Verb of the Week: посвящать/посвятить Posted by Natalie on Aug 17, 2012
Всем привет! [Hello all!] It’s been a while since we have done a verb of the week, so I thought it would be a good idea to write a post about yet another wonderful Russian verb (because there’s nothing like a little Russian grammar to spice up your Friday, right?). I opened my verb book…
Beyond «рука» and «нога»: Words for (outside) body parts Posted by Rob on Aug 15, 2012
When you first begin studying Russian, one of the things they tell you is that рука can be translated as either “hand” or “arm” — and similarly, нога can mean either “foot” or “leg.” Well, that’s pretty darn convenient for the beginning student, with fewer new words to memorize! But wait — what if you…
Filler Is Like Filler Does Posted by yelena on Aug 14, 2012
It occurred to me the other day that one of the (many) subjects we haven’t discussed on the Russian blog is the subject of fillers. Somehow we have been, like, totally overlooking the lorem ipsum of Russian language and it’s basically time to, you know, just do it. Here’s the first thing you need to…
I Am In It to Win It Posted by yelena on Aug 9, 2012
The Olympic Games are not over yet. There are still a few medals to win. Yesterday was a particularly good day for российские атлеты (Russian athletes) who won четыре медали (four medals). So let’s talk about why спортсмены со всего мира (athletes from around the world) train so hard; let’s talk about the two…
Hang on, I want to weigh in on something… Posted by Rob on Aug 8, 2012
In her excellent Friday post about telephone-related expressions, Natalie mentioned the verb вешать — which is literally “to hang,” and in the context of telephones can mean “to end the phone call by hanging up.” So I wanted to take a closer look at вешать, along with some other verbs (and a few nouns) that…
7 Minutes of Terror Posted by yelena on Aug 7, 2012
As I’m writing this, I’m basically засыпаю на ходу (falling asleep; lit: falling asleep while walking) so, прошу прощения за возможные опечатки (pardon me for possible typos). I stayed up very late last night (ok, now that you’re reading it, it was 2 night ago) watching… не Олимпийские игры (not the Olympic Games), but the…
Лгун (“The Liar”) — a VERY short fairy tale! Posted by Rob on Aug 6, 2012
I’ve mentioned before that I’m captivated by сказки (fairytales). So, let’s start out this week with a “short and sweet” example of Armenian origin. I chose this one not only because it’s so short, but also because it features an unexpected twist. The plot involves a poor person outwitting a rich and powerful person, which…