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Genitive Case - a question...

 
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YellowMelon
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Joined: 28 Nov 2008
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2009 11:24 pm    Post subject: Genitive Case - a question... Reply with quote
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
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Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 485
Location: Urals
PostPosted: Tue May 12, 2009 8:17 am    Post subject: Re: Genitive Case - a question... Reply with quote
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
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Joined: 28 Nov 2008
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Fri May 15, 2009 12:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Ok, cool. Thank you.

I will try to use the second version a little more, for a change.
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id027
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Joined: 16 May 2009
Posts: 12
Location: Czech Republic
PostPosted: Sun May 17, 2009 12:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
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 Smile) 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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