когда

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Old Church Slavonic

Adverb

когда (kogda)

  1. Alternative form of къгда (kŭgda)

Russian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *koda, from which the following words also were derived: Old Church Slavonic къгда (kŭgda), Bulgarian кога (koga), Polish kiedy, gdy, Serbo-Croatian када / kada, Slovene kdaj, Czech kdy, Lower Sorbian gdy. Originally the word was probably *koda; compare Lithuanian kada (when), Latvian kad, Old Indic and Sanskrit कदा (kadā), Avestan kadā. From *koda came *kъdа, possibly under the influence of *kъdе, kъtо. On the other hand, one may perceive in когда́ (kogdá) the old instrumental singular *godō of the word год (god) (the old meaning of which was “time, period”) with the interrogative particle ко-, making a genitive singular form *kogo goda (which time?). Thus the -гда ending may have derived from the genitive of год (god, period of time).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key):
    Audio:(file)
  • (colloquial, casual, fast speech) IPA(key):  (phonetic respelling: кода́)
  • Rhymes: -a

Adverb

когда́ (kogdá)

  1. when
    Когда́ вы прие́хали?Kogdá vy prijéxali?When did you arrive?

Conjunction

когда́ (kogdá)

  1. when
    Я не зна́ю, когда́ э́то бы́ло.Ja ne znáju, kogdá éto býlo.I don’t know when it was.
    • 1979, Эдуард Лимонов, “Глава первая. Отель «Винслоу» и его обитатели”, in Это я — Эдичка, Альпина Диджитал; English translation from S. L. Campbell, transl., It's Me, Eddie, 1983:
      Он звонит людям, которых он один раз в жизни видел, и просит денег, и очень обижается, когда ему отказывают.
      On zvonit ljudjam, kotoryx on odin raz v žizni videl, i prosit deneg, i očenʹ obižajetsja, kogda jemu otkazyvajut.
      He calls up people he has seen once in his life and asks for money, and is very offended when they refuse him.

Usage notes

  • Both the subordinate clause with the conjunction когда and the main clause can have either an imperfective or a perfective verb. However, the whole context of the respective sentences could be different due to the difference of the aspects.
  • Chiefly in colloquial language, the conjunction когда can be moved to any position in the dependent clause including the final one; this typically occurs in short introductory clauses that recall or specify being in the middle of things of a situation.

Derived terms