Archive for 'language'
Two very neat Russian words Posted by bota on Jul 15, 2021
*All images from Google Translate are by author This blog is simple. I have two Russian words that I find very neat and a little underappreciated. We will talk about what they mean, how they are used, and attempt to make sense of their English translations. And if you are a native Russian speaker or…
Russian idioms with ‘как’ Posted by bota on Jul 7, 2021
What Russian word connects geese, archaic measuring units, and a 14th century military commander of the Golden Horde? The answer is “как” and today we will cover just a few commonly used Russian idioms with this word. And while ‘как’ can mean a number of different things in Russian (and is one of the 100…
Numbers Up To A Million In Russian Posted by Nadya on Jun 25, 2021
Over the past few days, I have several times come across a funny post on a social network about numbers in Russian. This gave me the idea to write today’s blog. 0-10 As Russian teachers say, there are exceptions to every rule. If you are not familiar with Russian numerals yet, be sure to read…
Russian euphemisms about death Posted by bota on Jun 22, 2021
A lot of фразеологизмы (idioms) about ‘death’ in Russian rely on verbs of motion that depict a person leaving this life and world. The 5 euphemisms below all mean ‘to die’ but I will write the literal translation in parenthesis to make them easier to remember. My goal, though, is to not just help you…
Russian Summer Sayings Posted by Nadya on May 28, 2021
We have already talked about Russian spring proverbs, winter expressions, and fall vocabulary. And, of course, today’s blog will be about summer sayings. Today, you can quickly check the weather forecast in seconds. To do this, you just need the Internet. But for millennia, people have followed the changes in nature and its phenomena. The…
Three Easily Confused Russian Verbs Posted by Nadya on May 24, 2021
In Russian, there are three verbs that have the same English translation – “to try.” Despite this, they have a slightly different meaning. These verbs are “про́бовать“, “пыта́ться,” and “стара́ться.” It is very easy to confuse them. If you want to sound more Russian, read below about their differences. Пробовать Meaning: “to try to do…
How do you say ‘to die’ in Russian? Posted by bota on May 19, 2021
Many Russians devoted May 11th this year to visiting the graves of their loved ones. Known as Роди́тельский день и́ли Радо́ница (Roditel’skiy Den’ or Radonista), this day is directly related to Orthodox Easter and you can read more about the gist of it in Yelena’s old blog here. For a more detailed account on this tradition…