# а то устал сильно за день?



## b4nny

Hi, can someone help me understand what this message means, especially the last sentence?
_"Привет. Давай лучше поговорим в воскресенье. Хочу завтра выспаться, а то устал сильно за день?"
I want to get enough sleep / sleep in, ... ?_


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## Ёж!

The sentence means to say that he's tired very much, that's why he can't speak [today]. "I want to get enough sleep since I'm tired very much"; in a more literal way of translation, "_а то_" is kind of "otherwise".


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## tosamja

b4nny said:


> _"Привет. Давай лучше поговорим в воскресенье. Хочу завтра выспаться, а то устал сильно за день?"
> _



_Hello. I'd rather talk to you on Sunday. I'd like to get a good sleep tomorrow, since I got very tired today._


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## tosamja

Btw, the question mark at the end of your sentence is a mistake.


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## b4nny

Ok. Do you suppose the question mark at the end is a typo?
Edit: Oh, got it! Haha.


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## tosamja

I meant the sentence _Хочу завтра выспаться, а то устал сильно за день. _ It should end with a full stop.


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## PatrickK1

So, "а то" is equivalent to "потому, что" or "так как" in this context? Is this grammatically correct, or slang of some sort? Would someone mind providing another example or two?


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## tosamja

PatrickK1 said:


> So, "а то" is equivalent to "потому, что" or "так как" in this context?



Yes. But most often it means "otherwise", I think. 



PatrickK1 said:


> Is this grammatically correct, or slang of some sort?



It's quite standard.



PatrickK1 said:


> Would someone mind providing another example or two?



Пойдем быстрее, а то опаздаем. = Let's go faster, otherwise (if not) we'll be late.


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## rusita preciosa

A small correction





tosamja said:


> опаoздаем


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## Ёж!

tosamja said:


> Yes. But most often it means "otherwise", I think.


It can be analysed as such in the sentence that we're discussing too. The reasoning goes like: "Otherwise [= if I don't get enough sleep and speak to you right now] [it is important that / it will influence us that] I got very tired today". The person suggests that he _might_ speak now and rejects this suggestion. It is polite: he shows that he's interested in the talk. Not that we indeed _think_ of all of that when listening to such words, but we feel it; in the end, the meaning gets to be like 'since' or 'because'.


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## tosamja

rusita preciosa said:


> A small correction



oups


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## PatrickK1

Ёж! said:


> It can be analysed as such in the sentence that we're discussing too. The reasoning goes like: "Otherwise [= if I don't get enough sleep and speak to you right now] [it is important that / it will influence us that] I got very tired today". The person suggests that he _might_ speak now and rejects this suggestion. It is polite: he shows that he's interested in the talk. Not that we indeed _think_ of all of that when listening to such words, but we feel it; in the end, the meaning gets to be like 'since' or 'because'.



Hmm...in English, using "otherwise" in that context wouldn't make sense. When you read that sentence (from the original post) in Russian, do you still interpret "а то" as having its typical meaning of "otherwise", or is there a clear distinction?


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## Ёж!

PatrickK1 said:


> Hmm...in English, using "otherwise" in that context wouldn't make sense. When you read that sentence (from the original post) in Russian, do you still interpret "а то" as having its typical meaning of "otherwise", or is there a clear distinction?


The distinction is clear (since the usage is different: one thing if you say what _happens_ otherwise, another if you say what is _important_ otherwise), the common 'root' is not obvious, but it does have implications on usage and meaning. That English makes use of other words, presuppositions and reasonings in such contexts is a different story.


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## Trasher

_I think it would be advisable to translate "a то" using "because" so as to get the basic idea of __"a то" meaning. _


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## Ben Jamin

I understand "_а то устал сильно за день" as:  "the matter of fact is that I got very tired during the day". _


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## LilianaB

b4nny said:


> Ok. Do you suppose the question mark at the end is a typo?
> Edit: Oh, got it! Haha.



Yes, in this form it may actually be a typo, but the structure of the whole expression might be better if written in a different way -- as a compound sentence, in my opinion. The context basically asks for it. There is no inversion in Russian (in questions). He is asking the person if it would be Ok with them if they talked some other time. It is a question, marked most likely by the right intonation. 

However, the sentence structure should be redone. It really would have to be one sentence --a different punctuation mark instead of the full stop in the middle. Otherwise, the question mark would have to go after the first sentence.

The bottom line is -- in the form the sentences were written the question mark should go after the first sentence (it does not matter that there is no inversion there, or a particle marking that the sentence is a question). However, the sentence would be better if it were turned into one compound sentence and then the question mark should be at the end -- the way it is.


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## Ёж!

Trasher said:


> _I think it would be advisable to translate "a то" using "because" so as to get the basic idea of __"a то" meaning. _


This is a nice and practical advice for translating such sentences from Russian to English (with the exception that it may miss some important details such as render a sentence more rude than it is), and here it indeed had been translated with 'since', which, by the way, matches better the case because 'since' has a more 'textual' meaning, while 'because' has the more 'causative' one. (MW School Dictionary, 'since', 3: 'in view of the fact that'; with the first meaning having to do with the relations in time).

But there is a problem with translating it in the reverse direction: not every 'since' can be rendered by _"а то"_. If you have in mind no implied counterposition, then you don't use _"а то"_.


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