Talk:нет

"нет" is not a verb or adverb, it is pronoun, predicative, conjunction (in colloquial) and particle.

I'll try to work on this article later. --Jaroslavleff 15:30, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

But нет is a contraction of не + есть, a verb form, and it functions semantically as a negative verb. —Stephen 22:12, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Why do you think so? нет is not не + есть (where did you see this fact?), and it is not semantically a negative verb.

If it is verb, then sentence "Я нет" will be correct, but it is not. Correct: "Меня нет", here "меня" is genitive case of "я". We cannot build sentence where "нет" will be a verb and there will be any noun or pronoun in nominative case, but we can do it with any other verb.

"Меня нет" in English is approximately "There is no me" (incorrect, but nevertheless), where "there is" is omitted in Russian.

Here "нет" is not a verb, but predicative, i.e. part of speech which is not a verb, but acts as a predicate in sentences. I.e. semantically "нет" is a predicate in sentence (and as part of speech it is predicative), but not a verb.

Also, "нет" in first meaning ("no") is not an adverb, but particle.

--Jaroslavleff 06:44, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Он быть "нет" is indicated as negative form of 3rd person present indicative (negative to "есть"). But this is not true.

We can say "человек есть", but we can't say "человек нет" (correct: "человека нет", where "человека" is genitive case of "человек", as we can do with any negative form of other verbs: "человек бежит" - "человек не бежит", "женщина шьёт" - "женщина не шьёт" etc.

So, it is not a negative form of verb "есть".

--Jaroslavleff 07:41, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I remember the etymology of нет very clearly from my university days many years ago. Our Russian textbooks stated that нет is a contraction of не + есть. The contraction took place in Common Slavonic, so that the conjugation of бъіти was thus: {singular} Template:RUchar. Then the conjugation of нє бъіти was thus: {singular} Template:RUchar

When нет is a verb, it is an impersonal verb (like English there is), and therefore it does not admit subject pronouns. The verb нет only allows objects, and the objects are in the genitive: нет пива (there is no beer), не было пива (there was no beer), не будет пива (there will be no beer).

But, yes, нет is absolutely a negative есть, but only as an impersonal verb, which means no nominative subject. Impersonal verbs contain their subject semantically. —Stephen 08:02, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

But all our Russian textbooks indicate that "нет" is not a verb, but a predicative (for usage like "нет пива") (in modern language, of course; I agree that нет was a verb in old-old Russian many many centuries ago). --Jaroslavleff 08:12, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I know that Russian grammar, pronunciation and all features of the language are treated one way by native speakers, and quite another way by foreign students. It’s the same with every language. I remember mentioning to a Spanish friend about the two pronunciations of the letter b (as b and as β), depending on the preceding letter. He swore up and down that b has only ONE pronunciation in Spanish. Native Spanish-speakers do not study Spanish sounds the way foreign students do, and therefore the foreign students understand the elements better at a conscious level. When Americans study Russian, our textbooks affirm that нет is an impersonal verb. Even my old Romanov’s Russian-English dictionary says: "нет (1) (particle) no; нет ещё not yet; (2) (impersonal verb) there is (are) no ... etc.". My Smirnitky’s Russian-English also states that нет is an impersonal verb. —Stephen 08:23, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Ok, I agree. But what we'll do with adverb? And take a look at Talk:это, please. --Jaroslavleff 08:28, 11 June 2006 (UTC)