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What is the idiom for "enjoy it!" in Russian?

Contexts for example:

  • "I'm going to travel with my friends."
  • "I'm traveling with my friends."
  • "We are in the camp now."
  • "We are walking in the city center now."

I've tried dictionaries and googling but it's not clear.

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  • 3
    Наслаждайтесь! is the closest equivalent.
    – Yellow Sky
    Commented Apr 30, 2017 at 16:44
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    Наслаждайтесь! is usually malevolent or sarcastic.
    – Manjusri
    Commented Apr 30, 2017 at 19:07
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    Depends on context. 'Here's your lobster. Enjoy it!' The proper Russian version here would be: "... приятного аппетита!". Situations suitable for the Russian imperative "наслаждайтесь!" are super rare, despite you can often find that word in poor translations from English.
    – Alex_ander
    Commented May 2, 2017 at 8:49
  • 2
    Context is definitely needed.
    – alamar
    Commented May 2, 2017 at 11:20

4 Answers 4

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There's no generic way to "enjoy" something in Russian. The construction is action-dependent. Namely: is the enjoyable thing being eaten, smoked, worn, spent (as in time or money), etc? The closest I can give to a recipe is to take the action verb and modify it with some "positive" adverb such as приятно/полезно. Alternatively, you can take the construction suggested above (say, "Отлично провести время!") and indicate where you wish this enjoyment to take place: за едой, на уроках, etc.

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Наслаждайся, - (literal) the closest generic equivalent.
Получи удовольствие, - (literal) not exact equivalent (verbose), but depends on the context
Удовлетворись, - (literal)sounds more sarcastic, but, depends on the context.
Подавись - (not literal) angry. literally: Сhoke on it!

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    Удовлетворись shouldn't be in this list
    – SomeWittyUsername
    Commented May 7, 2017 at 13:08
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    Hmm, I wonder, why. I feel, that if it would be me, asking the question, I would want to know all possibilities. Let the questionee decide what variant (s)he needs to use, depending on the context.
    – igoryonya
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 4:34
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    that's not idiomatic and no one speaks that way.
    – SomeWittyUsername
    Commented May 14, 2017 at 8:18
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Take the action they are about to enjoy and add "отли́чного/прия́тного":

  • "I'm going to travel with my friends." - Enjoy! = Я собира́юсь в путеше́ствие с друзья́ми - Отли́чного путеше́ствия!
  • "I'm traveling with my friends." - Enjoy! = Я путеше́ствую с друзья́ми - Отли́чного/прия́тного путеше́ствия!
  • "We are in camp now." - Enjoy! = Мы в ла́гере. - Прия́тного о́тдыха!
  • "We are walking in the city center now." - Enjoy! = Мы гуля́ем по це́нтру го́рода. - Прия́тной прогу́лки!

This will test your ability to take a verb and form a noun. Not always trivial. Or sometimes the action is implied, e.g. what are they doing in the camp? - Having a rest, отдыха́ют.

The way to say "Enjoy your meal" is "Прия́тного аппети́та!". I miss being able to say that because it's not used as frequently in English.

"Have a good time" would be:

  • "Отли́чно провести́ вре́мя!" (neutral).
  • "Оторви́сь там, оттопы́рься" (slang).

"Наслажда́йся / наслажда́йтесь" is a calque of the English "Enjoy!" and definitely not the idiomatic way to say it. Although some people do use it, usually in a sarcastic way.

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Oh, the problem of enjoyment in a language lacking verbs to enjoy, to like and to need...

The equivalent depends on a context. If you want to be sarcastic, you just say Удачи! in an appropriate tone.

If you want to wish something pleasant, you just use a structure like 'have a nice / enjoyable + smth!''. In other words, you have to specify what is 'it' you wish an addressee to enjoy. The structure is not so simple to a native English speaker, e. g.:

Приятных уроков!

nice-GEN.PL.MASC. lesson-GEN.PL.MASC.

Приятной зарплаты!

good-GEN.SG.FEM. salary-GEN.SG.MASC.

Приятного воскресенья!

enjoyable-GEN.SG.NEUT. Sunday-GEN.SG.NEUT.

With words referring to it as a time unit or as an event, the adjective приятный is interchangable with счастливый.

Счастливого воскресения!

enjoyable-GEN.SG.NEUT. resurrection-GEN.SG.NEUT.

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