Indefinite Expressions with -то, -нибудь in Russian

Learn how to say "someone," "anyone," and other indefinite expressions in Russian. We'll go beyond general guidelines to get at the essence of -то and -нибудь, which don't correspond exactly to "some-" and "any-" in English!
This video includes a brief audio clip with an example from the classic cartoon Трое из Простоквашино, which you can watch here on the Союзмультфильм KZbin channel: • Простоквашино Все сери...

[@davidpasmanik]

I am a long-time Russian learner, C1 level, but you are BY FAR the best teacher I have seen on youtube. I would love to be able to email you about the problems I encounter when using Russian at the advanced levels. Either way, amazing videos. I hope one day my accent is as precise as yours!

[@russiangrammar]

Привет David, thanks for your kind words! Feel free to be in touch using the contact form on my course website at www.tips4russian.com/contact/ - I'm always interested in hearing how people are approaching their studies and what else might be helpful. As far as pronunciation goes, you might be interested in this new online course by Kimberly DiMattia: www.unlockingrussianpronunciation.org (This is not a affiliate link; I've looked through the course and I think it's very well done).

[@ChristineTHuynh_FineArt]

Thank you so much for your videos. What takes my professor 2 hours to explain, you did it in 5 minutes and 43 seconds. Bravo!

[@juliangonzalezfernandez6222]

Everything is so clear explained. No innecessary information added. Thanks for the qualitativ explanations.

[@stupidityshouldhurt1]

Thank you, I've finally understood the difference between -то and -нибудь. Your videos are very clear, examples are well-chosen to hammer in the grammar, differences etc what you're teaching. I'm not native in English (I'm Finnish) and we have a lot of similarities in my own language and its grammar when comparing to Russian so most of the things are easy to understand as long as I translate the Russian sentences to my own language and not to English. As you can see it on this video, English uses some- and any- differently because of the double negation so it must be harder for English speakers to understand the difference in Russian. But in Finnish we use double negation all the time and can say things like "I don't understand nothing" or "I don't want to go nowhere".

[@russiangrammar]

Minä opin vähän suomea mutta se oli monta vuotta sitten... muistan asioita kuin 'en halua mitään' vai 'emme tiedä mitään,' and it was so interesting to see the negative verb (?) conjugated. My English-speaking brain wouldn't know how to compare that to Russian, but that's great if it works for you! Thanks for the comment. 🙂

[@irinanovikova301]

Great as always. I am russian, by the way

[@tess4aria]

Thank you so much for your videos. They are incredibly informative, and every point is so clearly explained, with great examples provided. They're really helping me get back into studying (and actually make progress!) after a long break. Спасибо!!

[@russiangrammar]

Пожалуйста! Thanks for the feedback!

[@sugarfree7298]

Great lesson !

[@marceloprevedi5092]

Спасибо за видео !!! Важный урок и отличное объяснение. I love the way you explain Russian grammar. You always do an excellent job. THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!

[@Caroline-go3qc]

i struggle so much to understand the difference between those, thank you for your clear explanations!!

[@Drmrfordancing]

Another excellent video. Спасибо!

[@anyaaa75]

Thank you for ur efforts , the way u explain is so understandable

[@isjawu]

My personal rule - you may laugh but it helped me understanding the difference: -то is used when the omniscient observer/narrator knows who, what, where, when etc. -нибудь is used when even such a perfect observer does not know

[@mogsta]

Good to know I've been using it correctly! Looking forward to your excellent explanation of -либо

[@theycallmezeal]

he returns!

[@highsky6553]

WELCOME BACK. i hope you've been doing great. Could you make some sorta channel update to let us know what's coming up?

[@russianlanguageforeveryone8826]

Спасибо за видео

[@DT-vo7fg]

I really think that yours are the best and most clarifying videos on these subjects and I really enjoy them. It's very hard to learn russian but it's a great challenge. If I may ask, what about a more specific video on some the tricky differences between undefinite pronouns like некоторый, кое-какой, какой-то, какой-нибудь? I must check if you've already uploaded but it seems that nowhere (even textbooks) these nuances are clearly tackled in detail. Thanks anyway and keep up with the good work!

[@russiangrammar]

I'm away from my recording space this week but will put this on the list for the new year. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@CrazyDreamer1001]

Great video! But what about кое- (кое-что etc.)?

[@russiangrammar]

Кое- is used when the speaker knows the identity of something, but the listener doesn’t: Нужно отвезти кое-какие бумаги в офис. I have to take some papers over to the office. Она тебе кое-что купила. She bought you something. (I know what it is, but I’m not telling yet!) It can have the sense of mentioning something in a context where you’ll explain it in a moment. In the classic film Ирония судьбы, when Надя has to tell her jealous boyfriend that she found a drunk guy sleeping in her apartment, she starts out: Ипполит, я должна тебе кое-что сообщить. Ippolit, I have to tell you something... The scene is at kzbin.info/www/bejne/oofTno2kh66AgdU In narrative contexts (not dialogue) I think it can have the sense of “a few things, a little, a thing or two”: Ирина откладывала кое-что для Алечки, так, по мелочи. Irina would set something aside for Alechka, just a little.

[@CrazyDreamer1001]

@@russiangrammar Thank you for this detailed response. I should watch _Ирония судьбы_ again now that I will be able to understand a lot more than the first time I watched it last year.

[@Nissan-Erugurando]

- Она звонила? - Когда- нибудь звонила.(Past tense. Uncertainty about action in the past tense).

[@part9952]

Great video as always!! Have you already made a video about the word "и" when it doesn't mean "and"? Or could you please make one? I have no idea about the rules in this topic and how i could use this. My russian friends told me that this is a very difficult topic and hard to explain and i can't find anything on google.. I hope you know what i mean

[@russiangrammar]

Спасибо за вопрос! I'll put this topic on the list for upcoming videos.

[@part9952]

@@russiangrammar Отлично! Спасибо огромное за ответ! В принципе у меня как-то уже получается интуитивно использовать эту систему но я всё-таки не именно знаю что это такое((

[@mariorossi-kh9yy]

Great teacher 👏... are you author of a paper grammar? I'd like to buy it soon!

[@RicardoManuelArana]

I'm working on some grammar tables. I already learned what the particles (-то, нибудь, -либо, кое-) imply. My knowledge about english coming to "some-, any-" helped a lot when learning the variants for что-, кто-, какой- and чей- so it's like I have half of the cake but if you don't mind, could you please do something about this?: где-то (you already did it on this video). кое-где где-нибудь где-либо когда-то кое-когда когда-нибудь когда-либо куда-то кое-куда куда-нибудь куда-либо откуда-то кое-откуда откуда-нибудь откуда-либо как-то кое-как как-нибудь как-либо

[@russiangrammar]

Здравствуйте Ricardo, I don't think you need my help with this, you're on the right track! Just be sure to remember that кто, что, and чей will change for case etc. before -то, -нибудь, -либо, and after кое-. :)

[@RicardoManuelArana]

@@russiangrammar Dude I do your help. I mean... I read some of those take the form of an adverb. I've seen examples but then how do I know if I'm using them right?. Like what if I want to say I went somewhere but I don't want to get into detail, I guess I'd use "кое-куда" but it would be translated as an adverb?.

[@russiangrammar]

Happily, adverbs don't change form, so you can just use кое-куда. Here's an example I grabbed from the Russian National Corpus (www.ruscorpora.ru/new/en/search-main.html): Посмотрите, если время позволяет, а мне нужно кое-куда съездить... = 'Take a look, if time allows, but I need to run off someplace/there's somewhere I need to go.'

[@monty895]

To echo what others have said: welcome back!

[@theeirishpingin8368]

Rick Steves? Is that you?

[@russiangrammar]

Oh no, my side gig has been uncovered! ;)

[@theeirishpingin8368]

@@russiangrammar Very helpful material by the way Professor. Большое спасибо.

[@Windavinci]

I saw an example by a teacher. She said "Они где-то работают, но я не знаю где" Is this sentence wrong?

[@russiangrammar]

No, this sentence is fine. The speaker is talking about a specific place - the place where they work - so it makes sense to use -то, even if the speaker can't identify that place.

[@Windavinci]

@@russiangrammar Мне понятно - спасибо

[@SaadAltuilaai]

You should pronounce your exemples more slowly. it's hard to follow along with you.

[@russiangrammar]

I do try to keep a fairly natural pace, since the advantage of a video is that you can replay it as many times as you like. When I started learning a new language a while back, the audio I had seemed terribly fast, but with practice I got used to it, and I think it helped me be more comfortable with natural speech. In any case, thank you for the feedback! :)

[@setharnold9764]

It was fun to find I could follow along with this speed, very different from the first videos I watched! Some KZbin players let you select a faster or slower playback speed. (Unfortunately not all devices can do this.)

[@nicolasfauvel5934]

@@setharnold9764 Yes. I was going to make the same point to Saad Altuilaai, and I agree with Dr Ford's view about natural speech speed and repetition. The ability to listen at typical native speech speed, or using playback at 0.75 x or even 0.5 x normal speed, makes the material useful to a wider range of learners.

[@shukrimahmood]

@@nicolasfauvel5934 Dear Mr Nicholas Fauvel! Allow me please to say that I have the same opinion as yours, and to thank you very much indeed for mentioning the Doctor's name in your valuable comment; now I know how to property address him.