Russian Language Blog
Menu
Search

Tag Archives: colloquial Russian

6 Slang Words for Your Face in Russian Posted by on Oct 24, 2019

woman smiling

It has recently occurred to me that Russian has multiple ways of referring to someone’s face, especially in a critical manner. Learning some common synonyms of лицо́ (litso, face) will help you understand colloquial Russian more easily because they come up a lot in informal speech. This post will use International Phonetic transcriptions for each…

Continue Reading

5 Words You Hear in Informal Russian Conversations Posted by on Jun 14, 2018

two women at a table talking

If you’ve listened to a speaker of Russian in an informal conversation, you know that there are a few words they say over and over again. Some are fillers, meant to give the speaker some time to come up with what to say. Others mark logical connections in a conversation or express the speaker’s attitudes…

Continue Reading

Six Quintessentially Russian Concepts – Part II Posted by on Jun 22, 2016

man lifting weights

We are continuing from last week’s post on certain Russian expressions and underlying concepts that are specific to Russian reality. Нормально Нормальный as an adjective means “normal,” but it’s used in some unique ways. First, нормально is a common response to “Как дела?” (“How are you?”) Second, нормальный is used to express covert approval of…

Continue Reading

Birds’ Rights And Other Animal Idioms in Russian Posted by on May 30, 2016

horse

There are a few idioms referring to animals in Russian. These idioms are used in colloquial speech and expressive writing to get the idea across vividly. На птичьих правах Права is, of course, “rights” (singular право). Птичий comes from птица, bird, and means “bird’s.” На птичьих правах means “without a lawful status or claim to…

Continue Reading