Questions tagged [выбор-слова]
Questions about the difference in meaning or usage between two or more words.
394
questions
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What's the difference between "лежит на столе" and "стоит на столе"?
Can anyone explain the difference between the following sentences:
"Чашка лежит на столе" vs. "Чашка стоит на столе"
"Мяч лежит на столе" vs. "Мяч стоит на столе"
"Лэптоп лежит на столе" vs. "Лэптоп ...
- 511
41
votes
10
answers
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views
Usage of "про" instead of "о"
One of the prepositions I never learned in Russian courses is про, which I only met later when communicating with native speakers or when reading. Is it possible to give a good rule of thumb about ...
- 4,964
37
votes
8
answers
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When is it more appropriate to use здравствуйте rather than привет?
As far as I understand, both of these mean more or less the same thing. Rosetta Stone, that introduced me to the Russian language seems to prefer здравствуйте, but it seems привет is more commonly ...
- 646
37
votes
2
answers
7k
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How can "to teach" and "to learn" be translated to Russian?
I know that there are several Russian verbs can be used to translate the English verbs "to teach", "to study", and "to learn", e.g. учить, выучить, научить, учиться, изучать, ...
However, I am a bit ...
- 793
27
votes
9
answers
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Why do Russians call their women expensive ("дорогая")?
My question is in the title of this post, and I do not know what else to say. I am just puzzled.
Okay, to avoid my post being put on hold for being too succinct, I will add a couple of naive thoughts ...
- 11.3k
25
votes
11
answers
7k
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Usage patterns of "надо" vs. "нужно"
What are the mechanics behind using надо over нужно or vice versa? What governs when they are interchangeable and when not?
To be perfectly clear: I have no problems simply using whichever sounds ...
- 1,259
24
votes
9
answers
6k
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Russian word for a male zebra
Let's suppose I am writing a fictional but realistic story about a male zebra.
Here is the problem. On the one hand, the grammatical gender of the Russian word "зебра" is feminine, so it is ...
- 11.3k
24
votes
13
answers
14k
views
What is the difference between "теперь" and "сейчас"
It seems to me that these two words have the same meaning. The dictionary doesn't help much, it gives them as synonyms. Although the meaning of "сейчас" is more general and can refer to past events:
...
- 6,558
24
votes
6
answers
3k
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What's the difference between -либо and -нибудь?
The pairs кто-нибудь and кто-либо, когда-нибудь and когда-либо etc. have slight differences in meaning and each particle is used in specific settings, but I can't quite pinpoint what the difference is....
- 1,905
23
votes
3
answers
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Difference between "мир" and "свет"
What's the difference between мир and свет to mean world? When would one use one over the other, and are there any set expressions where these are not interchangeable?
- 2,615
20
votes
7
answers
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Russian words for magic. Etymology, usage and connotations
Something that I realised early on when learning Russian were the different words Russians would use where an English speaker would just say magic:
The first word I came into contact with was ...
20
votes
6
answers
3k
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Possessive constructions: "мой" vs. "у меня"
What is the difference between the following sentences:
Мой папа в командировке.
У меня папа в командировке.
How can I explain to foreign students when to use "мой" or "у меня"?
- 6,558
18
votes
2
answers
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Why are United Nations and United Arab Emirates translated as "Объединённые", but United States as "Соединённые"?
Are there two different ways to be "United", or is one simply the more modern usage while the other was used historically in previous centuries?
- 884
18
votes
4
answers
755
views
What are the different ways of saying "but"?
I've been told that in Russian, there are at least two ways of saying "but." One is a, and the other is но. They both translate into the same word but (a or но?) they appear to have two somewhat ...
- 1,213
17
votes
5
answers
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What's the difference between "вот" and "здесь"?
Both words translate as here, but in which context should I use one over the other?
There's a question about it on the Q&A of masterrussian.com that already gives me a rough understanding.
That ...
- 1,658
16
votes
5
answers
8k
views
The difference between "свой" and "мой"
What's the difference between свой (своя и т.д.) and мой (моя и т.д.) when Russian people speak they seem aware of the difference but still I can't wrap my head around it.
- 471
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votes
3
answers
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What's the difference between помнить and вспомнить?
Looking помнить and вспомнить up in a dictionary yields the same results. Is there any difference between them?
- 613
14
votes
2
answers
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Different words for "German" in Russian?
The Russian word for German is немецкий which means something like, "voiceless" or "mute." And yet the country is sometimes referred to as Германия. Why the difference between the two?
- 1,213
14
votes
5
answers
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What is the difference between дыра and дырка?
What is the difference in usage, if any, between дыра and дырка? For comparison, my impression is that нуль and ноль are largely equivalent except that there are some standard phrases using one word ...
- 4,964
14
votes
3
answers
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What is the proper use of the word ли?
My understanding is that it means "whether" in some contexts, but can mean "if" in others. What is the difference in usage?
And what might be the difference between ли and Если, assuming that they ...
- 1,213
14
votes
3
answers
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Difference between "использовать" and "пользоваться"
I know that the verb to use can be translated into Russian as использовать (with the accusative) or пользоваться (with the instrumental).
I wanted to ask if there's a difference in meaning/usage ...
- 793
14
votes
1
answer
1k
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Various words for "priest". What are their emotional connotations?
There are various words used for "priest" in Russian language: поп, батюшка, священник, иерей, ксендз... What are emotional connotations of this words and when are they appropriate to use?
- 899
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votes
6
answers
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Why does Russian have three words for marriage?
They are свадьба, женитьба, and замужество. According to wiktionary, женитьба is marriage from a man's perspective (despite being feminine) and замужество a woman's (despite being neuter).
Is it ...
- 499
13
votes
4
answers
2k
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Speed and Velocity in Russian
In physics, we use the English terms speed and velocity differently:
Speed is a number (magnitude).
Velocity is a vector (magnitude and direction).
In English, this is a tradition that spans more ...
- 233
13
votes
5
answers
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What is the difference between "всё" and "все"?
I thought that всё referred to inanimate/abstract concepts - like in всё равно or это всё - and все was used with animate - like все студенты. But I've seen the two used in virtually the same contexts ...
- 131
13
votes
1
answer
912
views
Is there a difference between "отель" and "гостиница"?
Is there a difference between words отель and гостиница? Can I always use either of them for some given estate?
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4
answers
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13
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8
answers
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Is there a difference between "кидать" and "бросать"?
In many cases, you can find that words which initially appear to be absolute synonyms actually have slight differences in meaning, so that one can be used in a specific setting while the other cannot. ...
- 1,905
13
votes
5
answers
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Using "когда-то" to refer to the future
I feel it is safe to say that outside of any context, когда-то defaults to meaning "at some point in the past", at least in the dialect I am speaking. I might even go so far as to say that that's the ...
- 1,259
13
votes
1
answer
4k
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больница vs госпиталь
Меня учили, что это синонимы. Но по прочтении некоторых книг мне кажется, что все-таки некоторая смысловая разница есть. А какая?
- 337
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votes
3
answers
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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 ...
- 131
12
votes
3
answers
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"На английском" or "по-английски"?
I was wondering if there's any difference between
на английском
and
по-английски
(for example when asking how to say something in English).
- 223
12
votes
4
answers
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views
Is "мочиться" a vulgar or indecent word to any extent?
This is a famous quote from Heart of a Dog (Собачье сердце)
Если я, входя в уборную, начну, извините за выражение, мочиться мимо унитаза и то же самое будут делать Зина и Дарья Петровна, в уборной ...
- 461
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4
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Why does she say "Я понимаешь" and not "Я понимаю"?
I've heard people say "понимаешь" when they clearly intend to mean "I understand", such as in this line from the Serebro song Не Время:
Я понимаешь, я это чувствую потом мы всё ...
- 453
12
votes
7
answers
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How should I translate "the fighting boar" in Grenfell's poem into Russian?
My Russian teacher, whom you know by his tough approach to teaching the language, strongly pushed me to try to translate English poems into Russian, and we agreed I'd have a look at Hymn to the Wild ...
- 11.3k
12
votes
6
answers
803
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What is the difference in meaning between "Это моя машина" and "Эта моя машина"?
The Memrise course "Russian grammar through sentences translates "This is my car" as "Это моя машина." I don't understand why we don't use the feminine Эта in this sentence.
Translate.Ru translates ...
- 511
12
votes
3
answers
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Why does скучать mean both "to be bored" and "to miss"
I was writing a letter to a friend where I said "скучаю тебя" (to mean "I miss you"). But then I remembered that "скучать" means "to be bored" and I panicked because I thought I misremembered the verb ...
- 3,071
12
votes
2
answers
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сдавать/сдать экзамен
During my Russian classes and later, I never felt comfortable with the expressions "to take an exam" and "to pass an exam" as сдавать экзамен and сдать экзамен. It doesn't seem to me like taking an ...
- 4,964
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votes
3
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When are diminutive forms of time words (e.g., часик, неделька, годик) used?
I was searching the Russian National Corpus recently and in the results I noticed that nouns referring to duration in time are sometimes marked with a diminutive suffix, as in the following examples:
...
- 223
11
votes
10
answers
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What's the difference between "люблю" and "обожаю"?
I was doing a Clozemaster exercise and it asked to translate "I love reading" to Russian. I thought of putting Люблю читать but the correct answer that the exercise wanted was Обожаю читать. What's ...
- 113
11
votes
4
answers
951
views
Почему люди путают цифры и числа?
Очень часто наблюдаю во всевозможных источниках, что люди почему-то путают понятия число и цифра.
Например:
3 млрд. - очень большая цифра для ...
Хотелось бы озвучить цифру...
И дальше ...
- 8,346
11
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1
answer
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What is the difference between "ещё" and "больше"?
I know they both mean 'more' ? But there useage seems to differ, is there a rule of thumb?
- 240
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votes
4
answers
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радиус-вектор vs. вектор-строка
Yesterday I came across the term радиус-вектор in physics, which surprised me because the order of the two parts is reversed by comparison with the terms вектор-строка and вектор-столбец in linear ...
- 4,964
11
votes
3
answers
764
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спускаться/опускаться, но подниматься
If a person goes up (e.g., on a staircase), then человек поднимается. If an elevator is going up, then лифт поднимается. That's the same verb for the person and for the elevator. However, if a person ...
- 4,964
11
votes
3
answers
661
views
Particle же vs Particle -то
What is the difference in the meaning between the particles "же" and "-то"?
For example,
Он же не пришёл.
Vs.
Он-то не пришёл.
- 451
11
votes
3
answers
517
views
Is there a difference between "порадовать" and "обрадовать"
When someone is about to tell you some long-awaited news:
Угадай, что мне сказал шеф сегодня.
Guess what my boss told me today.
you may ask him y saying one of these phrases:
Давай, порадуй ...
- 6,558
10
votes
5
answers
3k
views
What is the difference between "рядом", "около" and "возле"?
These three words mean 'near'. It seems около & возле are synonyms. Can the same be said for рядом?
- 337
10
votes
5
answers
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What people are called boars ("кабан") and why?
I discovered yesterday that the Russians often use the word "кабан" ("wild boar") or its Old Russian analogue "вепрь" to talk about people:
(1) Что ещё раз доказывает, ...
- 11.3k
10
votes
9
answers
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Is there any difference between торопиться и спешить?
Can спешить replace торопиться in this sentence, for example:
“на вашем месте я не торопился бы критиковать все направо и налево…”
- 8,265