когда
Old Church Slavonic
Russian
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): [kɐɡˈda]
Audio (file)
- (colloquial, casual, fast speech) IPA(key): [kɐˈda] (phonetic respelling: кода́)
- Rhymes: -a
Conjunction
когда́ • (kogdá)
- when
- 1979, Эдуард Лимонов, “Глава первая. Отель «Винслоу» и его обитатели”, in Это я — Эдичка; 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.
Related terms
Derived terms
- когда́-либо (kogdá-libo)
- когда́-нибудь (kogdá-nibudʹ)
- когда́-то (kogdá-to)
- не́когда (nékogda)
- никогда́ (nikogdá)