Breakdown of Здесь кто-нибудь говорит по-английски?
здесь
here
говорить
to speak, to talk
по-английски
in English
кто-нибудь
anyone / someone (unspecified)
Questions & Answers about Здесь кто-нибудь говорит по-английски?
Why do we use кто-нибудь instead of кто-то in this sentence?
The suffix -нибудь is used when you are asking about any person and you do not know if they exist. In questions where the answer might be nobody, we use кто-нибудь. If you used кто-то, it would imply you already know for a fact that someone in the room speaks English, but you just do not know who.
Why is the verb говорит in the singular form?
In Russian, the pronoun кто (who) and its forms like кто-нибудь (anyone) always take a third-person singular verb, just like he or she. Even if you are addressing a large group of people, you must use the singular говорит.
Why is the word for English по-английски instead of английский?
When you talk about speaking, reading, or understanding a language, Russian uses an adverb. The prefix по- and suffix -и turn the adjective into an adverb, so по-английски essentially means 'in the English way'. You would only use английский when describing a noun, like the English language (английский язык).
Does the word order matter here? Can I put здесь somewhere else?
Russian word order is flexible, so you could definitely say Кто-нибудь здесь говорит по-английски? However, putting здесь (here) at the very beginning is the most natural way to set the scene before introducing the core question.
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