Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Things That Get Called Russian – Part 2 Posted by Nadya on Jul 23, 2021
We continue to discuss what people around the world call Russian, except the Russians themselves. Black Russian – Чёрный русский Black Russian is a classic cocktail (коктейль) based on vodka and coffee liqueur. It was created in 1949 by Gustave Tops, a Belgian bartender (бармен). The cocktail recipe is simple: for five parts of vodka…
Things That Get Called Russian – Part 1 Posted by Nadya on Jul 20, 2021
There are some things that are called Russian in the world. But not in Russia. In today’s blog, I will tell you about what is called Russian and why. Nevertheless, not all Russians know it. Russian Mountains – Русские горки The interesting fact is that the oldest roller coasters were called “Russian Mountains.“And they really…
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…
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…
Death in Russian, continued Posted by bota on Jun 14, 2021
Remember this blog where I mentioned the Russian tradition of bringing an even number of flowers to the funeral? We will talk about that and other traditions surrounding Russian funerals as well as vocabulary that relates to death in general. Flowers So, the even number of flowers comes from old-time beliefs that even numbers symbolize…
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…