it shall be necessary, one day, to give you declension or
conjugation tables etc.. |
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But we want first to prepare you for it, by scattering difficulties and
attacking them one by one,
so that, once gathered together, they may not look unsurmountable to
you. |
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May we hope that so far we have not subjected you to excessive work? |
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1 |
Interrogative form.
— Is the use of the interrogative particle
ли quite clear to you?
Here are а few examples of it: |
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Вы говорите:
you speak.
Говорите ли вы?
do you speak? |
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Он здесь : he
(is) here.
Здесь ли он? (is)
he here?
Давно ли он здесь?
(has) he (been) here (a) long time? |
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Это вы: it
(is) you.
Вы ли это?
(is) it you? |
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Он дома:
he (is) at home.
Дома ли он ?
(is) he at home? |
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Она у вас сегодня
: she is at your house to-day.
У вас ли она сегодня?
(is it) at your house (that) she (is) to-day? (or : is she at
your house...?)
Она ли у вас сегодня?
(is it) she (who is)... or: (is) she at your house to-day?
Сегодня ли она у вас?
(is it) to-day (that) she (is) at your house? |
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You see how supple and accurate a word
ли is in a sentence.
The order of words, besides, is much less strict in Russian than in
English.
Do not expect to see the verb always preceded by the subject and
followed by the object. |
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2 |
To be and to have.
— The verb to be is omitted in the present indicative,
and you are already used to it : |
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я здесь,
I'm here ("I here");
он дома, he's at home, he's at his place ("he
/at home/")
etc... |
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However, the infinitive
быть,
to be is used : |
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я
хочу быть там: I want to be
there.
Может быть:
maybe. |
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We also have есть,
which corresponds to our "there is"
but is seldom used except in the meaning of to have, in the
phrase :
у меня есть: to me or with me there is:
I have |
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The same :
у вас есть: you
have ("to/at you is");
у него есть:
he has ("to/at him is");
у неё есть:
she has ("to/at her is"). |
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Do you remember that
его, him, to-him and
её her, to-her,
become него
and неё by
euphony, after a preposition?
Для него,
for him
для неё, for her |
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| 3 |
Absence of predicate |
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Мне трудно
: (it is) difficult for me ("to-me difficult").
We have with the same construction :
Мне довольно:
(it is) enough for me ("to-me enough").
— Вам
нужно : (it is) needed for you (you need).
—
Вам надо: (it is) necessary for you (you must).
— Это ему вредно:
this (is) bad for him.
— Мне хорошо:
(it is) well for me, I feel well.
— Ей невозможно:
(it is) impossible for her ("to-her is-impossible", she can't
take it (any longer) ).
— Мне ничего
: (it is) nothing for me, I don't care). |
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The ending in О
of adverbs is also that of the neuter.
Without entering upon the question of genders — which, by the way, is
quite simple.
— let us remark in passing that the final
о indicates the neuter;
we met it only in слово
(word) for nouns, and in
это (this, it), a
demonstrative. |
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| 5 |
The letter Г
(gh) is sometimes sounded v, we saw it in
его (iĕvaw), his
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сегодня (civ'awdn'a), today
etc... |
