Start Learning Russian in the next 30 Seconds with
a Free Lifetime Account

Or sign up using Facebook

Instrumental case - confused!

raldon
New in Town
Posts: 4
Joined: September 24th, 2008 11:08 am

Instrumental case - confused!

Postby raldon » October 28th, 2008 1:40 pm

Hi Everyone!

Hope someone can help me. I know about the basic uses of the instrumental case, but lately I came across a really weird sentence in a book which makes no sense to me:

Гудками тревожили ранними.

Maybe it's the word order throwing me off here... It's something about alarms ringing late I think, but I can't work out why the instrumental case is being used.

Hope someone can help! :)

Rich

Pollyanna
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 36
Joined: July 9th, 2008 3:25 pm

Postby Pollyanna » October 31st, 2008 7:00 pm

Hello raldon!

The sentence implies that someone/something was disturbed by early alarms.
The word, which describes who or what was disturbed, is missed. And the word order is not usual for spoken language. You rather meet it in a literature, especially in poetry.

The instrumental case is being used to point by what that disturbing was caused.
by early alarms - гудками ранними

If you want to say the same in more casual way you should say something like:
(они) тревожили (меня) ранними гудками.
(they) disturbed (me) by early alarms.

Hope this helps

Get 40% OFF
raldon
New in Town
Posts: 4
Joined: September 24th, 2008 11:08 am

Thanks!

Postby raldon » November 3rd, 2008 9:39 am

Thanks a million for your help - it makes sense now. I sometimes forget that you can be more creative with word order in Russian! :)

Rich

Pollyanna
Been Around a Bit
Posts: 36
Joined: July 9th, 2008 3:25 pm

Postby Pollyanna » November 3rd, 2008 8:16 pm

Rich, you are welcome! :)

Return to “General Discussion and Help Learning Russian”