Archive for 'language'
5 Verbs of Cause and Effect in Russian Posted by Maria on Apr 12, 2018
When you are trying to make an argument, it is important to talk about what caused a certain state of affairs. This post will list five ways to express cause and effect in Russian. All verbs will be given in pairs of imperfective/perfective. Приводить/привести Вести (“to lead/take someone somewhere”) is one of the verbs of…
5 Ways To Describe Rudeness In Russian Posted by Maria on Apr 5, 2018
Is someone showing a lack of consideration for other people’s feelings or needs? Learn 5 ways of describing rude behavio(u)r in Russian, depending on what the person is doing and whether they are aware of how they affect others. To vary the conventions of Russian lexicography, I will be listing the feminine forms for the…
5 Ways To Say “Because” in Russian Posted by Maria on Mar 21, 2018
Linking words are one of the things that help you express your thoughts coherently in a new language. This post will look at some of the common conjunctions (союзы) that express causality in Russian. Потому что This may be the best known transition word in Russian. Потому что is a neutral way of saying because…
5 Verbs To Talk About Scams And Deception in Russian Posted by Maria on Mar 15, 2018
Have you ever been cheated or scammed? Would you know how to talk about it in Russian? Below are five common ways of talking about being the victim of deceit. 1. Обмануть The most neutral term for deceiving someone is обмануть (imperf. обманывать). The related action is called обман (deception), and the person doing the…
3 Kinds of Negation in Russian Posted by Maria on Mar 7, 2018
Are you tempted to use the infamous “nyet” in front of any word to make your sentences negative? Do you get confused between не, ни, and нет? Then read on to learn some common uses of these words. 1. Нет Negation of the Entire Sentence This is probably the most famous and the easiest of…
Before and After: Prepositions of Time in Russian Posted by Maria on Feb 22, 2018
We’ve looked at conjunctions that let you express temporal relationships in a sentence. Now let us look at some prepositions you can use to indicate when something happened. Previous events До + genitive case До is used before a noun or a pronoun to refer to the time before something else happens. Рефера́т на́до сдать…
Beyond Хорошо: 5 Ways of Saying “Good” In Russian Posted by Maria on Jan 29, 2018
Do you still answer “хорошо” when someone asks you how you are doing or how you liked that film? Here are some words to help you express positivity with more nuance. Note on grammar: different phrases will require different forms of the word. For example, when someone asks you “Как дела?” (“How are you?”) you…