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To be or not to be?: Using “быть”, “есть”, and other terms of existence in Russian Posted by Pat Goodridge on Sep 25, 2017
Understanding these verbs is crucial to describing the world in Russian. Most English-speakers find the very “to be” to be a central part of speech. The reason is clear to us natives: The verb is dynamic enough to denote existence, state, and mood. For example, “There is an eclipse happening”, “The door is open”…
Tricky Russian Typography – Part II Posted by Maria on Sep 26, 2016
Last time, we started talking about punctuation that may be tricky to enter for Russians primarily used to handwriting; specifically, we covered direct speech. We are continuing to some other tricky cases. Dash At least in the US, a lot of attention is paid to distinguishing hyphens from n-dashes from m-dashes and the proper use…
Трое в лодке: Collective Numerals in Russian Posted by Maria on Sep 8, 2016
If you look at the Russian translation of Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in A Boat, you may be surprised to read “Трое в лодке, не считая собаки.” Why “трое” and not “три”? In my last post on forms that don’t exist in Russian, I briefly touched upon the category of collective numerals. Since they have…
Other Missing Forms in Russian Posted by Maria on Sep 1, 2016
Last time, were talked about some verb forms that don’t exist in Russian and some ways around these limitations. However, “missing” forms are not limited to verbs. Let us look at three other cases. These examples may not be immediately practical for beginner learners, who are welcome to check out our basic Russian posts. Dream On…
Indo-European Roots of Russian Posted by Maria on Apr 28, 2016
Learners of the more popular Germanic languages — English and German — and the more popular Romance language — French, Spanish, and Italian — may be tempted to think of all Indo-European languages in terms of these high-visibility languages. I’ve once heard someone say “Russian is so different from Indo-European languages.” Some languages of Western…
10 Most Popular Russian Posts of 2015 Posted by Maria on Dec 21, 2015
As we wrap up the year 2015, let us look at the most popular posts from 2015. Some of these were written before 2015 but they continue to remain at the top of the list. 10. Russian Names for Pets Have you ever wondered what name you should give your Russian pet? Look no further than…
Divorce In Russia Posted by Jenya on Oct 21, 2015
Most of the adult population in any country have at least two things in common: marriage and divorce. Though this is not a popular topic, it is nevertheless a significant part of Russian culture. Today we will compare the divorce rates between Russia and the United States. Please keep in mind that this is not…