# Чего́ and Что -why?



## Anita hk

Do the Чего́ and Что in the following sentences mean why?  In particular I don't understand the use of genitive in 1.  Thanks in advance.
1.Чего́ сиди́шь скуча́ешь? Займи́сь де́лом!
2.Что ты там плетёшься в хвосте́?


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## Vovan

Anita hk said:


> Do the Чего́ and Что in the following sentences mean why?


Yes. It's _very _colloquial, esp. _чего _(=why).
It can also mean "what for".
In your sentences, the question seems to be rhetorical.


Anita hk said:


> I don't understand the use of genitive in 1.


_Чего _is a _very _colloquial (almost substandard) substitute for _что_:
_Чего ты у него спросил?_​I wouldn't recommend using it.


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## Enquiring Mind

And see the (mostly relevant) discussion in these previous threads: чего vs что, Чего вместо что, что / чего (relative pronoun).


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## Anita hk

Thanks Vovan.  I subscribe to the 'word of the day' of some learning site and these sentences come up.  Thanks for the advice about  Чего́.  
 Then I could use почему́ and заче́м in both sentences for non-colloquial usage?


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## Olya34

"Почему" — yes, in both cases.
"Зачем" — no.
"Зачем" also means “for what purpose”. I don't think a person is lagging behind with a specific purpose. It's probably just happened.
The same way a person is unlikely to be bored for a purpose, so the questions "зачем ты плетёшься в хвосте?" or "зачем скучаешь?" don't make much sense.
While "почему ты плетёшься в хвосте?" or "почему скучаешь?" are perfectly OK.
In both cases "почему?" ("why") could mean "what caused you to?" so the questions are understandable.


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## Anita hk

Thanks Olya34 for the explanations and Enquiring Mind for the links.


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## Vovan

Anita hk said:


> Then I could use почему́ and заче́м in both sentences for non-colloquial usage?


You'd better not! Both sentences are markedly colloquial in their other aspects ("сидишь скучаешь", "плетешься в хвосте"), and they sound really authentic as they are.

When you're expressing (jokingly or not) disapproval of another person's current action(s) in a situation, it's okay to use "что" (or even "чего" - sometimes):
_Чего/что молчишь?! _("Почему молчишь?!" is also fine.)​_Что/чего не пьешь чай? _ ("Почему не пьешь чай?" is okay, too.)​​_(Cross-posted.)_


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## Anita hk

Thanks Vovan.  Actually at my level (really elementary, I had to use google translate to read the links given in 3 ), I couldn't tell  "сидишь скучаешь" and "плетешься в хвосте" sound colloquial.  But the 'expressing disapproval' helps.


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## Lorenc

Vovan said:


> When you're expressing (jokingly or not) disapproval of another person's current action(s) in a situation, it's okay to use "что" (or even "чего" - sometimes):



Would  чё also word in such cases? Eg:
Чё ты у него спросил?!
Чё молчишь?! 

If they are possible, would such versions sound rude?


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## Vovan

*Lorenc*, yes, they are possible, but note that "чё" is either 1. similar to the English "gonna" and other phonetically reduced phrases (and, as such, is more or less okay in casual informal speech) or 2. being the accentuated uncouth "чё" (which can even informally be written as "чо" and is often rude or, at least, curt).
_Чё молчишь, падла?_ (very rude)​_Чё молчишь, зайка?_  (gentle and even erotic)​The intonation and general manner of speech of the two phrases will be different. But even native speakers who use "чё" can't always control their manner of speech according to all aspects of the communicative situation and may accidentally sound rudish, so it's always better to stick to the full form (which is "чего").
_Не чёкай мне тут! _(=Don't use "чё" talking to me now!; also humourously)​


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## Budspok

Lorenc said:


> Would  чё also word in such cases? Eg:
> Чё ты у него спросил?!
> Чё молчишь?!
> 
> If they are possible, would such versions sound rude?





One should't be also too much surprised to hear some poorly educated people say "шо".


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## nizzebro

I would say that, besides that both "чё" and "чего" are just colloquial forms of "что" with a, hmm... rural flavor, these are often used as an intent to avoid possible harshness of "что" (especially "чего");  these two words could sound way softer than "что" and even childish.


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## Eirwyn

nizzebro said:


> these are often used as an intent to avoid possible harshness of "что" (especially "чего");  these two words could sound way softer than "что" and even childish.


I wouldn't say "что" sounds harsh, rather subservient. "Чего" is probably the best alternative when the situation is too formal to use "чё".


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## Lorenc

Budspok said:


> One should't be also too much surprised to hear some poorly educated people say "шо".



I thought this feature was limited to Russian spoken in Ukraine, isn't it so?


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## nizzebro

Eirwyn said:


> I wouldn't say "что" sounds harsh, rather subservient.


Let us agree that it depends on the specific context or situation and the intonation used. What I had in my head was "что ты хочешь?" versus "чего ты хочешь?" -  this 'чего' at least in a non-conflict situation sounds quite softly and not so definitely. Probably it somehow correlates to the opposition of the nominative and the genitive case used with mass nouns.


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## Awwal12

Lorenc said:


> I thought this feature was limited to Russian spoken in Ukraine, isn't it so?


"Шо" is widespread in Ukrianian (including Ukrainian dialects of Russia, e.g. in Krasnodar Krai) and naturally occurs in many South Russian dialects as well. It's always substandard, but pretty pervasive and may occur far beyond its natural dialectal areas, especially in ironic contexts (cf. the "Шо, опять?" meme from "Жил-был пёс").


Budspok said:


> One should't be also too much surprised to hear some poorly educated people say "шо".


I find the assumption that only poorly educated people have some dialectal elements in their speech actually pretty bold.


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## Eirwyn

nizzebro said:


> Let us agree that it depends on the specific context or situation and the intonation used. What I had in my head was "что ты хочешь?" versus "чего ты хочешь?" -  this 'чего' at least in a non-conflict situation sounds quite softly and not so definitely. Probably it somehow correlates to the opposition of the nominative and the genitive case used with mass nouns.


For me the only way to make this sentence sound softer is to put the verb in the subjunctive mood ("Чё/чего бы ты хотел?"). My point is that such subtle differences in semantics may vary from region to region and person to person, so we shouldn't really go further than saying that "что" is rather formal and "чё" is rather casual.


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