Archive for April, 2021
Labor Day In Russia Posted by Nadya on Apr 30, 2021
On May 1st, Russia celebrates Spring and Labor Day (День Весны и Труда), which is a public holiday (праздник). The holiday may also be known as May Day (Первое мая) or International Worker’s Day (День международной солидарности трудящихся) in other countries. Over 80 countries celebrate it as well. Despite the fact the holiday has a…
April fun with paronyms Posted by bota on Apr 23, 2021
What better month than April to cover a few words that confuse even native Russian speakers? Ведь не даром говорят, «Непостоя́нен обма́нщик-апре́ль: на дню семь пого́д». (There is a good reason people say that “April-liar is fickle because it changes the weather seven times per day”.) Here are a few trickster paronyms, one pair for…
Ways To Respond To Spasibo Posted by Nadya on Apr 20, 2021
You probably already know how to thank others in Russian. We discussed this topic earlier in this blog. But it’s equally important to know what to answer when someone thanks you. Today we will learn how to respond to words of gratitude. You Are Welcome First of all, I’ll start with the most known expression: Пожа́луйста!…
Family recipe for Kvashennaya Kapusta Posted by bota on Apr 15, 2021
Kvashennaya Kapusta is known as sauerkraut or pickled cabbage in the US and was mentioned on this channel before. Today, I’ll be sharing my family’s recipe for квашенная капуста (kvashennaya kapusta) with you. Ингредиенты (Ingredients) To make six 2-liter jars 3 cabbages (8kg total) – 3 кочана капусты (белокочанная капуста) 2 kg of carrots –…
He Said “Poyekhali!” Posted by Nadya on Apr 12, 2021
Today, Russia celebrates Cosmonautics Day (День Космона́втики), also known as The International Day of Human Space Flight. On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut (Do you want to know why Russians call their astronauts cosmonauts? Read THIS BLOG) Yuri Gagarin made the world’s first orbital flyby of the Earth (Земля́). Exactly twenty years later, the first…
Are conjunctions necessary? Part II Posted by bota on Apr 5, 2021
We’ve talked about Russian sentences without conjunctions before, but we’ve yet to discuss my favorite Russian punctuation sign “тире́” (dash) and its role in these бессою́зных предложе́ниях (sentences without conjunctions). There are six instances where you can use “тире́” (dash; typed as an m-dash sign) in place of a conjunction. I’ll provide examples for each…