Tag Archives: Russian word families
When “Yes No Maybe” Is A Complete Sentence Posted by Nadya on Apr 22, 2020
Words or whole phrases, intonation, and stress are used to express confidence and uncertainty in speech. In the Russian language, as well as in other languages, there are formal and informal forms of expression. Let’s look at a few examples. Modal words Modal words (мода́льные слова́) in the Russian language is the category of words…
Talk About Employment with This Russian Root Posted by Maria on Dec 3, 2019
You might know работа, work, and other related words as a helpful word family for talking about employment. Have you heard about труд and other related words, though? This post will look at how this word family can help you express ideas about jobs and labo(u)r. Труд The basic word is труд, labo(u)r, effort, hard…
Give or Take: Russian Verbs with -давать Posted by Maria on Nov 14, 2019
It may be useful to learn words in related “families,” so let us look at several verbs that share their root with дава́ть [dɐˈvatʲ], to give. I will include the imperfective and perfective forms of the verb and any related nouns for each verb. This post does not cover every verb or every possible meaning…
Russian “Хозяй-” Root for Ownership and Property Posted by Maria on Nov 20, 2018
Russian has a versatile root that is used to describe ideas having to do with ownership, such as a property or a landlord. Can you guess what that root is? It is -хозяй-. This post will look at some of the most common words with this root. Хозя́ин/хозя́йка Хозя́ин (masculine), хозя́йка (feminine), and хозя́ева (plural)…
Made by Hand: Russian Verbs with ‑Руч‑ Posted by Maria on Aug 22, 2018
Back by popular demand, this post in our “verbs with prefixes” series will look at several verbs sharing the same root—руч/рук. You probably recognize this root from рука́, hand. All verbs will be given in pairs of imperfective and perfective. Руча́ться/поручи́ться The first verb, руча́ться, means “to vouch for someone” or “to be sure of…
Knowledge Is Power: Verbs With ‑знать in Russian Posted by Maria on Jan 8, 2018
Знать (to know) is one of the most common verbs in Russian. There are also several important verbs derived from it. Узнать — To Discover/Learn Узнать (perfective)/узнавать (imperfective) is used to talk about learning some information for the first time. О́коло полугода жильцы́ пыта́лись узна́ть, что, со́бственно, происхо́дит. The residents tried for about half a…
A Sign of the Times: Words with ‑знак‑ in Russian Posted by Maria on Sep 26, 2017
We are continuing our popular series on Russian word “families” with this post about words with the -знак- root. Знак means “a sign,” and you may know it from the following expressions: мя́гкий знак (soft sign, ь) or твёрдый знак (hard sign, ъ) вопроси́тельный знак (?) восклица́тельный знак (!) знак ра́венства (=) знак зодиа́ка (star…