# All Slavic: Size (X с Y)



## egz03

In Russian you can say things like "репа с баскетбольный мяч" (literally "turnip with basketball") to mean a turnip the size of a basketball. Can you do something like this in other Slavic languages?

Thanks!


----------



## kudikamo

If your an English native, could you pls give the Eng version of the same phrase? If I am not mistaken, it means that sth is oversized? or "huge"?


----------



## egz03

Presumably you'd translate "репа с баскетбольный мяч" as "a turnip the size of a basketball". If you'd like another example, "мальчик с пальчик" (translated "boy the size of a thumb", i.e. "Tom Thumb") is popular. Is this what you were looking for?


----------



## Majalj

I cannot see any other way but to say "repa veličine košarkaške lopte".


----------



## bibax

Interestingly, Czech has the same preposition with accusative (!). Usually the preposition s (se) comes either with instrumental (muž se psem) or with genitive (spadl se stolu, sestoupil s nebes).

The preposition s/se with accusative expresses whom (what) someone (something) is equal to. Necessary to say that it is an archaism in Modern Czech.


----------



## bibax

> ..."репа с баскетбольный мяч" (literally "turnip with basketball")


The preposition "c" with accusative does not mean "with".

"turnip with basketball" is "репа с баскетбольным мячем" (needs instrumental!)


----------



## mugibil

In Bulgarian, you use "колкото" (a relative pronominal adverb meaning "as much/many as"): ряпа колкото баскетболна топка.


----------



## indiegrl

egz03 said:


> In Russian you can say things like "репа с баскетбольный мяч" (literally "turnip with basketball") to mean a turnip the size of a basketball. Can you do something like this in other Slavic languages?
> 
> Thanks!



 "репа с баскетбольный мяч"  not only that it sounds odd,but it also makes no sense whatsoever for a Russian native.It is an archaic form used in two occasions(these are the only ones I know,maybe there used to be more back in the past)
 Using ''s'' for comparison in Russian is only used in folklore,in several expressions,one of them is the one you used << мальчик с пальчик>> and the other one is << Мужичок с ноготок>>. I think it's what you call a metaphor,and not a real comparison
Has anybody told you that you can use this construction for other comparisons?


----------



## mugibil

Hmm. Why not google the phrase "с баскетбольный мяч"? It's true they usually add "размером с ...", but otherwise it seems pretty productive.


----------



## bibax

> "Using ''s'' for comparison in Russian is only used in folklore...


I think you use it very often: "skolko" is " s kolko" written together.


----------



## indiegrl

mungu said:


> Hmm. Why not google the phrase "с баскетбольный мяч"? It's true they usually add "размером с ...", but otherwise it seems quite productive.



Even though he googles any kind of phrase using this construction ,which is both grammatically and lexically incorrect,he won't find anything.
 He can say <<репа  размером с баскетбольный мяч>>,but again,this is not common in colloquial speech.



bibax said:


> I think you use it very often: "skolko" is " s kolko" written together.


 I had in mind the use of s+nominative. It's not used under any circumstances,except for those  << мальчик с пальчик>> and << Мужичок с ноготок>> ,which are some kind of metaphors.
 It has nothing to do with колко,which means venomously.

 By the way,I think they're going to move this thread on ''Russian language forum''.


----------



## Awwal12

> It's not used under any circumstances,except for those << мальчик с пальчик>> and << Мужичок с ноготок>> ,which are some kind of metaphors.


Why not? "Опухоль с кулак", "глаза с чайные блюдца" and similar phrases really can be used in colloquial speech, I suppose. In more formal speech one would add "размером", of course.


----------



## mugibil

indiegrl said:


> Even though he googles any kind of phrase using this construction ,which is both grammatically and lexically incorrect,he won't find anything.



I got 223,000 hits for "с баскетбольный мяч". Some are duplicates, of course, but it certainly seems to exist.


----------



## mugibil

indiegrl said:


> It has nothing to do with колко,which means venomously.



But it has something to do with колько, as seen in Bulgarian колко. See http://vasmer.narod.ru/p639.htm.


----------



## bibax

> I had in mind the use of s+nominative.


Preposition with nominative? Rather with accusative.

And I meant: "cколько" is "c + колько (acc. neutr.)"


----------



## Awwal12

> But it has something to do with колько, as seen in Bulgarian колко.


I'm sorry, but such word nevertheless doesn't exist in modern Russian.


> I got 223,000 hits for "с баскетбольный мяч".


I got only 37,000 when excluded the words "величиной" and "размером". Nevertheless, the phrase really exists, as I said above.


----------



## bibax

So it seems that the preposition "s" + accusative is (rarely) used only in Russian and Czech.

Some Czech examples:

s hrst (handful)
s náprstek (thimble)
s pytel (bag)
s pohár (chalice)
se dva se tři (dny, metry)
býti s to
seč (= s + co, e.g. Běžel jsem, seč mi síly stačily.)
kdo s koho
s tolik

Lépe míti *s hrst* moci než práva *s pytel*. (Better to have a handful of power than a big bag of rights.)

*N.B. In the above Czech examples all expressions after the preposition "s" are in accusative.*


----------



## mugibil

Awwal12 said:


> I'm sorry, but such word nevertheless doesn't exist in modern Russian.


Yes, that's why I wrote "as seen in Bulgarian колко", meaning that it is _not_ seen in Russian anymore. I'm sorry, perhaps I was unclear.



bibax said:


> *N.B. In the above Czech examples all expressions after the preposition "s" are in accusative.*



True in Russian also, as obvious from the use of the phrase with animate masculine nouns "размером с человека" and feminine nouns "размером с кошку".


----------

