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Pretty in Prefix Posted by on Aug 23, 2021

a door left open

Should I write пре or при? Whether you are a beginner Russian learner or a native speaker, dealing with these two prefixes is a handful. Actually, dealing with all the prefixes in Russian can be overwhelming without some of them sounding almost exactly the same. Is it приле́чь or прелечь на дива́н (to lie down…

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Oaks, fins, and hooves Posted by on Aug 16, 2021

some daisies

No, this is not a Russian bar or a metal band name, though last I checked it’s up for grabs. We are talking about more простонаро́дные фразеологи́змы о сме́рти (more informal idioms about death). So, today’s blog is an add-on to the one about death euphemisms and to the one about verbs that mean “to…

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Russian Inventions You Know-2 Posted by on Aug 11, 2021

Periodic Table

This time I would like to continue the list of the valued inventions of Russians. Previously, I told you about famous engineers and physicists. In fact, Russians have made tremendous contributions to inventions. If you open the history of the space (космическая), aviation (авиационная), or military (военная) industry (индустрия), you will find many Russian names…

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The curious case(s) of shashlik Posted by on Aug 4, 2021

shashlik

*All images are by author Шашлы́к и падежи́ (shashlik and cases) are quintessentially Russian things and a lot has been said about each one but always separately. What do you say if we take the best of both worlds and revise Russian cases while talking about the most perfect summer dish? That’s right, I want…

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Russian Inventions You Know Posted by on Jul 30, 2021

Parachute

Today I want to talk about one of the extremely important and debatable topics about Russia – the achievements of its citizens in innovations that have changed the modern world.   Brain Drain – Утечка мозгов On the one hand, Russia has long been known for its scientists (учёные), researchers (исследователи), and inventors (изобретатели). On the…

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Patience à la russe Posted by on Jul 27, 2021

a kid getting a band aid

Patience is a virtue and also a fascinating word in Russian: терпе́ние. Let’s look at how to use that word and its derivatives in a sentence. Towards the end we will talk about translating the imperative “потерпи́” and a few idiomatic expressions with “терпе́ние”. Терпе́ние — patience It means «выноси́ть страда́ние» (endure suffering) but used…

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Things That Get Called Russian – Part 2 Posted by on Jul 23, 2021

Girl

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…

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