# его нет дома / он не дома



## CycloneBill

Hi ребята!

Between его нет дома, and он не дома, I would like to know which of the two is the correct one, and why in the first one the pronoun takes genitive/accusative form instead of nominative.

I'm still learning and I can't really understand the difference.

Спасибо большое всем вам!


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## Nickle Sydney

Hello.

Both are correct and mean the same thing.
I'd say "его нет дома".

I'm not goot at linguistics, that's why I've not answered your second question. I'm sorry for that.


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## CycloneBill

Hey, thanks! 

And is there any reason that makes you choose его нет дома instead of он? Or is it just because you've always said/ heard it that way?

Sorry for so much questions lol.


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## ahvalj

There is a subltle difference: _его нет дома_ considers the situation from the point of view of the house, i. e. the *house* is without him; in contrast, _он не дома_ considers his location: *he* is not home but somewhere else.

The Genitive is mandatory with the negated form of _to be_: this is an areal feature of languages of the north-east of Europe (Slavic, Baltic and Baltic-Finnic, the latter use a special case, Partitive).

_Ребята_ in Russian sounds much more colloquial than in many other languages: one should avoid this way of addressing to unfamiliar people of unknown ages.


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## Nickle Sydney

I don't see any difference. 

- Давай пойдем к Паше.
- Не, его нет дома / (Не, он не дома).

I didn't make it up. It's a real conversation that happened 5 minutes ago.


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## ahvalj

Boris Tatarenko said:


> I don't see any difference.
> 
> - Давай пойдем к Паше.
> - Не, его нет дома / (Не, он не дома).
> 
> I didn't make it up. It's a real conversation that happened 5 minutes ago.


I agree, but this is a casual talk when people do not choose words carefully. Yet, even here we may interpret both variants as emphasizing slightly different things.


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## henrylee100

The pronoun in the first one is in the genitive case because it's in the negative, and it's the pattern where you say 
у меня есть машина - > у меня нет машинЫ
В Москве есть хипстеры -> в Москве нет хипстерОВ
он дома -> его нет дома (In this last one есть is implied but always omitted in speech and in writing for that matter)
I honestly don't know why the case changes in the negative but that's how this pattern works in Russain.

его нет дома - is the standard idiomatic form that you would use if you wanted to say that he's not home.

он не дома - this one is normally used when you want to imply he is somewhere else and you may know where he is. 

I would say that the first expression is more of a simple statement of fact - he's not home. 
The second one is more like saying he's elsewhere.

Both are correct. I personally would say that the first one, the one with the genetive, may be a bit more common than the second.


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## CycloneBill

ahvalj said:


> _ Ребята_ in Russian sounds much more  colloquial than in many other languages: one should avoid this way of  addressing to unfamiliar people of unknown ages.



Sorry about that, I thought it could be said to pretty much any group of people. Thanks for the advise.

And thanks a bunch, everybody. All the explanations were clear and I understand it perfectly now   .


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## henrylee100

Also, regarding ребята - I would say it sounds a bit outdated. You might hear an older person, like a school teacher, addressing a bunch of kids in this way. When I hear this word it makes me think of the old soviet movies for/about children from the 1960s and the 1970s. Hardly anyone uses this form of address in Russia these days.


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## Словеса

It is not outdated at all, it is only colloquial. And yes, it is rather mild; some may find mildness of address out of fashion, but not all.


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## Hyperpolyglot

CycloneBill said:


> Hi ребята!
> 
> Between его нет дома, and он не дома, I would like to know which of the two is the correct one, and why in the first one the pronoun takes genitive/accusative form instead of nominative.
> 
> I'm still learning and I can't really understand the difference.
> 
> Спасибо большое всем вам!



I thought ребята is a less common form of noun referring to children, I am sure you are not saying "Hi children" to users here so could ребята also mean friend?


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## marco_2

henrylee100 said:


> Also, regarding ребята - I would say it sounds a bit outdated. You might hear an older person, like a school teacher, addressing a bunch of kids in this way. When I hear this word it makes me think of the old soviet movies for/about children from the 1960s and the 1970s. Hardly anyone uses this form of address in Russia these days.



So I got really surprised - how do you address a group of friends now instead of e.g. Пошли, ребята etc.?


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## ahvalj

marco_2 said:


> So I got really surprised - how do you address a group of friends now instead of e.g. Пошли, ребята etc.?


I heard _«пошли, ребята»_ a couple of weeks ago, used by teenagers.


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## Titov222

It's absolutely the same



CycloneBill said:


> Hi ребята!
> 
> Between его нет дома, and он не дома, I would like to know which of the two is the correct one, and why in the first one the pronoun takes genitive/accusative form instead of nominative.
> 
> I'm still learning and I can't really understand the difference.
> 
> Спасибо большое всем вам!


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## Enquiring Mind

It's true that you can translate его нет дома and он не дома in the same way - he's not at home. However, they are not necessarily interchangeable in Russian, because of the difference ahvalj pointed out in post 4.


> There is a subtle difference: _его нет дома_ considers the situation from the point of view of the house, i. e. the *house* is without him; in contrast, _он не дома_ considers his location: *he* is not home but somewhere else.



Take this context, for example: "Эд проснулся (...) Не открывая глаз, он начал обследовать место, в котором нашел себя. Мягкое, нежное на ощупь белье — постель. Нет, дома она другая. Черт, он не дома! Не дома!!! Спокойно. Хорошо, он не дома. Он у кого-то в гостях." (source: Адвокат загробного мира, Иван Иванов)

Его нет дома wouldn't make sense here.


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## marco_2

ahvalj said:


> I heard _«пошли, ребята»_ a couple of weeks ago, used by teenagers.



Я вздохнул с облегчением.


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