Language/Russian/Grammar/To-and-же-particles-in-Russian

If you have learned Russian for a while, you have surely encountered the particles "-to" and "же". Today, we will examine them in more detail and explain their role in the sentence.

Particle -To

The particle -to is used to emphasize the word to which it is attached (except if it is a part of indefinite pronouns like кто-то, какой-то, that we will discuss in the following lesson; do not confuse it also with demonstrative pronoun то).

Let's look at some examples and compare the meaning of the phrase with and without the particle. Keep in mind that, since there are no analogues of -o, the translations for the examples with it are quite approximate and serve mainly to demonstrate the accent.

Я всё помню, это ты забываешь.

I remember everything, it's you who forgets.

Я-то всё помню, это ты забываешь.

~ I remember everything, you forget it.

Погода какая дождливая последнее время.

The weather is so rainy lately.

Погода-то какая дождливая последнее время.

~ What weather lately, so rainy!

Погода какая дождливая последнее-то время.

~ Lately, the weather is so rainy.

Как мы теперь домой попадём?

How are we going home now?

Как мы-то теперь домой попадём?

~ And us? How are we going home now?

Do you have any questions about this product?

~ And going home, how are we doing now?

The particle жe

In many cases, the particle жe does not focus on the word, but on the whole sentence, its place in the sentence does not depend on any word and can be changed without affecting the meaning. The examples below demonstrate this:

Мы же так и не позвонили родителям!

Мы так и не позвонили родителям же!

Oh, we never called our parents!

Я же не знаю, как это делать! Я не знаю же, как это делать!

But I do not know how to do it!

Куда без шапки? Ты же уши отморозишь!

Куда без шапки? Ты уши же отморозишь!

Куда без шапки? Ты уши отморозишь же!

Where are you going without a hat? Your ears will freeze!

But there are situations where жe is used for other purposes. In these cases, you can not change the positions of жe in the sentence without affecting the meaning. Let's take a look at these:

Comparison

Ух ты, эта рыба такого же размера, как наш сын!

O-there, this fish is the same size as our son!

In a comparison like "the same as", the particle always goes after "такого": такого же цвета, такой же высоты, такой же глубины.

Opposition

Я не люблю кофе, мой муж же, напротив, пьёт его каждый день.

I do not like coffee, but my husband drinks it every day.

The particle is behind the word that serves as opposition - the husband.

Emergency

Я сделаю это сегодня же.

I will do it today.

It's going after the time indicator - today. For comparison, let's change position:

Я же сделаю это сегодня.

Я сделаю же это сегодня.

I will do it today.

In this configuration, the sentence takes the intonation of a reminder: we already agreed that I would do it today, but you seem to forget it, so I remind you.

Identification

Вчера случилось то же самое.

Yesterday the same thing happened.

Identify the demonstrative pronoun то by adding a meaning of "the same thing".

We can have the same meaning for the previous example by placing же after the demonstrative pronoun это:

Я сделаю это же сегодня.

I will do the same today.

Using both

To add the most intonation to your sentences, you can use -to and же in one sentence. Let's compare:

Да что ты делаешь?

What are you doing?

Да что же ты делаешь-то!

~ My god! What do you do?

Here is this lesson. As you can see, the use of particle же is not as easy to use as -to, but the good control of these particles and their correct intonation will make you a star of the language in the eyes of your Russian friends. 🙂

To you, study the examples, listen to the audios, ask your questions in the comment section and do not hesitate to tell us if this lesson was useful.