How to say "it mean nothing"?

[Tanya_88]

Sentence "it mean nothing" - it is meaning that some thing have not significance.
But how can I say to somebody about meaning of word "nothing". It has meaning nothing or it signify nothing. How correctly to say it?

[Tomasito]

It doesn't mean anything. - :o
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[Richard]

[Milanya]

[Parallel]

Hi tanya 88
You wrote:
"Sentence "it mean nothing" - it is meaning that some thing have not significance.
But how can I say to somebody about meaning of word "nothing". It has meaning nothing or it signify nothing. How correctly to say it?"

Can I just write down my version of your question? I will put comments in ():

Sentence "it means nothing" (third person>"s" at the end of the word) - it means that something has no significance (or not any). But how can I tell someone something about the meaning of the word "nothing"? It has the meaning of nothing or it signifies nothing. How can I say it correctly? (When it comes to the position of words in an english sentence, I have to admit, that's not something that I'm really good at, sorry! Maybe you could also say: How can I correctly say it? :)

Best regards Urs

[Tanya_88]

Milanya
Я хотела спросить как сказать "это значит ничего"
It does't make sense - я так думаю это правильный ответ. Или можно сказать как то по другому?

Sorry me for I'm typing in Russian.

[Milanya]

[Yuri Yurinov]

Hi Tanya,

I think I understand your question. The matter is in different mentality of Russian and English speaking people. If translate "It means nothing" into English directly it will sound like this "Это значит НИчего". To the Russian mind it sounds awkward and the right translation is "Это НЕ значит НИчего". Very often when we translate from English into Russian we should change the order of the words in the sentence.So, the translation "Это НИчего НЕ значит" is the best one.
In the last Russian sentense we have a double negation "двойное отрицание" which is almost never used in English. Such words as "nothing", "never", "nobody" and others have the negation (отрицание) in themselves, that's why English people say "I do nothing", "I never do it", "Nobody does it" and the sentences with double negation "I don't do nothing", "I don't never do it" and so on don't exist in English language.
The sentence "Это значит ничего" will be possible in Russian if you compose it like this: "Это значит "ничего"" and the best way to translate it "It means "nothing"". You should put the words "ничего" and "nothing" into quotation marks.

Good luck,

Yuri
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[Tanya_88]

Thanks for help

[Parallel]

Hello Yuri

Thank you for your answer. I'm quite new on the site, made one of my first attempts to give Tanya an advice. But obviously, I didn't get, what the main problem really was. We are lucky to have you as an expert in Russian - English, so you could help!

You mentioned comparative linguistic branch, which can lead to a better understanding of one's mother tongue.

That makes me wonder whether there are some similarities between the English and Russian Language? (As I said, I unfortunately have not the slightest knowledge of Russian). I don't mean structural things like verbs, adjectifs, nouns, relative clauses and so on, but how you express things like feelings, situations, thougts?

When you as a Russian speaker read an English text for instance, can you do that effortless? Are the two languages basically not as different as one would think? Is the way how you put thougt's into sentences more or less the same?

And: when I read a book like "war and peace" from Dostojewsky in English, how exactly can the translated text express the original meaning? What about the subtle differences, how a certain sentence is meant exactly, and what "subtexts" are hidden behind the bare words?

What would you say, are there "worlds" between English and Russian or not?
Would a correct translation lead to very complicated sentences and a lot of footnotes because the English Language hasn't got the structures to reflect those true meanings?

Let me guess that there are Russian authors who like to write long sentences - as it is the case in my own language. In fact, our teacher used to tell us, that the English are very fond of short sentences. They like to say something in a nutshell, instead of using a lot of words...

But what, if a fealing can only be described properly by using those lots of words and this in an difficult constructed and almost never ending sentence? A longing maybe or a pain? And to put it a bit in a provocativ way: what if that specific feeling even can't be felt, when your language has no means to express it?

I have read texts on the forum on topics like that, so there are others who could discuss that far better than me. And there is always a danger to get stuck in prejudices. But nevertheless, I think one should spend at least some thoughts about it...

Let me return to the question how different or simular languages are and the reasons for it: Since the beginning of time (or history) there have been many cultural influences between countries and populations in our hemisphere. Through the Church, the latin language, through science, trade and diplomacy and so on.

Couldn't it be, that the languages of the different nations have generally adjusted to each other? Not only by using the same words, but also by using similar structures, the same logic and equal way's to express contents?

Which language to proof that better than English? Maybe that's one of the secrets to its "success" as "the" world language...

And being a bit serious after all, I'm really convinced that we should continue trying to learn not only foreign Languages, but also get an insight in the different attitudes and feelings expressed by them.

Because our world has become very small recently - in the true meaning of the word...

Urs

[Planta]

[Richard]

Thank you Planta.
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[Yuri Yurinov]

Hi Parallel,

Your questions are very interesting but I need time to answer them. I'll do it as soon as possible.

Hi Planta,

You must be very clever! What about being polite?

Good luck,

Yuri
_________________
Everything is Anything.

Please NO Youtube on "My first steps in English" thread...

[Planta]

[Milanya]