8

Ну и денек выдался в минувшую субботу!

I'm assuming it literally means "my/our little day stood out from others. It was special somehow", but its precise meaning eludes me.

It's been an eventful day. [in a positive sense]

or: It's been a rough day. [with a negative connotation of struggling]

or: It's been a long day. [feeling as if several days have passed in a single day]

On a side note: Is it just as acceptable to say "день выдался"?

Improve this question
1
  • "день выдался" - would sound quite weird and ambiguous. However for positive estimation there can be "День удался" (after the day or towards an evening" or "день задался" in the morning or noon, within the very heart of the day.
    – Arioch
    Commented Apr 8, 2018 at 13:50

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
4

A rough day is the closest equivalent.

"Денек выдался" must be:

  • Stressful
  • Somewhat unexpected (if you went to the dentist to have a root canal, that doesn't count, but if you went to the dentist for a check up and ended up having a root canal, that's the thing)
  • Not tragically bad. Either day's efforts may have somehow improved the outcome, or the day was a string of essentially small mishaps (if your flight got cancelled and you just went home, that doesn't count, but if you spent a day at the airport, finally getting on another flight, that's the thing)
Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    Hi. "У кого-то выдались жаркие деньки." -- Does this expression have a similar, if not the same, meaning? -- "Someone had an especially intense/heated days". I assume this has nothing to do with the actual hot temperature; figuratively intense, right?
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Apr 15, 2018 at 22:26
  • 2
    @Alone-zee Yes, that's right.
    – Alexander
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 2:14
  • 2
    @Alone-zee hectic days would be an accurate translation
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Commented Apr 16, 2018 at 10:49
5

It's either outright negative or bitter-sweet but in the latter case the phrase refers to the bitter part.

The diminutive form is meant to show that either there was some positive aspect or that you're not too upset or angry about the day having been shitty.

It's totally acceptable to not use the diminutive form of день however in this case the phrase most likely expresses negative attitude towards the experience.

Improve this answer
7
  • Excellent! By the way, I'm wondering what is the function of the phrase "Ну и" at the start of conversation. I assume these two words are not to be interpreted separately.
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Apr 8, 2018 at 13:32
  • 2
    compare with "Ну и ну". It stresses how outstanding, confusing, puzzling something was. One may say specifically "Хороший денёк выдался", "плохой выдался день", "дождливая выдалась неделя", etc. "Ну и" just stresses the day was outstanding, without saying details, which are supposedly either obvious or hard to explain in brief. I agree that unspecific "ну и день" is more often with negative connotations, a day that surprised you in some bitter way. Maybe a nervous day, or exhausting, something.
    – Arioch
    Commented Apr 8, 2018 at 13:48
  • 3
    @Alone-zee ну и is an emphatic compound interjection in exclamations expressing negative emotions or attitude, it functions as the English what a...; such a...; so... but only in a negative context, e.g. ну и погодка сегодня! - what a terrible weather we have today; ну и дурак же ты!/ну ты и дурак! - you're such a fool!; ну ты и загнул!/ну и загнул же ты! - you're so exaggerating!; ну и видок у тебя, Шарапов! - you have such a terrible look, Sharapov!
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Commented Apr 8, 2018 at 17:17
  • Hi. Could it be that this "и" is a particle for emphasis that often precedes a verb? Or should I consider it to be something slightly different? en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%B8#Russian
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 5:49
  • @Alone-zee i doubt that as the emphatic ну и goes not only with verbs and rather to a lesser extent with verbs, and it doesn't follow some previous statement for confirmation or reinforcement, it is perfectly autonomous and self-contained
    – Баян Купи-ка
    Commented Apr 9, 2018 at 7:02
0

If it's денёк, it's very likely something negative is implied (but it can also be something funny, unusual).

Compare: The happiest day in my life - Самый счастливый день в моей жизни (денёк is not used here, cos it's an important day).

You can't say it's LONG (length of the day is irrelevant here, it just means the day is unusual for some reason)

I'm not sure there's a source which proscribes the use of Ну и ДЕНЬ выдался в минувшую субботу! - it sounds OK, but not so emphatic, i.e. день could be just as well used in a neutral situation. Ну и денёк is very emphatic.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.