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Tag Archives: russian slang

5 Verbs To Talk About Scams And Deception in Russian Posted by on Mar 15, 2018

deck of cards

Have you ever been cheated or scammed? Would you know how to talk about it in Russian? Below are five common ways of talking about being the victim of deceit. 1. Обмануть The most neutral term for deceiving someone is обмануть (imperf. обманывать). The related action is called обман (deception), and the person doing the…

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5 Russian Words That Come From Yiddish Posted by on Dec 7, 2017

man laughing

We may be familiar with Yiddish words in English, such as chutzpah or bagel, but Russian has its share of Yiddish-origin words. Yiddish (идиш) is a Germanic language traditionally used by Jews (евреи) in Eastern and Central Europe. Many of them are thought to have entered Russian via the secret language of the criminal underworld…

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Five Confusing Phrases of English Origin in Russian Posted by on Jun 29, 2016

sausages and bread on a plate

We know that English influences many languages, including Russian. Numerous words from the domains of science, technology, commerce, and entertainment are borrowed from English. At the same time, some Russian words have English origins but are used in ways unheard of in English. We already covered business words of English origin whose meaning is different…

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Show Me The Money: Slang Expressions for Cash in Russian Posted by on Apr 21, 2016

dollar bills

As you imagine, money is as popular a subject in Russian as it is in other languages. Apart from the neutral word де́ньги, there are multiple slang ways of referring to your hard-earned cash. There are many slang words for money in English and other languages, too; each country will have its variations, to boot…

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10 Ways To Say You Don’t Care In Russian – Part II Posted by on Jan 18, 2016

Last week, we looked at some colloquial ways of saying you don’t care about something. We listed five, but that’s not all! Let us continue the list. 6. до ла́мпочки Лампа is the diminutive of ла́мпа (lamp) and usually means “light bulb.” [Noun/pronoun in dative] + до ла́мпочки is yet another synonym of “I…

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10 Ways To Say You Don’t Care In Russian – Part I Posted by on Jan 14, 2016

Read Part II here. Russian has many ways to say you don’t care about something. They range from neutral to decidedly low-register to downright vulgar. In this post, I would like to cover some colloquial ways of expressing indifference. Let’s start with the basics. Normally, we say “[adjective/noun in the dative case] + всё равно́”…

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Ways to Be Frustrated in Russian Posted by on Mar 30, 2015

steamy teapot

You might have thought from the title that this post is a continuation of our pet peeves discussion. However, I would actually like to talk about the ways annoying behavio(u)r is described in colloquial Russian. Most of these words have a different primary meaning but are used colloquially in unexpected ways. 1. Па́рить Па́рить comes…

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