Russian Language Blog

What if I told you there was a single word in Russian to help one convey that just because something is labeled X doesn’t mean that all things X are like the first thing X? The word in question is рознь and here’s how it works. You take a Russian noun, put it in the…

– Honey, you have been with me all through the bad times: when I was fired, my business failed, when we lost our home. When I was hospitalized, you also were there to support me. You know what?                                   …

We continue our quest of making sense of sentence structure in Russian. While Part I covered the basics of the subject and verb placement, this blog focuses on the smaller but equally important parts of the sentence. It may seem a bit more obvious where to place a word if it’s a verb or a…

There are people who will say, „I’m going to Russia,“ while they are already inside Russia. Wait… What? A city that is “cut off” from the country The Kaliningrad region or Kaliningrad Oblast'(Калинингра́дская о́бласть) is a semi-exclave of Russia, not bordering (не грани́чащий) on any of its other regions. When Lithuania (Литва́) and Belarus (Белару́сь)…

“Do or do not. There is no try.” While Yoda’s OSV (object-subject-verb) word order may seem a bit unusual, the Russian translation of the quote doesn’t sound all that strange or other-worldly, all because the Russian sentence structure is flexible. So, please do try, because learning about the nuances of word order variations in Russian…

There are many formal and informal ways to greet people in Russian. Depending on who you are talking to, you can choose the form that best suits your situation. Let’s take a look at the most popular variations. The most common greetings The most commonly used greetings in Russian are “здра́вствуйте” and “приве́т“. Здра́вствуйте! [zdrа́stvooyte] (plural)…

“Зо́лушка” (“Cinderella”), “Ска́зка” (“Fairy Tale”), “Одува́нчик” (“Dandelion”), “Улы́бка” (“Smile”), “Слонёнок” (“Baby Elephant”). At first, these might seem like random words strung together, but in Russia, if they are preceded by “Де́тский Сад” (“kindergarten”) these names evoke some of the sweetest, most carefree days of one’s childhood. And what’s there not to love about kindergarten days?…