Russian Language Blog
Menu
Search

Tag Archives: idioms

What Animal Are You Posted by on Aug 10, 2020

Dog

Humanity closely lives with animals under the same sky. It is no wonder that since ancient times, people have become accustomed to comparing each other to animals, birds, and fish. Such comparisons are made to describe a person’s appearance, traits of character, activity, behavior, or feelings. Animal similes in the Russian language In the Russian…

Continue Reading

4 Russian Sayings With Animals Posted by on May 6, 2019

close-up of a mosquito

Russian has quite a few sayings featuring animals—you can see our previous post on this subject here. This time, I wanted to add four more expressions you can occasionally hear in Russian speech. Кот напла́кал Кот is a male cat (the female form, ко‘шка is more common to talk about a random street cat whose sex…

Continue Reading

Easy Does It: Sayings With Лёгкий Posted by on Dec 1, 2016

alarm clock

Лёгкий means “easy” or “light” (weight-wise). Apart from being a useful word in its own right, лёгкий appears in a number of common sayings. Pronunciation note: don’t worry about trying to enunciate the г. This word is pronounced as if it were spelled “лёхкий.” A useful homonym is лёгкие (lungs, singular лёгкое). Лёгок на помине…

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

Sewing in Russian Posted by on Sep 10, 2015

Perhaps some of our readers like to make their own clothes. If that’s the case, let’s review some of the basic sewing vocabulary to help you talk about your craft in Russian. Although sewing (шитьё, to sew – шить) is in the title of the post, other methods of making clothes include вяза́ть (на спи́цах) and вязать крючко́м…

Continue Reading

Russian Phraseology: The Русская Душа! Posted by on Mar 24, 2008

Already on the 28th of February 1866 a certain Mr. Fyodor Tyutchev [Фёдор Тютчев] realized what a mystery the Russian Soul is to us ‘non-Russians’ and that’s probably what he was thinking of when he wrote these classical lines: «Умом Россию не понять, Аршином общим не измерить, У ней особенная стать, В Россию можно только…

Continue Reading