All Questions
4,639
questions
3
votes
1
answer
160
views
Can the verb "прозябать" actually be perfectivized?
I recently came across the verb прозябать in a book. Its meaning is one of eking out an existence in the sense of enduring hardship and suffering instead of truly living. This to me, is an ongoing ...
- 8,068
6
votes
3
answers
330
views
Is the instrumental case used for comparatives?
I'm watching the 1987 James Bond movie The Living Daylights with Russian subtitles.
In the scene where Bond first spots the main female character, he says, in English:
"Sniper. Two floors up, ...
- 63
3
votes
1
answer
82
views
Пунктуация в предложениях по типу "Ну сколько их там(?) 5–6?" и ему подобных
Уважаемые пользователи.
Имеется предложение "Ну сколько DVD-дисков покупает в среднем человек за названный период(?) 5–6?", вводящее меня в заблуждение: не знаю, какой знак препинания ...
- 33
2
votes
2
answers
252
views
Why are there two н's in «c мороженной формой» and not just one?
Из-под сена виднелись: самовар, кадка с мороженной формой и ещё кой-какие привлекательные узелки и коробочки.
Why is there a double -нн- in the word „мороженной“? And, more importantly, what rule is ...
- 1,119
8
votes
4
answers
1k
views
What's the purpose of своё in this sentence?
Here's a sentence from my book: Покрытые злобными колючками ежевичные плети изгибались над отжившими своё зарослями папоротника.
Why is своё in this sentence and why does it have this specific ...
- 329
6
votes
3
answers
698
views
Will an animate Russian noun still remain animate if used to denote an inanimate object?
This may be a strange question for someone who's fluent in Russian, but we were never taught it in school, and I realized I have a problem. I'm not sure which variant to use. So I decided to ask my ...
- 1,119
9
votes
2
answers
1k
views
To say "my brother and sister," do I use мои because it's two of them or one each of моя and мой?
I'm studying Russian from a grammar for Italians.
Here's one sentence from an exercise, with slots to insert possessives:
Это моя семья. Вот ___ папа и ___ мама, а это ___ брат и сестра.
I'm pretty ...
- 250
2
votes
1
answer
77
views
Identifying Sources of Examples in Dahl's Russian Dictionary
Dahl gives two examples of a usage, now surely extinct, of the word фамилия to refer to one's wife, and at least one of them is surely from some novel or the like. Does anyone have any idea of where ...
4
votes
1
answer
72
views
«Внезапно сверкнула молния(,) и грянул гром». Do we need the comma?
Внезапно сверкнула молния(,) и грянул гром.
I suppose this is a random sentence from a dictation exercise for Russian pupils to take down. The teacher decided not to indicate any punctuation marks ...
- 1,119
4
votes
1
answer
161
views
Is it true that in Russian, one can never enclose anything written in Latin script between quotation marks?
Кавычки нужны для того, чтобы что-то выделить. А всё, что написано
латиницей, в русском языке и так уже является выделительным. Поэтому
закавычивать написанное латиницей запрещено.
I've heard this ...
- 1,119
1
vote
2
answers
115
views
Есть ли специальный термин для обозначения советского канцелярита?
Есть ли специальный термин для обозначения советского канцелярита? Который отличается от дореволюционного обилием плеоназмов и дефисов
Пример:
"формирование высоких профессиональных, морально-...
- 21
1
vote
1
answer
57
views
Сноситься / связаться
While reading a Russian language resource published in 1950, I noticed that
сноситься/ снестись
was translated as "to get in contact with."
After reviewing some online dictionaries, I ...
- 267
7
votes
1
answer
842
views
What does в сложн. сл. mean in Russian dictionary?
What does в сложн. сл. mean in below screenshot (highlighted with red rectangle)? Source
- 73
2
votes
2
answers
158
views
Is the Russian expression "мне до ней далеко" grammatical?
Is the Russian expression "мне до ней далеко" grammatical? And if so, what is this phenomenon called?
- 14.4k
12
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Distinguishing between "effectiveness" and "efficiency" in Russian
The Russian translation for "effectiveness" seems to be "эффективность", a word that sounds pretty similar to "effectiveness" and also initially would seem to be able to ...
- 121
1
vote
2
answers
142
views
How do you abbreviate the word "рубль" and its derived forms "рубля" and "рублей"?
Let me express my own personal opinion. To my mind, words such as рубль, рубля, рублей must be abbreviated as рубл. Of course, I'll provide a link to the respective rule.
При стечении двух одинаковых ...
- 1,119
1
vote
3
answers
163
views
Is the sentence "Лошадь, которая плохо везёт, нужно бить" grammatically correct?
Лошадь, которая плохо везёт, нужно бить.
Is this good Russian? Is the sentence grammatically correct?
Why yes or why no?
- 1,119
1
vote
1
answer
110
views
What does м ж.-д. stands for in the screenshot below？
What does the м ж.-д. stand for in the screenshot below? Source: brks.info
- 13
2
votes
2
answers
209
views
What's the Russian equivalent of "This song slaps!"?
What would be Russian slang equivalent of "This song slaps!" in the sense that it's excellent, really cool, fire?
The word "slap" for us native English speakers brings to mind the ...
- 123
3
votes
1
answer
110
views
Is there an equivalent of the Harvard sentences for Russian?
The Harvard sentences (Wikipedia, full list of sentences) are a set of English sentences that:
Are phonetically balanced in the sense that the phonemes that are used in the sentences appear at the ...
- 133
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
2 x 2 = 4 or 2 + 2 = 4 as an evident fact?
In Tolstoy's Исповедь one reads :
Истина эта была всегда истина, как 2 × 2 = 4, но я не признавал ее, потому что, признав 2 × 2 = 4, я бы должен был признать то, что я нехорош.
2 x 2 = 4 is ...
- 87
2
votes
1
answer
129
views
What is "ского" at the end of the name of a city?
In Пикник на обочине, the city of Harmont is introduced and it is written as Хармонтского. After a couple of days of practicing the Russian alphabet, it was easy to decipher the "Kharmont" ...
- 123
1
vote
1
answer
182
views
What is the Russian equivalent of 'perfect is as perfect does'?
I've encountered this saying multiple times in English, but even though I'm a native Russian speaker, I can't find an exact equivalent of this saying in Russian.
Perhaps someone here knows?
- 213
1
vote
5
answers
246
views
Asking the time
I read this phrase in a Russian book: "Сколько время?" Is this correct? I thought it was "Сколько времени?".
- 13
5
votes
4
answers
299
views
Pronouns with transitive verbs
First, a few examples. The following excerpts are taken from "Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoevsky:
Page 22:
Не плачь, Григорий, ступай к Марфе, она утешит, спать уложит.
"she will ...
- 432
3
votes
3
answers
213
views
How pleonastic is "эту работу выполним целиком и полностью"?
... до конца года мы эту работу выполним целиком и полностью
... do kontsa goda my etu rabotu vypolnim tselikom i polnost'yu
I understand what this means from closed captions, google translate and a ...
- 133
1
vote
4
answers
236
views
What's an appropriate Russian noun or verb for "representation"?
There exist some people who have difficulty learning the Python programming language and some people who do not have such difficulties.
When teaching students, it's useful to explain that the Python ...
- 193
3
votes
2
answers
245
views
What is the difference semantically between речь and выступление?
I believe both речь and выступление can have the same shade of meaning that the word "speech" does in English (not as in an utterance, but as in a formal address you give before an audience)....
- 31
0
votes
2
answers
146
views
How would you render the phrase, "the symbol for the suit of spades in a deck of playing cards" in Russian?
How would you write:
♠
"This is the symbol for spades in a deck of playing cards"
The following is not a very good translation:
♠
Это символ пики в колоде игральных карт.
- 193
1
vote
2
answers
217
views
Is the sentence „Птицы не любят такого леса“ grammatically correct, and why?
Несмотря на тишину и покой, птицы не любят такого леса и предпочитают
держаться в молодых зарослях.
link (Mamin-Sibiryak)
Despite being a Russian speaker myself, I have some trouble with the ...
- 1,119
0
votes
2
answers
89
views
Rules for dash between subject and predicate when the predicate is an adjective
I'm a native Russian speaker, but I'm a little ashamed that I don't quite know the rules for when I need to use a dash.
Let's consider a very simple sentence:
Маша (—) умная и красивая.
Do we need a ...
- 1,119
2
votes
2
answers
154
views
Как правильно указать на счеты во множественном числе?
Канцелярских счёт или канцелярских счётов? Как правильно в родительном падеже?
- 123
11
votes
4
answers
2k
views
What's the difference between "последний" and "прошлый"?
I don't see the difference between "последний" and "прошлый". For both words, I find definitions like "last", "past", "latest", and "recent"....
- 113
0
votes
2
answers
168
views
Is разговор in fact раз + говорить because a conversation is like a repeated/iterative/continuous act of speaking?
Take the three chunks of text below:
One time.
Speak.
A conversation.
They can be translated as
Один раз.
Говорить.
Разговор.
So I can't help but notice that pазговор- looks and sounds like a ...
- 250
1
vote
0
answers
40
views
Когда/Почему используется глагол «быть» в прошедшем времени с другим прошедшим глаголом? [duplicate]
Я четаю книгу Пелевина «Омон Ра» и несколько раз видел такую конструкцию, типа:
[...] я положил было руку на трубку, но вспомнил, что уже заткнул уши ватой;
Почему используется здесь «было», то есть,...
- 11
0
votes
1
answer
119
views
палёнка = pálenka?
Недавно я наткнулся в чешском языке на слово "pálenka" - это такое фруктовое бренди. Первая ассоциация, пришедшая на ум - слово "палёнка" (алкоголь низкого качества).
Это может ...
- 277
5
votes
5
answers
302
views
"Eдинственная, кто поддержалa его" or "eдинственная, кто поддержал его"
Consider the two following phrases:
она единственная, кто поддержалa его
она единственная, кто поддержал его
Which one is correct according to official rules (whatever we mean by official. Let's say ...
- 37.8k
9
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Why can "через неделю" mean "через 14 дней" depending on the context?
Context : We have math class every Thursday. The teacher said, "...в следущий четверг у нас не будет контрольной... ...будет через
неделю"
To me "через неделю"(1) means in seven ...
- 396
2
votes
5
answers
255
views
When do you use со мной in the accusative case?
I found that sometimes in the Russian language, people use the dative case in the accusative case.
Here is an example:
как ты мог так поступить со мной?
How could you do this to me?
Here they used the ...
1
vote
1
answer
91
views
чего-то невозможного
Here is a sentence from Семейное счастие by Tolstoy:
Неужели и у тебя не примешивается какая-то тоска к наслаждению природой, как будто хочется чего-то невозможного и жаль чего-то прошедшего.
In all ...
- 87
-4
votes
1
answer
135
views
Какое слово используют русские математики для логического следования?
Мой русский очень плохого качества. Пожалуйста, вернитесь к результатам поиска, если вы хотите читать только качественные вопросы и просто не отвечаете на вопросы, которые вам не нравятся.
Для тех, ...
- 193
8
votes
4
answers
2k
views
What is the Russian word for the color "teal"?
teal is an aristocratic English word for the color shown below.
Most people whose parents owned only zero or one residential properties (like my parents) and who were fluent in English before they ...
- 193
3
votes
1
answer
116
views
How would the word "облако-кочевник" look in the accusative plural?
облако-кочевник
I want to put this word in the accusative plural. If I want to use correct Russian grammar, how would it look and sound and why? Which rule applies?
Here's the song. https://www....
- 1,119
2
votes
3
answers
118
views
What kind of word is this? "случи́вшемся"
Grammatically and morphologically speaking, what kind of word is this? "случи́вшемся" in the following sentence:
Поговори́ с сы́ном о случи́вшемся.
ChatGPT says: The word "случи́вшемся&...
- 453
5
votes
2
answers
175
views
Use of instrumental and nominative cases with "быть" and "стать"
I was practicing my Russian with a friend when she wrote the following:
"когда я пришёл на фестиваль, народу было не очень много, но позже очереди за едой стали слишком длинные."
In this ...
- 51
1
vote
1
answer
107
views
"я цирюльник-с" and "помните-с?" from Anton Chekhov's "В бане"... what is that -c? [duplicate]
Love Anton Chekhov. In his story "В бане" a character says:
"— Я, ваше высокородие, не банщик, я цирюльник-с."
"Помните-с? Тогда же вы изволили меня насчет невест ...
- 13
3
votes
2
answers
206
views
How to keep on track with large numerals
To be entirely frank, I'm a native speaker, but for the overwhelming majority of my day I only use English, and my Russian has started to wane. My job requires me to cycle through a couple of ...
2
votes
1
answer
70
views
Declension of cвитер [duplicate]
While studying I encountered this word 'cвитер' and then I wondered why there were two forms of the plural for all the declensions.
Does anyone know if this is from the old or the new orthography, ...
- 181
2
votes
1
answer
83
views
Old orthography всѣ, все, всё and издалека vs издалёка
It's redundant to write the two dots above the е in the word все in old orthography (because when it isnt a ё sound, ѣ is written), so why do some old russian bibles do it still? Some places they ...
- 45
0
votes
1
answer
86
views
Translation of "ради Бога" [closed]
For "ради Бога" dictionaries give "for goodness' sake" and "for heaven's sake" as well as "for God's sake." As expressions that support a request, the first two ...
- 9