Michele Berdy - Big Problems for Such a Little Word
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Friday, September 8, 2006. Issue 3493
Big Problems for Such a Little Word
By Michele A. Berdy
Ходить по грибы: to gather mushrooms
After several days of rain, the sun is finally shining. Your Russian friend says cheerfully: Какой прелестный день! Поехать бы за город и пойти в лес по грибы! (What a beautiful day! Why don't we get out of the city and go mushroom hunting!)
Great idea. The only problem is the grammar: ходить по грибы. What's up with that? Normal folks would shrug and go off for a nice ramble in the woods, but I'm not normal. I head for my bookshelves.
По is such a multi-purpose preposition, Russians seem to pucker up and pop out "по" whenever they feel like it. It has dozens of meanings. In fact, even the great lexicographer Vladimir Dal threw up his hands over this little word: Иногда трудно грамматически оправдать предлог "по" (Sometimes it's hard to justify the preposition "po" grammatically.)
The use of ходить по and the accusative case is rather uncommon and means "to walk to get something." So you might say: Вчера я ходила по грибы и ягоды. (Yesterday I gathered mushrooms and berries.) Out in the country you might hear someone say, Я ходил по воду. (I went for water.)
Most commonly, ходить по takes the dative case and means to walk along or about: Я шёл по дороге (I walked along the road); Я ходил по лесу (I took a walk in the forest). You would never, ever have cause to use the nouns вода, ягоды, грибы (water, berries, mushrooms) with ходить and the dative case. If you said, я ходил по воде, you'd mean you walked on water and chances are you'd be reading this column in a small padded cell. And if you ever said я ходил по грибам, you'd mean you trampled on some mushrooms and your mushroom-gathering Russian friends would have strangled you the moment you said it.
Happily, these are the only grammatical mistakes that could result in the incarceration of the unfortunate person who utters them in a mental hospital or murder. Most of the time по is not fraught with danger to life and limb. But to use it correctly, you do have to furrow your brow and remember all those case endings that blight the lives of native English-speakers.
You use по with the dative case to describe the means by which something is transmitted: Я слышал это по радио. (I heard it on the radio). Я говорила по телефону. (I was speaking on the phone.) Or to indicate the means by which something has occurred: Я набрала твой номер по ошибке. (I dialed your phone number by mistake.)
In other cases, it means "according to": Всё идёт по плану. (Everything is going according to plan.) По-моему, он плохой писатель. (I think -- "according to me" -- he's a bad writer.)
You also use по and the dative to describe a profession or specialty: Он специалист по итальянскому искусству (He's a specialist in Italian art.) Or to describe when something usually happens in time. Я всегда работаю по утрам. (I always work in the morning.)
По gets a little bit tricky with numbers. With the dative case, по indicates the distribution of things by ones: Дайте нам по яблоку. (Give us each one apple.) In everyday speech, if you want to distribute people or things by twos or more, you have to switch to the accusative case: Дайте нам по два яблока. (Give us each two apples.) Туристы ходили группами по десять человек. (The tourists were traveling in groups of 10 people.)
По and the accusative case also express "up to," in both space and time. Вода была по пояс. (The water was up to my waist.) In time expressions, it means "up to and including." So when your friend says, Я живу на даче с июня по сентябрь it means he's out at the dacha from June through the end of September.
Which means you can still go out to his place and ходить по грибы.
Michele A. Berdy is a Moscow-based translator and interpreter.
posted by Kate @ 4:23 PM
1 Comments:
Вот это да! Так трудно! Я иногда уже замечала, что даже русским трудно ...
Например, как правильно? По истечении срока ... по истечению срока ... мои русские коллеги всегда заново начинают дуиать ... а я - во что мне верить? :-)
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