Archive for 'Grammar'
Russian hocus-pocus Posted by bota on Jun 24, 2022
This title is just one of the combinations I used trying to search for the name of the super-duper fascinating language thing we are about to discuss. Would you like to guess what it is? An itsy-bitsy guess? I cannot give you another clue, but I will say this: googling ‘Russian hanky-panky’ will NOT take…
Some Russian riddles to celebrate spring Posted by ryan on Apr 15, 2022
Spring is finally here. After a long and snowy winter, seeing some цветы́ is a great relief, even if it is still a bit too cold and wet to actually enjoy being outside for a long period of time. However, the sad, gray landscape during this time starts to be dotted by tiny hints of…
The Russian art of spitting Posted by ryan on Feb 18, 2022
As it turns out from Bota’s blog from Tuesday, today is День Пельме́ней in Russia! This dish, of course, is one of my personal favorites, not only to eat, but also to make. But what if you take a bite of a пельме́нь and realize you don’t like it? Or maybe you’re a вегетариа́нец vegetarian…
Racing through prefixes (part II) Posted by ryan on Feb 11, 2022
Why stop where we did? There are still a number of possibilities with гнать. Today I would like to continue the race from last week and demonstrate more prefixes and their meanings within the context of physical motion. So, once again, погна́ли! Прогна́ть/прогоня́ть The prefix про– usually means motion through something. Проходи́ть, for example, means…
Racing through prefixes Posted by ryan on Jan 31, 2022
One of my favorite ways to learn verbs in Russian has always been to sit down, choose a verb, and run through all its possible prefixes, choosing example sentences to really cement the meaning in my mind. I have found this exercise especially useful with verbs of motion, which can have a broad range of…
The joy of grammatical mistakes, or a few of my lightbulb moments Posted by ryan on Jan 25, 2022
Как уст румя́ных без улы́бки, Без граммати́ческой оши́бки Я ру́сской ре́чи не люблю́ These lines, from Alexander Pushkin’s famous novel in verse «Евге́ний Оне́гин» Eugene Onegin, pretty well explain what I would like to cover in today’s post. Much of learning a new language has to do with restructuring your thinking to express ideas using a construction…
Let’s Explore Russian Morphology with Baby Animals Posted by ryan on Jan 14, 2022
With all the craziness going on in the world, I think we need a bit of baby animal therapy to take our mind off things. How about a lesson on Russian morphology to go along with it? Уби́ть двух за́йцев Kill two birds with one stone. (Yes, in Russian, we say “to kill two hares”)…