# I went nowhere



## Sonsierey

Hi everyone.

I was thinking about something I heard in a movie and I was trying to translate it from English to Russian. More or less, the character says: "I went nowhere, I saw nobody, I did nothing." My attempt: "Я нигде не пошла. Я никого не увидела. Я ничего не сделала." Is it that correct? Most of all, I'm not sure about that "Я нигде не пошла". 

Большое спасибо за вашу помощь!

Sonsierey


----------



## vh16

It's никуда, not нигде.

For example:

- Where can I buy a goose?
- Нигде.

- Where are you going?
- Никуда, I'm staying at home.


In your case, I would say: 
"Я никуда не ходила, никого не видела, ничего не делала".

That sounds quite natural to me, e.g. if the other character is trying to make that woman confess in a crime.
- What were you doing at 8 o'clock on Tuesday night? Answer immediately!
- _(frightened) _Я никуда не ходила, никого не видела, ничего не делала!

However, if that's a girl who is blaming herself for being too lazy, that could be:
"Я никуда не пошла / не сходила, ничего не увидела, ничего не сделала"

- I'm so lazy and passive. I've spent the whole day doing nothing. Я никуда не сходила, ничего не увидела, ничего не сделала.


----------



## Sonsierey

I see. Thank you, you've been really nice and your explanation is really clear!^^ 
Only, why in one case you use imperfective verbs and in the other one perfective verbs? I thought I had to use perfective ones... 
And why "ходить" in the first example, and then "ходить" and "идти" in the second one?


----------



## Guliver

Sonsierey said:


> And why "ходить" in the first example, and then "ходить" and "идти" in the second one?



Difficult question.... That's probably what we call "pure intuition" because only experts in grammar can give the correct answer. I'll try as well, though. I think that in example #1 the person actually tries to say that she hasn't been anywhere (she was at home when the crime was committed) and therefore she is sure she is innocent and there is someonу else to accuse. In example #2 a person regrets not going somewhere and now she realizes she should have gone.

I'll provide a bit more examples with "ходил/ходила" and "пошел/пошла" 

1) Я не ходила в магазин, и поэтому утром будет нечего есть - I didn't go shopping and therefore there will be nothing to eat in the morning

2) Я никогда не ходил за грибами один - I never went to pick mushrooms alone

3) Я не ходила к нему ни разу после нашей ссоры - I didn't visit him at all after we had quarelled

-----------------

1) Я не пошла на дискотеку потом очень жалела, т.к. друзья сказали, что там было очень весело - I didn't go to the disco and then it was really a pity because my friends said they had a very good time 

2) Они предлагали мне встретиться. Тем не менее я не пошла - They suggested meeting. Nonetheless, I didn't go

Very often sentences with "пошла/пошел" have some negative connotations, but not necessarily. I can think of some positive examples:

1) Я не пошла гулять и правильно сделала: на улице пошел сильный дождь - I didn't go for a walk and that was a correct decision: it started raining very hard

2) Я не пошел в полицию, чтобы сдавать брата - I didn't go to the police in order not to betray my brother

Hope this will help


----------



## 過客

Hello, 


Sonsierey said:


> Only, why in one case you use imperfective verbs and in the other one perfective verbs? I thought I had to use perfective ones...


You look differently at the two situations.

In the first one, you wish to describe the situation to the policeman (a very nervous one, but let's pass it..) in order to justify yourself, and so you look into the situation's "inside". You tell what was going on.

In the second situation, you wish to tell the reason for your bad mood. To explain it, you need to look at the situation's "outside", how the situation interacted with other situations, the ones that took place previously and afterwards, that is, you tell what happened, what acted upon your mood.

The word "look" is the key word here; please note, the category is called "aspect" in English and "вид" in Russian, both words may be resaid as [the situation's] "view", or its "look", how one wishes to look at the situation.

Hope this helps


----------



## rusita preciosa

Sonsierey said:


> And why "ходить" in the first example, and then "ходить" and "идти" in the second one?


The difference is in fact very subtle, but I'd say in the case of these two sentences: 

"Я никуда не ходила, никого не видела, ничего не делала" - the focus is on the *process *of walking / seeing / doing. (I wasn't there to do the walking/seeing/doing that whole time)

"Я никуда не пошла / не сходила, ничего не увидела, ничего не сделала" - the focus is the *result* of having walked / seen / done (I didn't go/see/do and that's why now I am saying that I'm lazy).

Please note that in the sentences above perfective/imperfective can be reversed without much difference in the overall meaning.


----------



## 過客

rusita preciosa said:


> Please note that in the sentences above perfective/imperfective can be reversed without much difference in the overall meaning.


Yes, the described situation is absolutely the same in both sentences. But the speaker's attitude is different. I would understand the sentences only in the way *vh16* does.

Ciao


----------



## Sonsierey

OK, thank you all so much. The movie I was talking about is "My big, fat, Greek wedding". At a a certain point there's more or less this dialogue between mother and son:

M: Where have you been?
S: Nowhere.
M: What have you done?
S: Nothing.
M: Who did you meet with?
S: Nobody.

He has just come back home, so he has "done something, gone somewhere, met someone". He just doesn't want to tell his mother. In my example I wrote my attempt as if the character was a girl because I am a girl and it was like I was trying to say those things myself. I don't know if now, with the movie context, the translation should be changed.

Sonsierey


----------



## rusita preciosa

Sonsierey said:


> M: Where have you been?
> S: Nowhere.
> M: What have you done?
> S: Nothing.
> M: Who did you meet with?
> S: Nobody.


I haven't watched the movie in Russian, but if I had to translate that dialogue, I'd use imperfective in all cases (again, the focus is on the *process* or on *how* he spent the evening, not the *result*).


----------



## Sonsierey

"Process" and "result"... Yes, my Russian teachers taught me that, but I keep on forgetting about it! Or better, it's difficult to understand when they are supposed to be used... For example, here I would have said it's a metter of "result". Боже мой, помоги мне! 
Thank you, by the way!


----------



## rusita preciosa

Please note that my "process vs. result" explanation is:
1) applied to your context, it is not a general rule
2) my own feeling as a native speaker (although it seems to coincide with some theory if you heard the same from your teacher)


Sonsierey said:


> Боже мой, помоги мне!


I would say помоги / помогaй in this context is not "process vs. result".
помоги мне = help me once / this time
помогaй мне = help me always / repeatedly (it can also have a very imperative ring to it "help me now! / immediately!")


----------



## Sonsierey

Yes, I studied a lot the theory behind imperfective and perfective and I feel like I understand it, but I can't always use it properly. Practice will make me perfect, I hope.  
Thank you again!


----------



## 過客

Sonsierey said:


> OK, thank you all so much. The movie I was talking about is "My big, fat, Greek wedding". At a a certain point there's more or less this dialogue between mother and son:
> 
> M: Where have you been?
> S: Nowhere.
> M: What have you done?
> S: Nothing.
> M: Who did you meet with?
> S: Nobody.
> 
> He has just come back home, so he has "done something, gone somewhere, met someone". He just doesn't want to tell his mother. In my example I wrote my attempt as if the character was a girl because I am a girl and it was like I was trying to say those things myself. I don't know if now, with the movie context, the translation should be changed.
> 
> Sonsierey


Sonsierey, there's no enough context to answer you. As for me, I read the dialogue as follows:
- Где ты был?
- Нигде.
- Что ты сделал?
- Ничего.
- С кем встречался?
- Мам, ни с кем!

But certainly I'm imagining some context myself (probably the mother thinks the son did something strange, and she interrogates him insistently). Maybe I'm imagining wrong, and, as you can see, rusita preciosa imagined another context (so that she preferred "что ты делал?").


rusita preciosa said:


> The difference is in fact very subtle,  but I would < .... >
> 
> "Я никуда не пошла / не сходила, ничего не увидела, ничего не сделала" - the focus is the *result* of having walked / seen / done (I didn't go/see/do and that's why now I am saying that I'm lazy).


Well, first I wouldn't say the difference is very subtle.  It's not. It may be rather striking. At least, for me, in the example "пошла"/"ходила". 
But yes: this difference is not present neither in Italian, nor in English, so it may be difficult to understand it for them.

Second... 

Overall, I agree with your explanation. My only (little) objection is that I think it's not a good idea to refer to the English perfect tenses (be it Present Perfect or Past Perfect) in order to explain a difference between two Russian phrases that employ two semantically identical verbs with different aspects, perfective and imperfective. There's a very huge difference between the English Present Perfect tense and the Russian perfective aspect: the English tense is employed when one speaks about a global result, about a result that is felt now, and the Russian perfective aspect means there's a local result (or a local precondition, or both) to talk about, and so the perfective aspect combines actions in chains to think of. This difference is well seen because English verbs in Present Perfect are translated in Russian by imperfective verbs just as often as by perfective ones.

So, I would say your phrase as: "... the focus is the result of walking, seeing, doing...".

Cheers


----------



## Sonsierey

過客 said:


> Sonsierey, there's no enough context to answer you. As for me, I read the dialogue as follows:
> - Где ты был?
> - Нигде.
> - Что ты сделал?
> - Ничего.
> - С кем встречался?
> - Мам, ни с кем!
> 
> But certainly I'm imagining some context myself (probably the mother thinks the son did something strange, and she interrogates him insistently). Maybe I'm imagining wrong, and, as you can see, rusita preciosa imagined another context (so that she preferred "что ты делал?").



No, the mother doesn't think he did something strange. She just wants to know where he was, since he wasn't at home and he has just come back. He doesn't want to tell her not because he did something strange, but just because he doesn't want to talk. Don't you ever feel like you don't want to stay there telling your parents everything of your life? I hope this time I'm giving you all the information needed about the context...
Anyway, it would be so much easier if you watched the movie - a very, very nice movie, by the way! ^^

PS: is there anyone who speaks Italian, as well? Since I'm Italian... But, anyway, I studied English for more than 10 years and I've been studying Russian for the past 6 years, so we can continue this way.  (Yes, I know: after 6 years I still don't get imperfective vs. perfective... Sobbing)


----------



## 過客

Sonsierey said:


> No, the mother doesn't think he did something strange. She just wants to know where he was, since he wasn't at home and he has just come back. He doesn't want to tell her not because he did something strange, but just because he doesn't want to talk. Don't you ever feel like you don't want to stay there telling your parents everything of your life? I hope this time I'm giving you all the information needed about the context...


Ah, so I think *rusita* is right...
- Где был, сынок?
- Нигде не был.
- Что делал?
- Ничего не делал.
- С кем ты встречался?
- Ни с кем.


> Anyway, it would be so much easier if you watched the movie - a very, very nice movie, by the way! ^^


I believe you  Alas, we can't watch everything... "For still there are so many things / That I have never seen: / In every wood, in every spring / There is another green." (J.R.R. Tolkien)


BTW (decided to post it): for those who'd like to compare, both the system of aspects (akin to Russian ones) and the system of tenses (close to English ones) are present in Bulgarian, please see here or here. A funny reading.


----------



## Sonsierey

You're definitely right (Tolkien is definitely right)! Well, I really appreciate the help of all you guys. Thank you so much!

Sonsierey


----------

