Sunday, March 01, 2015

As I tell my students...

You have to watch those endings. The grammar tells you what is happening.

These photos are from Vox's photo-essay on the Nemtsov march today. They're they cover, and one showing the sign they translate as "the bullets are in each of us". But the Russian, as you can plainly see (and even plainly read assuming you can read Russian!) is Эти пули - в каждого из нас.

Каждого is the accusative case, not the prepositional, which would be каждом. The accusative is used for motion, the prepositional for location. That makes this sign mean "the bullets hit each of us." (edited to add: the Washington Post's photo album says "these bullets - for everyone of us" which isn't bad, either (though I'd have said "every one of us").)


 

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