Questions tagged [выражения]
Questions about the meaning, the origin, and the usage of multi-word expressions with more or less idiomatic or metaphorical meaning.
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"Отдать в плечо" translation [closed]
I've found a phrase винтовка отдала в плечо. Why is в плечо in this phrase? Is it part of an idiom or does it actually mean "the rifle recoiled into his shoulder"? This may be an obvious ...
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Difference between "какой это свитер?" and "что это за свитер?"
What's the difference between какой это свитер? & что это за свитер?
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The expression "в сенях"
I asked a related question on Italian Language StackExchange. In Осень by Pushkin, we have:
Люблю я пышное природы увяданье,
В багрец и в золото одетые леса,
В их сенях ветра шум и свежее дыханье,
...
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How should I parse the expression "в уровень кадке с"?
In Мой Пушкин by Marina Tsvetaeva, we have
сидела под роялем, затылком в уровень кадке с филодендроном
If we had "затылком в уровень с филодендроном", I would understand as "the neck ...
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When to use У меня over У меня есть?
I happened to notice that for most sentences in Russian, you use У меня есть [noun] for I have. For example:
⦿ I have a dog. У меня есть собака.
But for some sentences, you use either У меня есть [...
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What does "У богатых свои причуды" mean?
I don't quite get what this phrase means. What is the idea behind it and when/where is it used.
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The expression сыграть статью
In these verses by Boris Pasternak:
На свете былей непочатый край,
Ничем не замечательных - тем боле.
Не лез бы я и с этой, не сыграй
Статьи о ней своей особой роли.
I don't understand the ...
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4
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What case does the preposition "за" take?
Does "за" need to be followed by a particular grammatical case? If not, how do you explain this phrase from a poem:
за твоею спиной умолкает в кустах беготня
Or is it being used for some ...
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Interpretation of the construction: начать — не + [perfective infinitive]
In Вокзал by Boris Pasternak, we have this verse:
Начать — не исчислить заслуг.
After начать, I'd expect an infinitive or a noun. I tried to guess what this means and I was wondering whether ...
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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 ...
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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.
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Meaning of this sentence: "Купить нашу продукцию оптом и в розницу можно в специализированных магазинах."
I understand all of the words in this sentence, but I am struggling to parse the meaning by parsing the clauses.
Купить нашу продукцию оптом и в розницу можно в специализированных магазинах.
Is this ...
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What does "и" do in "Ну ты и дурак!"?
I come across "Ну ты и дурак!" often on the Internet. I understand that it means "What a fool you are!", however I cannot find what makes it a valid form in Russian.
My peeve is ...
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Difference between "к" and "за" in time expressions?
In my grammar textbook under the section of time expressions in the Russian language there is a table presented with various types of constructions per case. Under предложный падеж are listed the ...
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Chess drama - What does 1st line ('первой линии') mean please?
See the tweet from 2023 world chess champion challenger (and 2021), Russian supergrandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, regarding the Carlsen–Niemann controversy:
https://twitter.com/lachesisq/status/...
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What's the Russian expression for 'Well, duh!"?
Slang used to indicate that a statement is obvious, or that the answer to a question is an obvious "yes" — often in a derisive or sarcastic way.
"Physics is really hard." "...
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Equivalent of "a dime a dozen" in Russian
I was looking up "a dime a dozen" in Russian and the closest equivalent I found was "обычная шпана" on Reverso, but I'm pretty sure this was just a literal translation. The English ...
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"спасая от ветра", what is the meaning of this phrase?
I recently came across this phrase, and it seemed very poetic when I translated it. Unfortunately, I cannot find the origin of it.
"Что тебя держит, спасая от ветра, я, к сожалению, понять не ...
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What does "целый муравейник в поле загонял бы" mean?
In the comments to this video about БК-0010, there is a comment
За такой комп в детстве бы целый муравейник в поле загонял!!!!
I'm given to understand that комп is just short for компьютер, so that ...
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Is the phrase "Сумма денег" grammatically correct?
Is the phrase "Сумма денег" grammatically correct? My tutor was teaching me about "тавтология" and said that this phrase was a case of it. I asked my Russian friends about it and ...
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What does "переписала хату на кота" mean exactly?
A (apparently inciting) political poster has been posted in the city of Kamianske, reading as follows:
Взнала, що внук голосував за "регіони", переписала хату на кота
My friend (non-native)...
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Какие примеры стилистически-морфологических приёмов имитации иностранных и нерусских акцентов, и каких именно, существуют в русском языке? [closed]
Какие примеры стилистически-морфологических приёмов имитации иностранных и нерусских акцентов, и каких именно, существуют в русском языке?
Ну, всякие такие приемы, как пример : "вах, дарагой !&...
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Возможно ли смоделировать в русском истинно "Yoda style", чтоб он звучал так же страннейше как в английском?
По-моему, это невозможно - смоделировать в русском истинно "Yoda style", чтоб он звучал так же страннейше (полагаю, не ошибаюсь) как в английском.
Учитывая, что русский - язык флективно-...
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Phrase "на пальцах раскладывать"
In this video interview (at 48:43) about Russian cartoons, specifically about censorship of these cartoons abroad, the man interviewed uses the phrase "на пальцах раскладывать" referring to ...
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Understand why this is a joke
I can read Russian, and understand mostly what is written here:
But what I fail to see is why this is a joke? What makes it funny?
I am interested what am I missing in understanding in this joke that ...
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What is the difference between "в ходе" and "во время" if both can be used to mean "during"?
I wish I could provide more context, but too much time has passed and I can't remember, exactly, what it was I was trying to say. It might have been something like ...
During the summer my Spanish ...
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Употребление предлогов на, за и через - временные контрукции
Объясните пожалуйста как правильно употреблять предлоги за,на,через(или без предлогов) когда речь идёт о времени.
насколько я понимаю, предлог НА отвечает на вопрос "как долго?", а предлог ...
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A sentence (or a group of sentences) s.t. every letter of the alphabet is included exactly once [closed]
I recently came to an interesting concept called pangram. Pangram is a sentence that uses each letter of the alphabet at least once. A famous example is "Съешь же ещё этих мягких французских ...
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Need help with Russian interjections, figures of speech
I'm trying to find Russian equivalents for the following interjections/expressions:
"Don't!" (when we very much don't want someone to do something)
"No!" (to express dismay)
"...
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difference between "уже не" and "больше"
What's the difference between
Я больше не люблю тебя - I don't love you anymore
я уже не люблю тебя- I don't love you anymore.
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Что означает выражение "отмечен печатью рока"?
Увидела это выражение в книге Эми Чуа, и все никак не могу найти значение в интернете. Знаю, что книга была переведена с аннлийского. Заранее спасибо за ответ!
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Two questions about this sentence that I just wrote
I just wrote this sentence for a Russian essay (for reference it's from Tolstoy's story Filippok, the tl;dr being that a boy who is considered too young to go to school by his teachers and parents ...
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Сорьян = sorry?
I was recently working at a Russian startup with a low median age - most of the employees were under 30. I cannot count the number of times I heard folks saying "сорьян" to each other, but ...
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"Пусть расползётся пэрча" - what does it mean?
Can anyone help me understand what this phrase means? “пусть расползётся пэрча”
I’m sure it’s grammatically incorrect but I couldn’t find a proper interpretation of it.
I’m not understanding пэрча. I ...
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Is the expression "По рассказам" idiomatic?
I was trying to translate a song called "город устал" by "плохо", and one of the lines of the song says:
По рассказам всё было, но ты опоздал
I tried to get a word by word ...
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What is the meaning of this Russian profanity?
I am a new learner in the Russian language, and I don't know the rules of this exchange. But recently I came across this saying (I am sorry in advance for the phrase): "ёпта мохнатка":
Яже ...
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What does "Сейчас всё брошу и побегу!" mean?
Here's a dialog from a Japanese tutorial:
A: Слушай, зай, принеси нам кофе, а?
B: Сейчас всё брошу и побегу! Видишь, у меня фильм начинается.
“Сейчас всё брошу и побегу!” is literally translated as &...
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"Reading up" on а subject
I would like to know the conventional and/or colloquial way in Russian to express that one is reading up on a subject. In English, to read up on/about something means to inform oneself about a ...
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How to express condolences
One of my neighbours died some days ago. I want to write his widow a card (to not get in contact too much, because of corona-restrictions here) to express the condolences of our family. The widow ...
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Doubts about "бы ни" meaning "No matter what/ how much/ etc."
I know some Russian constructions which translate the English expressions "Whatever... [sth]", "Wherever... [swh]", "No matter how much... [things]". Those constructions ...
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После нас, хоть потоп - why is there хоть?
So I was searching the translation of the famous expression "Après nous, le déluge" and saw on Wikipedia that it's translated as После нас, хоть потоп. Having not seen хоть used in this way ...
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When was the expression "фунт презрения" introduced?
I am wondering when the expression фунт презрения was introduced. On Google Books, the oldest occurrence of фунт презрения seems to be in Slezkin's Козел в огороде (1923):
Но только в силу моего ...
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Please explain the phrase "Тоже мне новость!"
I saw this example sentence on LearnRussianWords.com:
То́же мне но́вость! Об э́том бы́ло изве́стно уже́ неде́лю наза́д.
The suggested translation was:
That's not news! It was known a week ago.
...
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What does "всякий взор" mean in this context? Is it a phrase?
So this is from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, so I'm not sure if this an archaic 19th century expression, because I don't see how the word взор is being used in this sentence. Does it just mean &...
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How do I tell the waiter I want another drink: "Я повторяю это" or "Повторите это"?
When I finish my drink, I've often heard waitresses ask me: "Вы повторите это?" or something like that (maybe I heard wrong). The problem is I don't know how to ask for another drink. Do I ...
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If a Russian girl calls herself a thawing pike (тающая щука), what could it mean?
I recently had a video call with a Russian girl, and in the middle of the conversation she called herself тающая щука. That made no sense in the context, so I used a mirror to try to understand what ...
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Are there Russian words for "close-minded" and "open-minded"?
I'm translating an English text into Russian and got stuck trying to find a Russian word for "close-minded." None came to my mind, so I looked in Reverso and I saw the following translation ...
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Is there a Russian equivalent of "red flag"?
In English, the term red flag is used as a metaphor to mean a sign suggestive of a possible danger or problem:
(1) Boyfriend not showing you his home is a huge red flag. (Link)
(2) I've just spent ...
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Why is this Russian expression an idiomatic example of mutually exclusive things?
The Russian idiom "и рыбку съесть, и на хуй сесть", whose literal meaning is "to eat fish and sit down onto a dick too," is an idiomatic way to say that your interlocutor is ...
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How should I understand and translate "закатить истерику"?
Some time ago, I took a test in which I had to translate some short texts from Russian into English. One of them contained the following sentence:
По приходу домой она закатила истерику.
My solution ...
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