Archive for 'language'
Another Russian Eternal Question: Soul [«одушевлённый»] or No Soul [«неодушевлённый»]? Posted by josefina on Jul 15, 2009
Pictured above is «Марфа» [Marfa], a handmade «кукла» [doll] given to me by my very talented and close friend in Tomsk in May earlier this year. Even though I would argue – being as it is that I’m an adult nowadays – that Marfa in her capacity as doll is «неодушевлённое существительное» [‘without soul’; an…
Russian Cases: «Винительный падеж» [Accusative] (part I) Posted by josefina on Jul 13, 2009
Today’s case – «винительный падеж» [accusative] – is used in the sentence above «Добро пожаловать в музей!» [‘Welcome to the museum!’] as an answer to the question: «куда?» [where?]. Today’s post will be an easy, breezy post – and thus a perfect post to read on lazy summer days like these in the middle of…
Russian Summer Reading part I: «Портрет» Н. В. Гоголя Posted by josefina on Jun 30, 2009
When opening this brand new 21st century edition of this 19th century «повесть» [story; tale; ‘novella’] «Портрет» [“The Portrait”] you find the following information on the first page: «издаётся к 200-летию со дня рождения Николая Васильевича Гоголя» [is published for the 200th year anniversary of Nikolai Vasil’evich Gogol’s birth]. What else is special about this…
Russian Cases: «Дательный падеж» [Dative] Posted by josefina on Jun 21, 2009
And where might one find this bold statement made out of red metal on red wood pictured above? I found it in an old and forgotten «дом культуры» [‘house of culture’] in Krasnoyarsk in July 2005. What does it say, anyway? «Мир народам, власть советам» [“Peace to the peoples, power to the soviets”] written in old…
Celebrating Russia, or ‘aspects’ of the 12th of June Posted by josefina on Jun 11, 2009
The pictures are back! «Замечательно!» Now the blog will be complete again! «Как хорошо!» And what better a tribute to Russia’s uniqueness – which we are about to celebrate tomorrow on the 12th of June – than pictures taken from the last wagon on a train while traveling through Siberia? The choice made for the…
Деньги, деньги, деньги! [Money, money, money!] Posted by josefina on Jun 3, 2009
There are many words in Russian which are easy to learn and remember because they are very close in both orthography and pronunciation to many words in other Indo-European languages. For example, the word «кризис» means ‘crisis’, and is spelled – even pronounced! – almost the same as the English word: just remember it begins…
Examples of Strange Russian Expressions Posted by josefina on May 31, 2009
Sometimes Russians may say something that sounds so strange that you cannot – even though you know the meaning of all the words in the sentence they just uttered – for the life of you understand what they mean. An example is the famous expression «да нет» [‘yes no’] which I up until a couple…