Tag Archives: useful Russian words
Three Easily Confused Russian Verbs Posted by Nadya on May 24, 2021
In Russian, there are three verbs that have the same English translation – “to try.” Despite this, they have a slightly different meaning. These verbs are “про́бовать“, “пыта́ться,” and “стара́ться.” It is very easy to confuse them. If you want to sound more Russian, read below about their differences. Пробовать Meaning: “to try to do…
Top 10 Russian Verbs — Part II Posted by Maria on Dec 24, 2019
We are continuing our list of the most common verbs in Russian. Make sure you read Part I, too! 6. Cтать — to become, to start Стать is a perfective verb and refers to the result of becoming something or someone. Think of the game “Кто хочет стать миллионером?” (literal translation, “Who wants to become…
Top 10 Russian Verbs — Part I Posted by Maria on Dec 16, 2019
If you find yourself struggling to come up with the right verb, you may want to learn the conjugation of the most common Russian verbs. They come up frequently in conversation, so being able to recognize and use them will help you with your fluency. 1. Быть – to be Present tense For all intents…
Shave and a haircut, two bits! Posted by Rob on May 23, 2013
Even if you don’t know the words, anyone who’s ever seen an old Bugs Bunny cartoon will recognize the seven-note melody of “Shave and a haircut…” — it’s classically used as a musical accompaniment to punctuate the end of a joke. And I instinctively hummed the tune after I found this great little анекдот…
Chill out! (Or, “is your refrigerator running?”) Posted by Rob on Dec 11, 2012
На прошлую неделю к нам привезли новый холодильник (“Last week, a new refrigerator was delivered to our place”) — потому что старый холодильник давно дышал на ладан. Literally translated, that’s “the old fridge had long since been breathing the incense”[i.e, the incense from its own funeral Mass]. Which is to say that it стоял одной…
To everything (Turn, turn, turn!)… Posted by Rob on Sep 19, 2012
♪♫ …there is a season (Turn, turn, turn!): A time to sow, A time to reap, A time for war, A time for peace, A time to learn confusing Russian verbs with an indecent number of syllables, A time to say “Фиг с этим!” and study Esperanto instead…♪♫ Hi, everybody — can you guess what…
Filler Is Like Filler Does Posted by yelena on Aug 14, 2012
It occurred to me the other day that one of the (many) subjects we haven’t discussed on the Russian blog is the subject of fillers. Somehow we have been, like, totally overlooking the lorem ipsum of Russian language and it’s basically time to, you know, just do it. Here’s the first thing you need to…