Archive for 'Russian for beginners'
Reading “Мастер и Маргарита”: Chapter 17 Posted by yelena on Nov 5, 2010
Did you enjoy reading Chapter 17 of Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita”? «Лично» [personally], I love all of it, from the sniffing dog «Тузбубен» whose «кличка» [name] literally means Ace of Diamonds to the empty suit, «ведущий дела» [conducting business] to the hapless and unwilling «хор» [choir]. But what I love even more is the…
Есть такое слово! [There is a Word Like This!] Posted by yelena on Oct 18, 2010
I’ve been watching a lot of «русские мультфильмы» [Russian cartoons] lately. I justify it as education, not as entertainment. Seriously, cartoons can provide fantastic insights into the real everyday speech. The golden nuggets of linguistic wisdom – phrases, idioms, words – that can be found in many cartoons usually appear in «повседневная речь» [everyday speech]…
How to Procrastinate in Russian Posted by yelena on Oct 8, 2010
We all procrastinate from time to time. Some (and I’m pointing a finger at myself right now) do it more than others. If you love Russian and happen to procrastinate even ocassionally, then why not do it in Russian? That’s what total immersion is all about, isn’t it? But let me not delay this post…
Fear not, it’s only Participles! Or: Ryan’s Guest Post Posted by josefina on Sep 21, 2010
It is truly an honor for me – your ‘wonderful hostess’ (I do love compliments like that!) – to introduce this month’s guest blogger: Ryan Perkins! Ryan is a student starting his third year of college level Russian at University of Oregon. He got into Russian in high school when his choir was practicing the…
Enter the Wondrous World of «Синтаксис» [Syntax] Posted by josefina on Sep 15, 2010
Almost a long time ago now, we had a post called Russian Grammar – «по-русски!» [in Russian!]. It explored what different «части речи» [parts of speech] are called in Russian and also tried to explain «почему?» [why?] a verb is called «глагол», a noun «существительное» and an adverb «наречие». Today I’m not asking you to…
Hooray, There are No Articles in Russian! Posted by yelena on Sep 10, 2010
There is a good Russian saying «чем дальше в лес, тем больше дров» [lit: the further one gets into the forest, the more firewood there is] that means the further in, the more complicated things get. Russians have lots of modern-day endings to this saying – funny, silly, and yes, some are rude. I’ll…
Same-Same but Different III: Homographs Posted by josefina on Sep 1, 2010
Can it really be true that we’ve saved the best for our final, third, part of “Same-Same but Different”? After two posts – one on «омонимы» [homonyms] and another about «омофоны» [homophones] – we made it all the way to the truly troubling and trickiest of them all: «омографы» [homographs]. Here and now is when…