# В Москве меня ждал мой муж и мой маленький сын



## wonlon

In a passage, a grandmother spoke to her granddaughter:

"В Москве меня *ждал *мой муж и мой маленький сын - твой папа. Я очень любила их, скучала и хотела скорее вернуться в Москву."

Shouldn't *ждал *be in the plural? 

***
Nice to meet you all again! I haven't been here since January. Since then, I haven't not worked so hard on Russian because of the lack of new self-study plan. And I concentrated on my Korean learning. But I started picking up Russian 3 months ago, still planning how to move on in Russian.


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## LilianaB

No, not necessarily. It can be in the singular as well, in Russian.


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## Maroseika

Мой's are also superfluous here, unless it is important in some special context.


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## wonlon

LilianaB said:


> No, not necessarily. It can be in the singular as well, in Russian.



If it can be singular, which noun should the verb agree with?

e.g.
*ждал/ла(?) *мой муж и мая маленькая дочь / (or reverse order) мой муж и мая маленькая дочь *ждал/ла?*


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## Ahu Lee

wonlon said:


> If it can be singular, which noun should the verb agree with?
> 
> e.g.
> *ждал/ла(?) *мой муж и м*о*я маленькая дочь / (or reverse order) мой муж и м*о*я маленькая дочь *ждал/ла?*



the verb should always agree with the closest\first one. E.g.:
В Москве меня *ждал (**мой**) муж* и (моя) маленькая дочь (or В Москве меня *ждали (**мой**) муж* и (моя) маленькая дочь)
В Москве меня *ждала **(моя) **маленькая дочь *и (мой) муж (or В Москве меня *ждали **(моя) **маленькая дочь *и (мой) муж)

However, I'm not sure we can say В москве меня (мой) муж и *(моя) **маленькая дочь ждала*. (I'd say ждали, i.e. В москве меня *(**мой**) **муж* и *(моя) **маленькая дочь* *ждали*, in this "reverse order" case)


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## covar

В Москве меня *ждал *мой муж и _*(ждал)*_ мой маленький сын - твой папа.  (_skipped word_ _*ждал)*_
В Москве меня *ждала *моя дочь и _*(ждал)*_ её маленький сын.  (_skipped word_ _*ждал)*_
В Москве меня *ждал *мой сын и _*(ждала)*_ его невеста.  (_skipped word_ _*ждала)*_


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## wonlon

Мой муж и мая маленькая дочь *ждала* меня в Москве.

I reverse the word order just to make sure that the rule is to agree with the noun closest to the verb. Isn't it?


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## Maroseika

wonlon said:


> Мой муж и моя маленькая дочь *ждала* меня в Москве.
> 
> I reverse the word order just to make sure that the rule is to agree with the noun closest to the verb. Isn't it?



In this case the rule is not applicable, the whole phrase looks very bad. Better to use Plural here.


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## LilianaB

wonlon said:


> Мой муж и мая маленькая дочь *ждала* меня в Москве.
> 
> I reverse the word order just to make sure that the rule is to agree with the noun closest to the verb. Isn't it?




Yes, I agree with Maroseika. The sentence is totally wrong in this form. You have to really keep the order, the way it is in the original sentence.


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## wonlon

LilianaB said:


> Yes, I agree with Maroseika. The sentence is totally wrong in this form. You have to really keep the order, the way it is in the original sentence.



But if there is a sentence with order like this:

Noun 1 и Noun 2  + Verb

The verb, if singular, should agree with Noun 2, which is closer to it?


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## Maroseika

wonlon said:


> But if there is a sentence with order like this:
> 
> Noun 1 и Noun 2  + Verb
> 
> The verb, if singular, should agree with Noun 2, which is closer to it?



Better to avoid such constructions and rephrase it or use Plural. There is no good way to say it in Russian with two nouns or different genders preceding the verb in Singular. Plural may sound a bit too bookish or official, so in your case I'd say: Муж с дочкой ждали меня в Москве.
The more so that semantically your variant is also not very good, because presumes that your husband and your daugther waited you separately from each other.


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## Axel_Carvalho

Maroseika said:


> Муж с дочкой ждали меня в Москве.
> The more so that semantically your variant is also not very good, because *presumes that your husband and your daugther waited you separately from each other*.


Not necessarily. This word order just emphasizes where the action took place and could be understood as: "It was in Moscow, that/where my husband and daughter were waiting for me."


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## turkjey5

Ahu Lee said:


> the verb should always agree with the closest\first one. E.g.:
> В Москве меня *ждал (**мой**) муж* и (моя) маленькая дочь (or В Москве меня *ждали (**мой**) муж* и (моя) маленькая дочь)
> В Москве меня *ждала **(моя) **маленькая дочь *и (мой) муж (or В Москве меня *ждали **(моя) **маленькая дочь *и (мой) муж)



So, are you saying that both agreement with the first one *and *using a plural verb are are acceptable?


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## Maroseika

turkjey5 said:


> So, are you saying that both agreement with the first one *and *using a plural verb are are acceptable?



Plural is acceptable in both cases, but Single is very bad when the independent nouns are of different genders. There is just no good way to say it (it presumes ждал дочь, ждала муж), so better avoid it.


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## Ahu Lee

turkjey5 said:


> So, are you saying that both agreement with the first one *and *using a plural verb are are acceptable?



Sorry, I'm not sure I understood your question (what IS the agreement you're talking about?) Anyway, in that post I said that we can use both the singular and plural forms of the verb in cases like these. And if we go for the singular one whether it has a "masculine"(no ending) or "feminine" ending (like in my previous example if two or more objects are of different genders) is determined by the object\noun which goes next to the verb (is the closest to it). Does it make sense to you?


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## turkjey5

to summarize: all of the following are correct

the verb should always agree with the closest\first one. E.g.:
В Москве меня *ждал (**мой**) муж* и (моя) маленькая дочь
В Москве меня *ждала **(моя) **маленькая дочь *и (мой) муж 

A plural verb is also correct:
В Москве меня *ждали (**мой**) муж* и (моя) маленькая дочь)
В Москве меня *ждали **(моя) **маленькая дочь *и (мой)муж)

The reason I asked is because a plural verb does not agree with the closest/first one and you had said "the verb should always agree with the closest\first one."


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## Maroseika

turkjey5 said:


> to summarize: all of the following are correct
> 
> the verb should always agree with the closest\first one. E.g.:
> В Москве меня *ждал (**мой**) муж* и (моя) маленькая дочь
> В Москве меня *ждала **(моя) **маленькая дочь *и (мой) муж



Both sentences are wrong. There is no such a rule, that the verb agrees in gender with the closest noun (subject). When the genders are different the verb is used only in Plural: 

Par. 190, clause 2-2б:
Cказуемое ставится во множественном числе, если возникает  необходимость согласования в роде и подлежащие принадлежат к разному  грамматическому роду, например: _…Ни одно государство или группа  государств не должны получить военное преимущество..._

So, only this is correct:
В Москве меня ждали (мой) муж и (моя) маленькая дочь)
В Москве меня ждали (моя) маленькая дочь и (мой)муж)


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## alexzzzz

wonlon said:


> "В Москве меня *ждал *мой муж и мой маленький сын - твой папа. Я очень любила их, скучала и хотела скорее вернуться в Москву."
> 
> Shouldn't *ждал *be in the plural?



 I would use plural, and consider the singular form here as a very doubtful choice.


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## e2-e4 X

Quite the opposite from my side.


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## alexzzzz

The singular form sounds to me as if the husband and the son were the same person.


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## Maroseika

One more applicable rule (par. 190, cl. 5):
Сказуемое ставится в *форме множественного числа*, независимо от своего местоположения, если оно обозначает *действие, совершаемое несколькими субъектами*, например: А вечером ко мне понагрянули и Черемницкий, и новый городничий Порохонцев (Лесков); В душе его боролись желание забыть теперь о несчастном брате и сознание того, что это будет дурно (Л. Толстой).


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## e2-e4 X

It's interesting that «В Москве меня *ждали *мой муж и мой маленький сын» sounds badly, while the same sentence with «ждал» does okey (to me). I guess it's because the subject is of the same nature and its action is the same in the sentence, which is not true for the examples in the paragraph.

Rules can't cover just everything, true.


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## Maroseika

e2-e4 X said:


> It's interesting that «В Москве меня *ждали *мой муж и мой маленький сын» sounds badly, while the same sentence with «ждал» does okey (to me). I guess it's because the subject is of the same nature and its action is the same in the sentence, which is not true for the examples in the paragraph.
> 
> Rules can't cover just everything, true.



Fortunately, in the present case it does cover. 
Actually, when the nouns are of the same gender, both Singular and Plral verbs are possible. But there is a nuance, which seems to me quite evident: Plural presumes common action (they waited for me together), Singular - separate action (В Москве его ждал теплый прием друзей и старый должок).


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## Garbuz

Однозначно, согласование во множ. числе.
В Москве ее ждали муж и сын / муж и дочь / дочь и сын / муж и дети  и т.д.

 Это в английском есть так наз. proximity rule when the verb is adjusted to the nearest noun: There is a book and a few pencils on the desk.


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## e2-e4 X

e2-e4 X said:


> It's interesting that «В Москве меня *ждали *мой муж и мой маленький сын» sounds badly, while the same sentence with «ждал» does okey (to me). I guess it's because the subject is of the same nature and its action is the same in the sentence, which is not true for the examples in the paragraph.


I came to think it's not as badly as I thought, not bad at all. Sorry.


Maroseika said:


> Actually, when the nouns are of the same gender, both Singular and Plral verbs are possible. But there is a nuance, which seems to me quite evident: Plural presumes common action (they waited for me together), Singular - separate action (В Москве его ждал теплый прием друзей и старый должок).


Yes. In fact, I'd agree with the analysis of *covar*.


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