{"id":4872,"date":"2013-08-16T08:59:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-16T08:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/?p=4872"},"modified":"2013-08-16T02:12:44","modified_gmt":"2013-08-16T02:12:44","slug":"russian-phrase-of-the-day-bells-and-whistles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/russian\/russian-phrase-of-the-day-bells-and-whistles\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian Phrase of the Day – Bells and Whistles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s try to switch gears a bit. Some of you have recently asked for advice on moving to the next level of fluency in Russian as well as for tips on building \u0441\u043b\u043e\u0432\u0430<\/span>\u0440\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u0437\u0430\u043f\u0430<\/span>\u0441<\/strong> (vocabulary). So I decided to experiment a bit here, on the blog.<\/p>\n

Yes, we do have the Word of the Day feature which runs on our Facebook page\u00a0here<\/a>, as well as on our Twitter feed here<\/a>. The Russian Word of the Day is a great resource even if you are an advanced speaker of Russian. But this post is going to be different. How so? Well, to begin with, it won’t be a daily feature. After all, who’s got time to memorize an entire new phrase or several each day? Another key difference is that I’ll give you quite a few examples of usage from a variety of sources, from \u0436\u0435<\/span>\u043b\u0442\u0430\u044f \u043f\u0440\u0435<\/span>\u0441\u0441\u0430<\/strong> (yellow press) to \u043f\u043e\u043f\u0441\u0430<\/span><\/strong> (pop songs) to \u0431\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0434\u0430<\/span>\u0442\u044b\u0435 \u0430\u043d\u0435\u043a\u0434\u043e<\/span>\u0442\u044b<\/strong> (old jokes). Also, the words and phrases I plan on choosing will be the ones used relatively infrequently. No 1000 most used Russian words here. This way, you will not feel as pressured to memorize them, yet if you do so, they will really spice up your Russian (in the good way, no obscenities).<\/p>\n

I’m also open to suggestions. Do you like the idea of posts like this? How often would you like to see them? Are there any particular features you want included in these posts (i.e. declension tables)? The idea is a bit bare bones right now and it’s up to you to decide on what bells and whistles to add to it.\u00a0Speaking of bells and whistles, today\u2019s Russian word is the masculine noun \u043f\u0440\u0438\u0431\u0430\u043c\u0431\u0430<\/span>\u0441.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u041f\u0440\u0438\u0431\u0430\u043c\u0431\u0430<\/span>\u0441<\/strong> (singular) or \u043f\u0440\u0438\u0431\u0430\u043c\u0431\u0430<\/span>\u0441\u044b<\/strong> (plural) is an accessory or a feature we can just as well get by without. It\u2019s an extra button on your TV remote control. You know, the one that you never use, but for which you paid extra.<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, you might come across this word most often in unofficial product reviews. But sometimes you encounter it in unexpected settings. For example, back in May, President V. Putin re-introduced a \u0413\u0435\u0440\u043e<\/span>\u0439 \u0442\u0440\u0443\u0434\u0430<\/span><\/strong> (Hero of Labor) award. One of the journalists criticized the idea as unnecessary by saying:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u042d<\/span>\u0442\u043e \u0432\u0441\u0451 \u0441\u043e\u0432\u0435<\/span>\u0442\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0435 \u043f\u0440\u0438\u0431\u0430\u043c\u0431\u0430<\/span>\u0441\u044b.\u201d<\/strong> (These are all Soviet-era bells and whistles.)<\/p>\n