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Saying 'for' in Russian
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The English preposition for has several meanings,
each of which is represented by a separate preposition in Russian. This page
discusses the different meanings of the English preposition and associates
those meanings with the corresponding Russian preposition and case.
1. Recipient (Experiencer) = Dative case alone
| To indicate the
recipient of an object or condition, in either the concrete or abstract
sense, use the dative case alone. |
| купить себе новую шляпу. |
buy a new hat for oneself. |
| подарок мальчику. |
gift for a boy. |
| письмо тебе. |
a letter to/for you. |
| Холодно мне. |
It's cold to/for me. |
2. Benefit = для + Genitive
| To express "for" in the
sense of "for the benefit of", use the preposition для plus the
genitive case. |
| Она сделала это для меня. |
She did that for me. |
| Он открыл дверь для тёти. |
He opened the door for his aunt. |
3. Exchange/Replacement = за + Accusative
| If for means "in
exchange for something)" or "in place of someone", use за and the
accusative case. |
| Спасибо за помощь. |
Thanks for the help. |
| Плати за билеты. |
Pay for the tickets. |
| Он дал учебник за словарь. |
He swapped his text for a dictionary. |
| Он это сделал за меня. |
He did that for (instead of) me. |
4. Temporal "for" (Duration of Action) = Accusative case alone
| If the phrase meaning
"for" indicates of the duration of the action referred to by the verb or
the repetition of the action, use the accusative case alone. |
| Она читала три часа. |
She read (for) three hours. |
| Он работал там два месяца. |
He worked there (for) two months. |
5. Temporal "for" (Duration after Action) = на + Accusative
| To indicate the duration
of a period of time occurring after the completion of the action
referred to by the verb, use на plus the accusative
case. |
| Он поехал в Москву на неделю. |
He drove to Moscow for a week. |
| Она вышла на минуту. |
She went out for a minute. |
| Его послали туда на день. |
He was sent there for a day. |
6. "To get" = за + Instrumental
| Where 'for' means 'to
get' in the sense that 'he went for the newspaper' means 'he went to get
the newspaper', use за plus the instrumental case in Russian.
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| Она вышла за газетой. |
She went out for (to get) a paper. |
| Он заехал за мной. |
He stopped by for me. |
| Он пошел за бензином. |
He went for (to get) gasoline. |
| For in the sense
of support, e.g. I'm for peace means "I support peace", where
for is the antonym of against, use за plus the
accusative case. |
| Я за всеобщее разоружение. |
I'm for general disarmament. |
| Я не против него. |
I'm not against it. |
8. "For" in setting a deadline = на + Accusative
| For in the sense
of a deadline or due date is expressed by на+Acc.
|
| задание на завтра |
the assignment for tomorrow |
| мой план на лето |
my plan(s) for the summer |
Now that you have studied the rules and examples, let's see
how well you can detect the various sense of English for in Russian.
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