Tag Archives: Russian grammar
Same-Same but Different IV: Paronyms Posted by yelena on Nov 17, 2010
Quick grammar check: what’s the right way of saying this – “Девушки одели платья в горошек” or “Девушки надели платья в горошек”? If you’re not sure, then read on. Sometimes I set out to write a post about one thing, but life gets in the way and I end up writing about something totally different…
Reading “Мастер и Маргарита”: Chapter 17 Posted by yelena on Nov 5, 2010
Did you enjoy reading Chapter 17 of Bulgakov’s “Master and Margarita”? «Лично» [personally], I love all of it, from the sniffing dog «Тузбубен» whose «кличка» [name] literally means Ace of Diamonds to the empty suit, «ведущий дела» [conducting business] to the hapless and unwilling «хор» [choir]. But what I love even more is the…
Есть такое слово! [There is a Word Like This!] Posted by yelena on Oct 18, 2010
I’ve been watching a lot of «русские мультфильмы» [Russian cartoons] lately. I justify it as education, not as entertainment. Seriously, cartoons can provide fantastic insights into the real everyday speech. The golden nuggets of linguistic wisdom – phrases, idioms, words – that can be found in many cartoons usually appear in «повседневная речь» [everyday speech]…
Russian Fairy Tales from A to Z – Part 2 Posted by yelena on Sep 24, 2010
«У Лукоморья дуб зелёный…» – do you know the rest by heart yet? One of the most famous lines from Alexandr Pushkin’s opening to “Ruslan and Lyudmila” does not translate very well into English. “There grows a green oak in Lookomorie…” somehow doesn’t sound nearly as magical, don’t you think? Yes, I’m back with…
Fear not, it’s only Participles! Or: Ryan’s Guest Post Posted by josefina on Sep 21, 2010
It is truly an honor for me – your ‘wonderful hostess’ (I do love compliments like that!) – to introduce this month’s guest blogger: Ryan Perkins! Ryan is a student starting his third year of college level Russian at University of Oregon. He got into Russian in high school when his choir was practicing the…
Enter the Wondrous World of «Синтаксис» [Syntax] Posted by josefina on Sep 15, 2010
Almost a long time ago now, we had a post called Russian Grammar – «по-русски!» [in Russian!]. It explored what different «части речи» [parts of speech] are called in Russian and also tried to explain «почему?» [why?] a verb is called «глагол», a noun «существительное» and an adverb «наречие». Today I’m not asking you to…
Hooray, There are No Articles in Russian! Posted by yelena on Sep 10, 2010
There is a good Russian saying «чем дальше в лес, тем больше дров» [lit: the further one gets into the forest, the more firewood there is] that means the further in, the more complicated things get. Russians have lots of modern-day endings to this saying – funny, silly, and yes, some are rude. I’ll…