4 ms·

Lest we be Russian here... Собака, Собаки, Собаке, Собаку, Собакой, Собаке. Собаки, Собак, Собакам, Собак, Собаками, Собаках. That's, of course, the declensi

Lest we be Russian here... Собака, Собаки, Собаке, Собаку, Собакой, Собаке. Собаки, Собак, Собакам, Собак, Собаками, Собаках. That's, of course, the declension for female dog, which is distinct from male dog (and bitch).

nategri 8y ago
I took several years of Russian in college and am now trying to pick up a little German. Word of mouth had taught me to fear the German case system but... after Russian? Hard to see what all the fuss is about.
- amaccuish 8y ago
  I find german and russian weirdly close to each other. Ok so there are the obvious words like кино, but also other things like the fact that in german, it's "jemande/m/ helfen" and in russian "кому-то помогать/помочь", both taking dative. There's loads of other similarities. Maybe it's the fact they're both indo-european, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable could explain.
  - int_19h 8y ago
    Proto-Indo-European was fusional and pretty crazy on declensions, with plenty of cases for nouns and pronouns, verb aspects and moods, grammatical numbers (it had dual) etc. When you see the same in a European language, that's usually where it comes from, so it's not a coincidence. It seems that languages tend to shed that complexity over time, some (e.g. English) faster than others.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- Maultasche 8y ago
  Yeah, Russian is far worse. I learned Polish for a while, which I understand has a lot of similarities to Russian, and it was far more difficult than German. I remember having decline words differently depending on which number came before it.
CodeMage 8y ago
Since we're doing Slavic languages, let's go with Serbian. - dog = pas (we don't distinguish between "a dog" and "the dog") - declensions (singular): pas, psa, psu, psa, psu, psom, psu - declensions (plural): psi, pasa, psima, pse, psi, psima, psima - but that's not all, the number can change the declension: 1 pas; 2, 3, 4 psa; 5+ pasa It's my language and I love it, but the grammar is a nightmare. I think it might be one of the easiest languages to learn to read and write, but good luck learning what it all means ;)
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago
  Many educators of Eastern European languages actually categorized Serbo-Croatian (and presumably still categorize BCMS today) as one of the easiest Slavic languages for foreigners to learn, because it has reduced the number of cases compared to what the situation was in Proto-Slavic or how it is in Russian or Polish today.
AlexTWithBeard 8y ago
For the curious ones, that (roughly) means: A dog, Of a dog, To the dog, a dog, By the dog, About the dog. And all of the same in plural.
mirimir 8y ago
Hey, it's simple: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental and prepositional. For singular and plural.

nategri 8y ago

I took several years of Russian in college and am now trying to pick up a little German. Word of mouth had taught me to fear the German case system but... after Russian? Hard to see what all the fuss is about.

amaccuish 8y ago
I find german and russian weirdly close to each other. Ok so there are the obvious words like кино, but also other things like the fact that in german, it's "jemande/m/ helfen" and in russian "кому-то помогать/помочь", both taking dative. There's loads of other similarities. Maybe it's the fact they're both indo-european, I'm sure someone more knowledgeable could explain.
- int_19h 8y ago
  Proto-Indo-European was fusional and pretty crazy on declensions, with plenty of cases for nouns and pronouns, verb aspects and moods, grammatical numbers (it had dual) etc. When you see the same in a European language, that's usually where it comes from, so it's not a coincidence. It seems that languages tend to shed that complexity over time, some (e.g. English) faster than others.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Maultasche 8y ago
Yeah, Russian is far worse. I learned Polish for a while, which I understand has a lot of similarities to Russian, and it was far more difficult than German. I remember having decline words differently depending on which number came before it.

CodeMage 8y ago

Since we're doing Slavic languages, let's go with Serbian. - dog = pas (we don't distinguish between "a dog" and "the dog") - declensions (singular): pas, psa, psu, psa, psu, psom, psu - declensions (plural): psi, pasa, psima, pse, psi, psima, psima - but that's not all, the number can change the declension: 1 pas; 2, 3, 4 psa; 5+ pasa It's my language and I love it, but the grammar is a nightmare. I think it might be one of the easiest languages to learn to read and write, but good luck learning what it all means ;)

Mediterraneo10 8y ago
Many educators of Eastern European languages actually categorized Serbo-Croatian (and presumably still categorize BCMS today) as one of the easiest Slavic languages for foreigners to learn, because it has reduced the number of cases compared to what the situation was in Proto-Slavic or how it is in Russian or Polish today.

AlexTWithBeard 8y ago

For the curious ones, that (roughly) means: A dog, Of a dog, To the dog, a dog, By the dog, About the dog. And all of the same in plural.

mirimir 8y ago

Hey, it's simple: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental and prepositional. For singular and plural.