Tag Archives: russian vocabulary
V biblioteke (at the library) Posted by bota on Sep 13, 2021
Смо́тришь в кни́гу ви́дишь фи́гу? (Looking into a book but seeing nothing – see note below) That certainly won’t be the case with Transparent’s Library Sign-up month. See here if your local library offers Transparent Language Online so that you can access Russian courses. Remember to read the official rules here and поторопи́тесь — вас…
Things That Get Called Russian – Part 2 Posted by Nadya on Jul 23, 2021
We continue to discuss what people around the world call Russian, except the Russians themselves. Black Russian – Чёрный русский Black Russian is a classic cocktail (коктейль) based on vodka and coffee liqueur. It was created in 1949 by Gustave Tops, a Belgian bartender (бармен). The cocktail recipe is simple: for five parts of vodka…
Things That Get Called Russian – Part 1 Posted by Nadya on Jul 20, 2021
There are some things that are called Russian in the world. But not in Russia. In today’s blog, I will tell you about what is called Russian and why. Nevertheless, not all Russians know it. Russian Mountains – Русские горки The interesting fact is that the oldest roller coasters were called “Russian Mountains.“And they really…
Russian euphemisms about death Posted by bota on Jun 22, 2021
A lot of фразеологизмы (idioms) about ‘death’ in Russian rely on verbs of motion that depict a person leaving this life and world. The 5 euphemisms below all mean ‘to die’ but I will write the literal translation in parenthesis to make them easier to remember. My goal, though, is to not just help you…
Death in Russian, continued Posted by bota on Jun 14, 2021
Remember this blog where I mentioned the Russian tradition of bringing an even number of flowers to the funeral? We will talk about that and other traditions surrounding Russian funerals as well as vocabulary that relates to death in general. Flowers So, the even number of flowers comes from old-time beliefs that even numbers symbolize…
How do you say ‘to die’ in Russian? Posted by bota on May 19, 2021
Many Russians devoted May 11th this year to visiting the graves of their loved ones. Known as Роди́тельский день и́ли Радо́ница (Roditel’skiy Den’ or Radonista), this day is directly related to Orthodox Easter and you can read more about the gist of it in Yelena’s old blog here. For a more detailed account on this tradition…
Ways To Say Goodnight in Russian Posted by Nadya on May 10, 2021
Below I will share the most popular phrases that people say to each other exclusively right before going to bed. Of course, first of all, you should understand how close you are to the person to whom you are addressing. You probably won’t be talking to strangers on your way to your bedroom. But just…