russian / german translation needed.

Soundguy · Aug 20, 2006

Anyone out there with enough conversational german and russian to translate the following 2-word phrase to germ/russ?

" the machine "

thanks

Soundguy

AlanB · Aug 20, 2006

German

Die Maschine

(Die is female don't ask me why, my wife says it is because Women do all the hardwork........ She is German, but that is the translation.)

For reference Cats are all girls, (Die) and dogs are all boys (Der)

If it was a Tractor, it would be Der Tractor.....

Dont ask why,,, but I promise that is correct.

Oh, and Die is pronounced DEEE.

MikePA · Aug 20, 2006

Soundguy said:
Anyone out there with enough conversational german and russian to translate the following 2-word phrase to germ/russ?

" the machine "

thanks

Soundguy

Russian = машина

Bluecheck546 · Aug 20, 2006

Russian= машина, say "mashina" ,oil for mashina say "maslo"

Learned this language back in "old country" under communist government, and it was mandatory to learn it starting in 5th grade in grade school, all the way thru high school and college.

WhyNot · Aug 20, 2006

Soundguy,
It look's like you got your answer but here is a website that is really good http://babelfish.altavista.com/

RobJ · Aug 20, 2006

you can also bookmark www.freetranslation.com

Soundguy · Aug 21, 2006

Thanks for the links and for the personal translations guys. It helped greatly.

soundguy

Egon · Aug 21, 2006

I think German has three tenses??? Das, Der, Die??? Not spelled correctly as my keyboard is not properly set up for German.

Soundguy · Aug 21, 2006

Anyone know what the 'das' is.. or would be equal to 'tense' wise?

Soundguy

turnkey4099 · Aug 21, 2006

Soundguy said:
Anyone know what the 'das' is.. or would be equal to 'tense' wise?

Soundguy

It's not 'tense', it's gender. Masculine, feminine, neuter. The thing that makes foreign languages difficult for native English speakers. The entire sentence structure is built around it with teh verbs and modifiers having to agree with the gender of the noun. There are many graduations of language rigidity. I would rank Russian as one of the most rigid with German being rather loose.

For example, in Russian you can determine the gender of a noun at a glance except for a few exceptions - 6 IIRC (been over 50 years since I learned it in the military) which are easily memorized and even have their own form. In German it is anybodies guess as to what a strange word's gender is. If you don't know, there is no way to tell except in a dictionary or by its use in the sentence.

Harry K