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Six Quintessentially Russian Concepts – Part II Posted by Maria on Jun 22, 2016
We are continuing from last week’s post on certain Russian expressions and underlying concepts that are specific to Russian reality. Нормально Нормальный as an adjective means “normal,” but it’s used in some unique ways. First, нормально is a common response to “Как дела?” (“How are you?”) Second, нормальный is used to express covert approval of…
Six Quintessentially Russian Concepts – Part I Posted by Maria on Jun 16, 2016
See Part II of this article here. Every so often, an article will pop up online talking about culture-specific or untranslatable words in other languages. In this post, I will not be claiming that the words I discuss are “untranslatable” — yet they are used in Russian in ways that may not be obvious from…
Russian Verbs With Prefixes: Держать Posted by Maria on Jun 13, 2016
Remember that time we covered verbs with prefixes on this blog? Let’s combine various prefixes with the popular verb держать, to hold, to form new words. I can only list several of the many verbs, so feel free to add in the comments! The base verb is держать, which normally means to hold something. Мама держит…
Biblical Phrases in Russian Continued Posted by Maria on Jun 9, 2016
Last time, we looked at some common Russian phrases that have a biblical origin. There was some interest in the topic, so let’s add a few more phrases — this time, let us concentrate on noun phrases. Just as last time, I cannot interpret these phrases theologically, but we can look at how they are used…
Biblical Phrases in Russian Posted by Maria on Jun 7, 2016
Many of the phrases we use in Russian — and in English — actually come from or are inspired by (the corresponding translation of) the Bible. I am not qualified to give a theological interpretation of such phrases. You can follow the links for each phrase to see the larger context in English or in…
Bread and Circuses: Russian Sayings of Latin Origin Posted by Maria on Jun 2, 2016
The influence of Latin on science, philosophy, medicine, and theology cannot be overstated. One part of its legacy consists of popular sayings we use to this day, albeit sometimes in translation. This is true for both English and Russian (and I imagine, many other languages), so in this post we will look at some phrases…
Birds’ Rights And Other Animal Idioms in Russian Posted by Maria on May 30, 2016
There are a few idioms referring to animals in Russian. These idioms are used in colloquial speech and expressive writing to get the idea across vividly. На птичьих правах Права is, of course, “rights” (singular право). Птичий comes from птица, bird, and means “bird’s.” На птичьих правах means “without a lawful status or claim to…