Немно́го о языке́ 5.6 Дени́с е́дет в Яросла́вль
Telling at What Time
Отвеча́ем на вопро́с когда́? = В кото́ром часу́? Во ско́лько?
To find out at what time something happens, Russians ask either “В кото́ром часу́?” or “Во ско́лько?” Both of these questions are more specific than Когда́? and need to be used if you want to find out the precise time for an event.
In answering these questions, we combine the preposition в with the accusative case of the time expression. Since the hours are inanimate, you will not see any differences in the forms.
Во ско́лько начина́ется ле́кция?
| Ле́кция начина́ется | в | час. | at 1 o’clock |
| два часа́. три часа́. четы́ре часа́. |
at 2 o’clock at 3 o’clock at 4 o’clock |
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| пять часо́в. шесть часо́в. … двена́дцать часо́в. |
at 5 o’clock, etc. |
| Во ско́лько начина́ется экску́рсия? | At what time does the excursion start? |
| В 10 часо́в. | At 10am. |
The same formula of в plus the accusative case works for telling at what time something starts/opens with the 24-hour clock.
| В кото́ром часу́ нача́ло конце́рта? | At what time is the beginning of the concert? |
| В 19 часо́в. | At 7pm. |
Short-Form Adjectives
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| Сего́дня я за́нят. Занима́юсь в библиоте́ке. | Сего́дня я занята́. У́тром и днём у ме́ня ле́кции. | Сего́дня мы не за́няты. Гуля́ем в парке. |
In Unit 2 we introduced you to adjective endings in the nominative case, and you saw many sentences of the type: Дом — но́вый. На́ша кварти́ра — больша́я. Потолки́ — высо́кие. All of these adjectives were used as “predicate adjectives” meaning they follow the verb “be” and they describe the subject of the sentence. These adjectives are called “long form” adjectives, since their endings all consist of two letters in the nominative.
За́нят (busy), свобо́ден (free), гото́в (ready), прав (correct, right) and рад (happy, glad) belong to a set of predicate adjectives that have “short forms.” These adjectives are “short” because they have lost the two-letter adjective endings (-ый, -ая, -ые), and replaced them with ø or one-letter endings.
| be busy | be correct | be free | be ready | be happy, glad | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| он | за́нят | прав | свобо́ден | гото́в | ра́д |
| она́ | занята́ | права́ | свобо́дна | гото́ва | ра́да |
| оно́ | за́нято | пра́во | свобо́дно | гото́во | ра́до |
| они́ | за́няты | пра́вы | свобо́дны | гото́вы | ра́ды |
These short-adjective forms can only be used as predicate adjectives and they have to agree with the subject in gender and number.
As with past-tense verb forms, if the subject is я or ты and refers to a male, you use masculine forms of the short-form adjective. If the subject is я or ты and refers to a female, you use feminine forms of the short-form adjective. If the subject is вы, then the short-form adjective will be plural, no matter whether you are speaking to one person or more than one person.
In the feminine short forms of за́нят and прав, the stress moves out to the ending занята́ and права́.
Упражне́ние 1
Listen to the sentences and indicate who the speaker could be depending on the ending of the short form adjective you hear.
The Future of быть
Дени́с: Ба́бушка, я бу́ду у тебя́ за́втра.
Зо́я Степа́новна: Дени́с бу́дет здесь в пя́тницу.
Although the present tense of the verb “to be” can be left out in Russian, in the future, as in the past, Russian does use forms of the verb быть. The future forms “will be” are built on the stem: бу́д- to which we add regular first conjugation endings.
Forms of Transportation
Images courtesy of Artem Svetlov, Sergey Rodovnichenko, Luxury Train Club, Elena Yastrebova, Artem Svetlov, Mika Meskanen, Anna Zvereva, Sergey Yeliseev, Franco Atirador, Liftarn, Pavel Kazachkov
Riding on Transportation
If a friend of Denis were asking about his plans for the trip to Yaroslavl’, she might ask:
Знако́мая: Ты е́дешь в Яросла́вль на по́езде?
Дени́с: Нет, я е́ду туда́ на авто́бусе.
You already know that the verb е́хать means “to go by using transport,” and we can specify the form of transportation by using the preposition на plus the prepositional form of the transportation word.
Case endings really matter! Look at the two sentences below. They are both correct. Can you tell what each of them means? Pick the English preposition that matches the meaning of the Russian sentence.
| Мы е́дем на по́езд. | We are riding (to / on) the train. |
| Мы е́дем на по́езде. | We are riding (to / on) the train. |