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Top Business Concepts in Russian Posted by Maria on May 19, 2016
We have covered some business phrases on this blog before. This time, let’s concentrate on key business concepts and learn to talk about them in Russian. Property First of all, we need to talk about property (собственность). Private property (частная собственность) is thought to be an important condition for entrepreneurship (предпринимательство). Property may include недвижимое имущество (or…
Ten Must-Know Introductory Phrases in Russian — Part II Posted by Maria on May 9, 2016
We are continuing from last week’s post about introductory phrases in Russian. These phrases help you bring ideas together in your writing and speaking. Make sure you read the first part for the first five phrases. 6. Кро́ме того́ Кроме того introduces additional information, akin to “besides.” Эта маши́на сли́шком дорога́я. Кроме того́, нам не́где ее…
Ten Must-Know Introductory Phrases in Russian — Part I Posted by Maria on May 5, 2016
Please see Part II here. A comment to a recent post asked me to cover some introductory phrases in Russian. These small words are ubiquitous, especially in argumentative writing like news articles, and they link the ideas in a text to help the reader follow the writer’s logic. In most cases, introductory words (вво́дные слова́)…
One After Another: Past Temporal Clauses in Russian Posted by Maria on May 2, 2016
In this post, we will look at the ways you can introduce temporal clauses in Russian. We will concentrate on past verb forms. Translations are used to illustrate the meaning of the Russian phrases and may not reflect your local dialect of English. Previous Events If we want to describe one action that happened before…
Indo-European Roots of Russian Posted by Maria on Apr 28, 2016
Learners of the more popular Germanic languages — English and German — and the more popular Romance language — French, Spanish, and Italian — may be tempted to think of all Indo-European languages in terms of these high-visibility languages. I’ve once heard someone say “Russian is so different from Indo-European languages.” Some languages of Western…
Show Me The Money: Slang Expressions for Cash in Russian Posted by Maria on Apr 21, 2016
As you imagine, money is as popular a subject in Russian as it is in other languages. Apart from the neutral word де́ньги, there are multiple slang ways of referring to your hard-earned cash. There are many slang words for money in English and other languages, too; each country will have its variations, to boot…
What Panama Hat? Headwear in Russian Posted by Maria on Apr 14, 2016
Many of you have heard about the recent “Panama Papers” (#panamapapers) scandal, where several celebrities, state officials, and business owners were revealed to have had assets in offshore companies. One of Vladimir Putin’s friends also featured in the leak, prompting satirical posters depicting the Russian president wearing a Panama hat and asking “Кака́я Пана́ма?” (“What Panama…