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Changing Your Ways – Variations of Менять Posted by on Sep 17, 2015 in Uncategorized

 

We have looked at expanding your vocabulary by adding prefixes to verb roots. Now I would like to suggest looking at variations of a very popular verb – меня́ть. This verb means to change (perfective – поменять).

Из-за плохо́го поведе́ния ему́ за во́семь лет пришло́сь меня́ть шко́лу 11 раз. (Because of his poor behavior, he had to change schools 11 times over 8 years.) [Наталья Склярова. Казаки-разбойники (2002) // «Вечерняя Москва», 2002.01.10]

Но менят́ь в своей ко́мнате ему́ ничего́ не хо́чется. (But he doesn’t want to change anything in his room.) [В. Г. Распутин. Новая профессия (1998)]

Another meaning of the verb is to trade, followed by a noun in the the accusative case + на + noun in the accusative.

Наро́д меня́ет до́ллары на е́вро: кого́-то запуга́ли слу́хами о ско́рой кончи́не америка́нской валю́ты, а кто́-то собира́ется в о́тпуск на европе́йский куро́рт. (People are exchanging dollars for euros — some have been scared by rumors of the impending demise of the US currency, and others are planning a vacation at a European resort.) [Ольга Максимова. Справка преткновения. Не всякая бумажка из обменного пункта дает право на вывоз валюты (2002) // «Известия», 2002.08.05]

Synonyms of менять include измени́ть:

Госуда́рство мо́жет измени́ть правово́й ста́тус уче́бных заведе́ний. (The state can change the legal status of educational institution.) [Ирина Мельникова. Школа выживания (2003) // «Итоги», 2003.02.11]

A surprising meaning of изменя́ть/измени́ть is to cheat on your partner. In this sense, изменять is followed by the dative (to cheat on whom) + c + instrumental (with whom).

Осо́бенно не могла́ я в толк взять, как она Андре́ю Болко́нскому собра́лась измени́ть с Анато́лем Кура́гиным. (I had an especially hard time grasping how she was going to cheat on Andrey Bolkonsky with Anatole Kuragin.) [Наши дети: Подростки (2004)]

смени́ть – to replace, swap, take someone’s place

Свобо́дные движе́ния люде́й на портре́тах смени́ла деревя́нная и тупа́я по́за. (Free gestures of portrait sitters were replaced with stilted wooden poses.) [К. Г. Паустовский. Орест Кипренский (1936)]

замени́ть – to replace, supplant

Мой мла́дший сын, так тот про́сто чита́ть не хо́чет, телеви́зор замени́л ему́ кни́ги, что о́чень жаль. (My youngest son does not want to read at all — TV has replaced books for him, which is too bad.) [Алексей Балабанов: «Я снимаю не для вечности» (2002) // «Культура», 2002.04.01]

Незамени́мый is irreplaceable.

I would like to finish this post with a song called “Переме́н” by Viktor Tsoi (Виктор Цой). Переме́н is the genitive plural of переме́на (change).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU8csnZxdPA

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About the Author: Maria

Maria is a Russian-born translator from Western New York. She is excited to share her fascination with all things Russian on this blog. Maria's professional updates are available in English on her website and Twitter and in Russian on Telegram.


Comments:

  1. james:

    God post. I always prefer when you do grammar and word work to culture.

    • Maria:

      @james Thank you, James. We try to have a healthy balance of the two,

  2. Rosalie:

    I very much like this kind of post. It helps me to remember the verbs and to expand my vocabulary.

    Do more of these!!!

    • Maria:

      @Rosalie Thank you, Rosalie.

      We’ll be sure to do more of these then.