# Нету?



## Apa2001

Does  Нету sound wrong or bad a  Russian's ear?
Где Ваня? Его нету.


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## Natalisha

If I heard "его нету", I wouldn't even pay attention whether it was pronounced like "его нет" or "его нету".


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## Garbuz

It sounds like poor Russian. Low colloquial.


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## Saluton

To Garbuz, it does, but to most people, it's OK.


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## morzh

It does not sound as "poor" Russian.

It is a normal spoken form. Most people actually will used it as a relax spoken version.
I myself use it a lot.


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## Awwal12

It isn't low colloquial, but it's surely informal. At least I cannot imagine "нету" in any official speech or a document. 
Also an important note: "нету" works only for "there is/are no" and "X has/have not" constructions, but not for plain negations. See:

- Где Вася?
- Васи нет дома. 
- Васи нету дома. 

- У тебя есть ручка?
- (У меня её) нет. 
- (У меня её) нету. 

- Ты знаешь правильный ответ?
- Нет. 
- Нету.


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## Garbuz

Мне кажется, сейчас эта форма годится для создания особого колорита. Близка к просторечию. "Настоящих буйных мало, вот и нету вожаков". Вы можете себе представить телефонный разговор:
- Попросите, пожалуйста, декана.
- Его нету на месте, он вышел.

Я лично - нет. Так и хочется добавить : "Пошел у столовую".


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## Apa2001

Thanks! Спасибо!


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## Sobakus

garbuz said:


> Мне кажется, сейчас эта форма годится для создания особого колорита. Близка к просторечию. "Настоящих буйных мало, вот и нету вожаков". Вы можете себе представить телефонный разговор:
> - Попросите, пожалуйста, декана.
> - Его нету на месте, он вышел.
> 
> Я лично - нет. Так и хочется добавить : "Пошел у столовую".



А для меня никакой особой окраски тут нету  Если стиль не деловой или какой научный там, естественно.


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## Wertis

Apa2001 said:


> Does  Нету sound wrong or bad a  Russian's ear?
> Где Ваня? Его нету.



This word ("нету") is absolutely fine in colloquial Russian. It's not rude. Nor is it slang. Just a way of speaking and that's it. But in any kind of writing intended for a public this word ill be mistake and it will have to be replaced with "нет". By the way, even in official speech you can use "нету", but never in writing. I don't know anything about the origin of this word. Looks really stupid: why add one extra letter at the end say a longer word? Anyway, we use "нету" all the time. And as said above we hardly ever pay attention to what has been said: "нет" or "нету". In any context possible they mean the same.


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## carsten

My two cents.

Both words are actually OK. What we have here is a case of groundless prescriptivism, i.e. when at some point some scholar decides without any reason that a word is "incorrect" and thus underisible in official speech/writing, even although it has been widely used both in literature (for example, Pushkin) and in spoken speech for years.

Etymologically, нету is more archaic: both words are contractions of an Old Russian phrase "не ѥ ту", literally "isn't here". As you can see, the нету form retains the archaic -у.

Those who want to look educated try to use нет in all situations, while most people use нету and нет interchangeably (depends on the rhythm of a sentence, actually) in most cases. Old Russian knows both words.

It's recommended to use "нет" in official speech, though, since not all "educated" people know these facts.



Wertis said:


> In any context possible they mean the same.


Нету can't be used when it is to mean "no", and not "there isn't".


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## carsten

carsten said:


> underisible in official speech


Oops, I meant "undesirable in formal speech"


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## Natalisha

carsten said:


> Нету can't be used when it is to mean "no", and not "there isn't".



I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. Could you expand on it a little bit more, Carsten? And could you possibly give us some examples?


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## Sobakus

Natalisha said:


> I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean. Could you expand on it a little bit more, Carsten? And could you possibly give us some examples?



He means that нету only means "there isn't", while нет means "no" and "there isn't". Btw there's also не which is only colloquial "no"(and a negation).


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## Natalisha

Sobakus said:


> He means that нету only means "there isn't", while нет means "no" and "there isn't". Btw there's also не which is only colloquial "no"(and a negation).


Well, what about this example:

У тебя есть карандаши? - Нету.
Have you got any pencils? - No.

Yes, I see that the structure is the same in Russian, but it's different in English, that's why I asked for some examples.


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## Sobakus

Natalisha said:


> Well, what about this example:
> 
> У тебя есть карандаши? - Нету.
> Have you got any pencils? - No.
> 
> Yes, I see that the structure is the same in Russian, but it's different in English, that's why I asked for some examples.



"Нету" here isn't equivalent to "no", it's equivalent to "I haven't". "No" would be "не"/"нет"(in the "no" sense). I didn't quite get the part about the structure.


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## Natalisha

Sobakus said:


> "Нету" here isn't equivalent to "no", it's equivalent to "I haven't". "No" would be "не"/"нет"(in the "no" sense).


Oh, I see.



> I didn't quite get the part about the structure.


I'm speaking about the structure of such Russian sentences as

_(Здесь) есть карандаши... - There are...
(У меня) есть карандаши... - I've got..._


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