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…
Russian idioms with ‘как’ Posted by bota on Jul 7, 2021
What Russian word connects geese, archaic measuring units, and a 14th century military commander of the Golden Horde? The answer is “как” and today we will cover just a few commonly used Russian idioms with this word. And while ‘как’ can mean a number of different things in Russian (and is one of the 100…
New Restrictions In Moscow Posted by Nadya on Jun 30, 2021
“The situation with the coronavirus in Moscow (Москва́) remains extremely difficult,” Mayor of Moscow (Мэр Москвы́) Sergei Sobyanin told reporters. He also mentioned that the city set new records for hospitalization and intensive care patients over the past week. Moscow and St. Petersburg (Санкт-Петербу́рг) recorded the largest number of cases compared to any region of Russia…
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…