{"id":456,"date":"2009-12-14T11:03:55","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T15:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=456"},"modified":"2009-12-14T11:03:55","modified_gmt":"2009-12-14T15:03:55","slug":"how-about-%e2%80%98dating%e2%80%99-in-russian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/how-about-%e2%80%98dating%e2%80%99-in-russian\/","title":{"rendered":"How About \u2018Dating\u2019 in Russian?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently we had a post about the tricky linguistic side to getting married in Russian – read “How About \u2018Getting Married’ in Russian?”<\/a> now if you missed it before – but the problems with how to define relationships in this language doesn’t end there. As a matter of fact, the trouble with love in Russia starts already after your first \u00ab\u0441\u0432\u0438\u0434\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u0438\u0435\u00bb<\/strong> [here:<\/em> date; but also:<\/em> appointment, interview; rendezvous, tryst] with a cute Russian (belonging to the sex preferred by you, of course, myself I prefer \u00ab\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0435 \u043c\u0443\u0436\u0447\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u044b\u00bb<\/strong> [plural: Russian men], though I’ve heard plenty of good things about \u00ab\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0435 \u0436\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0449\u0438\u043d\u044b\u00bb <\/strong>[plural: Russian women], too). <\/em>Let’s say that you and your Russian date have discovered for each other what is very rare but sometimes actually happen not only \u00ab\u0432 \u043a\u0438\u043d\u043e<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [in the movies] but also in real life: \u00ab\u0432\u0437\u0430\u0438<\/span>\u043c\u043d\u0430\u044f \u043b\u044e\u0431\u043e<\/span>\u0432\u044c\u00bb<\/strong> [mutual love]. Then what? What Russian word do you use to say \u2018boyfriend’<\/em> or \u2018girlfriend’<\/em>? Now is where it gets tricky! Let’s say you’ve started dating a nice, kind and cute Russian girl. The two most common things you could call her in Russian – except for \u00ab\u0434\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0433\u0430<\/span>\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [my dear], \u00ab\u043b\u044e\u0431\u0438<\/span>\u043c\u0430\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [my beloved] or (when you feel it is time to get down on one knee and pull out the ring that is) <\/em>\u00ab\u043b\u044e\u0431\u043e<\/span>\u0432\u044c \u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [my love] – is \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span> \u043f\u043e\u0434\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0433\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [my girlfriend, or just \u2018my female friend’<\/em>] or \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span> \u0434\u0435<\/span>\u0432\u0443\u0448\u043a\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [my girl]. However, there is always a moment of confusion if you only refer to her as \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span> \u043f\u043e\u0434\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0433\u0430\u00bb<\/strong>, since that word doesn’t exclusively stand for \u2018girlfriend’<\/em> but for all of your female friends in general. And one can have many \u00ab\u043f\u043e\u0434\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0433\u0438\u00bb<\/strong> [female friends] as we all know, without necessarily having to be dating them all (not at one and the same time, at least!)<\/em>. Sometimes you can help clear up the confusion somewhat by always putting the possessive \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span>\u00bb<\/strong> [my] in front of the word, but it doesn’t always save the day.<\/p>\n

Maybe you’re thinking that the best thing you can call your Russian girlfriend after all is \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span> \u0434\u0435<\/span>\u0432\u0443\u0448\u043a\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [my girl]. Well, it is – at least as long as she is under the age of thirty. Or simply not so picky about forcing you to be man enough to call her \u00ab\u0436\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0449\u0438\u043d\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [a woman] and also treat her like it. I’ve never heard of any man calling their woman \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span> \u0436\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0449\u0438\u043d\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [my woman] with the same semantic meaning that \u2018my girlfriend’<\/em> carries in English. I suppose that if you’re thinking of calling her that, then it’s high time you pull yourself together and marry her so that you can finally fess up to the usage of \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u044f<\/span> \u0436\u0435\u043d\u0430<\/span>\u00bb <\/strong>[my wife]…<\/p>\n

Now it may sound like men have the most trouble with naming their girlfriends in Russian. That’s not so. Foreign girls who happen to acquire Russian boyfriends face pretty much the same problem. After a couple of dates you can start calling your beloved \u00ab\u0412\u0430<\/span>\u0441\u044f\u00bb <\/strong>[diminutive of \u00ab\u0412\u0430\u0441\u0438<\/span>\u043b\u0438\u0439\u00bb<\/strong>: Vasily] either \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u0439 \u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u00bb<\/strong> [my boyfriend, or just \u2018my male friend’<\/em>] or \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u0439 \u043c\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0434\u043e<\/span>\u0439 \u0447\u0435\u043b\u043e\u0432\u0435<\/span>\u043a\u00bb<\/strong> [my young man]. The latter I have noticed during my years in Russia as being the preferred form of referring to your boyfriend among Russian girls. I’ve never heard anyone ever saying \u00ab\u043c\u043e\u0439 \u043c\u0443\u0436\u0447\u0438<\/span>\u043d\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [my man], except as a joke (or when I’ve said it myself because I thought it was okay)<\/em>. The problem with calling your boyfriend by just the little word \u00ab\u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u00bb<\/strong> [(male) <\/em>friend] is that usually people have \u00ab\u043c\u043d\u043e<\/span>\u0433\u043e \u0434\u0440\u0443\u0437\u044c\u0435<\/span>\u0439\u00bb<\/strong> [many friends] and could cause confusion as to what exactly you mean when you start a sentence saying: \u00ab\u041c\u044b \u0441 \u0434\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0433\u043e\u043c…\u00bb<\/strong> What on Earth do you mean? Do you mean \u2018I and my boyfriend’ <\/em>or \u2018I and my (male) friend’<\/em>? When I studied \u00ab\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u043a\u0430\u043a \u0438\u043d\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0439\u00bb\u00a0 <\/strong>[Russian as a foreign language] in Russian together with other foreigners (mainly girls)<\/em> one of our professors suggested we make the definition by calling a man that we were just friends with \u00ab\u0447\u0438<\/span>\u0441\u0442\u044b\u0439 \u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u00bb<\/strong> [a \u2018clean’<\/em> friend]. That worked fine for a week or two, until the Japanese girl in my group once referred to her boyfriend as her \u00ab\u0433\u0440\u044f<\/span>\u0437\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u00bb<\/strong> [\u2018dirty’<\/em> friend]…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Who needs \u00ab\u0433\u0440\u044f<\/span>\u0437\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u00bb<\/strong> [a dirty male friend, colloquially used (among certain foreigners in the Central Urals) as a way to say \u2018boyfriend’ in Russian without confusing anyone] when there’s \u00ab\u0436\u0435<\/span>\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0434\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0436\u0431\u0430\u00bb<\/strong> [female friendship] like this?<\/em><\/p>\n

And to answer today’s post’s question in the title: there’s three ways of saying that you’re dating in Russian. You can use \u00ab\u0445\u043e\u0434\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c \u043d\u0430 \u0441\u0432\u0438\u0434\u0430<\/span>\u043d\u0438\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [to go on dates], which is a little old-fashioned and also sounds a bit formal to me. More common these days is to describe dating by the imperfect verb \u00ab\u0432\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0435\u0447\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044c\u0441\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [be found; meet, get together; go with; see; occur]. But you can also call it plainly \u00ab\u0434\u0440\u0443\u0436\u0438<\/span>\u0442\u044c\u00bb<\/strong> [be friends, pal up, keep company; neighbor]. The problem with the last verb is the same that comes with the words \u00ab\u043f\u043e\u0434\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0433\u0430\u00bb <\/strong>[female friend] and \u00ab\u0434\u0440\u0443\u0433\u00bb<\/strong> [male friend], namely that you don’t what exactly kind of friendship a sentence like the following tries to describe:<\/p>\n

\u00ab\u0410<\/span>\u043d\u044f \u0434\u0440\u0443<\/span>\u0436\u0438\u0442 \u0441 \u0410\u043d\u0442\u043e<\/span>\u043d\u043e\u043c\u00bb<\/strong> – [Anya is dating Anton? Anya is friends with Anton?].<\/p>\n

It would be better if Anya were to clear up things by saying either: \u00ab\u041c\u044b \u0441 \u0410\u043d\u0442\u043e<\/span>\u043d\u043e\u043c \u0432\u0441\u0442\u0440\u0435\u0447\u0430<\/span>\u0435\u043c\u0441\u044f\u00bb<\/strong> [Anton and I are dating] or \u00ab\u041c\u044b \u0441 \u0410\u043d\u0442\u043e<\/span>\u043d\u043e\u043c \u0442\u043e<\/span>\u043b\u044c\u043a\u043e \u0434\u0440\u0443\u0437\u044c\u044f<\/span>…\u00bb<\/strong> [Anton and I are just friends].<\/p>\n

And to finish this post, I’d have to say that even though it hurts to get dumped (by a Hungarian this time, not a Russian, mind you – but really it makes no difference as I couldn’t pronounce either of their last names and that’s a sure sign you’re not really supposed to marry that person if adding their last name to yours means you’ll spend the rest of your life unable to introduce yourself properly to other people)<\/em>, in Russian language it is much simpler to be single!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Recently we had a post about the tricky linguistic side to getting married in Russian – read “How About \u2018Getting Married’ in Russian?” now if you missed it before – but the problems with how to define relationships in this language doesn’t end there. As a matter of fact, the trouble with love in Russia…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[1015,1039,1040,1087,1343,1483,1504,1519,1520,1521,1576,1590,1640,1775],"class_list":["post-456","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-language","tag-boyfriend-in-russian","tag-dating-in-russia","tag-dating-in-russian","tag-girlfriend-in-russian","tag-the-glory-of-being-single","tag-1483","tag-1504","tag-1519","tag-1520","tag-1521","tag-1576","tag-1590","tag-1640","tag-1775"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}