Questions tagged [выбор-слова]
Questions about the difference in meaning or usage between two or more words.
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Imperfective and Perfective Aspects for Non-Personal Moods
The relevance of aspect for the correct usage of verbs seems to be explained only for the personal moods of verbs (e.g. indicative), but what is the meaning of aspect for the impersonal moods, such as ...
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Разница между словами "эскапада" и "эпатаж"
Слово эпатаж, которое словари определяют как
Поведение, намеренно нарушающее общепринятые нормы и правила;
скандальная выходка.
встречается отностельно часто в речи.
Слово эскапада ...
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1
answer
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What's the difference between "очень приятно" and "приятно познакомиться"?
On some site I was on months ago (I can't recall), it says that "очень приятно" is "nice to meet you" and I've heard a native Russian use that phrase. But, I've also used the Nemo app a bit and it ...
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1
answer
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How does "следует" behave towards "должен", "надо" and "нужно"
There is this question about надо and нужно, but how do
следует,
должен,
надо and
нужно
behave towards each other? For instance
Тебе следует купить новую лопату.
How would this sentence ...
6
votes
2
answers
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views
"в/на материковом/континентальном Китае"
Which one is correct:
на материковом Китае or
в материковом Китае
and also:
на континентальном Китае or
в континентальном Китае
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answers
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What's the difference between читать and прочесть?
Both seem to mean "to read", so what's the diff?
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answers
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"понима́ть" or "понять"
When saying that I don't know the language a friend taught me:
Я не понимаю по-ру́сски.
On a (German) language learner site they write to use
Извините, я не понял.
when not understanding what ...
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3
answers
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Is there really any difference between "чай долго остывал" and "чай долго не остывал"?
I'm wondering if there is really any difference between "чай долго остывал" and "чай долго не остывал".
На мой взгляд, в первом случае идет просто констатация факта, а во втором случае делается акцент ...
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Отвергать, отрицать, отклонять, отказать
How do these words:
oтвергать
отклонять
отказать
отрицать
line up with some common English equivalents:
refuse
decline
reject
deny (this is the most different of the 4)
My rough understanding is:
...
6
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2
answers
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views
Is день used with на or в?
I have seen that день is used with both prepositions (на and в), but I'm not sure which one to use. For example,
на следующий день
на день рождения
в этот день
At least I feel that it is always used ...
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13
answers
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How can I say in Russian "I am not afraid to write anything"?
The question is in the title of my post.
Somehow this simple idea made me really confused as to how I can express it in Russian.
My first attempt was:
(1) Я не боюсь писать всё.
But I guess ...
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6
answers
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A Russian verb for finding support for one's idea or theory from a hardly-relevant source
What verb would best describe in Russian the act of trying to find some support for one's idea or theory from some source that doesn't necessarrily support or even focus on that idea?
For example,
...
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6
answers
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Is there a positive Russian word for a whistleblower?
Let's suppose some students gather every evening in a student dormitory and make loud noise till late night by playing guitar, talking, singing, laughing, etc., and a female student from the same ...
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3
answers
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What is the difference between "eврей" and "иудей"?
I always thought that "Jew" was "eврей", but I have also heard the usage of "иудей". What is the difference? They appear to be the same in the dictionaries that I have checked. Are they completely the ...
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4
answers
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What's the difference between "ученица" and "студентка"?
It feels like the latter is more specific...
Which one should I use when addressing a high-school student?
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4
answers
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Концепт VS концепция
В чем семантическая разница между словами «концепт» и «концепция»?
Верно ли говорить «концепт добра и зла»? Различие между лево и право — это концепция? Любовь — это концепт?
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How is являться different from есть and быть
Consider these sentences:
это -- ошибка
это является ошибкой
From what I can tell, these sentences both mean "This is a mistake". Probably they can be paraphrased explicitly using есть and быть as ...
5
votes
2
answers
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views
When can I omit the word "есть"?
What's the difference between:
у папы семь собак
and
у папы есть семь собак
Are both sentences used? When can I omit есть? On a daily basis which of these would you use?
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ходил / сходил / пошёл
I was told that :
пошёл - went somewhere and (usually) haven’t come back yet (and told that I can use ушёл here too) if you state it as a fact or as a part of a story with other actions following one ...
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answers
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What's the difference between single что and reduplicated что что?
At times, I've heard native Russian speakers say что что, instead of single что. For example,
(I say something that is incomprehensible to a waitress.)
Что-что?
Is there any difference between что-...
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3
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How to refer to female friends in plural form?
I have friend (girl) and she's too jealous. I just want to mention her in Russian language that I have another friends (girls) and she cannot avoid me to be with them, especially when she's not my ...
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3
answers
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What is the difference between "ребенок" and "ребёнок"?
I found the following sentence:
Это мой ребёнок.
I looked up for the word and it returned "a child" or "a baby".
However, it seems that "ребенок" (е, not ё) also returned "a child" or "a baby".
...
5
votes
3
answers
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Ровно или равно?
Оба слова переводятся на польский и английский языки как "równy" и "equal", соответственно.
Есть ли между ними какая-то разница?
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votes
4
answers
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views
How shall I say "star" and "unstar" (as in Github) in Russian?
Как сказать "star" и "unstar" (типа как отметить репозиторий звёздочной на GitHub'е или снять такую отметку) кратко и ясно? Желательно литературно, без "лайкнуть" и т.д.
How to say "star" and "unstar"...
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answers
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views
Best word to describe what a педант does?
What would be the best word to describe what a педант does?
In the following list there are some people along with the things normally do:
Мазохист занимается мазохизмом.
Казуист занимается ...
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votes
3
answers
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"Индустрия выдержала удар пандемией" - why instrumental here?
In this sentence:
Книжная индустрия выдержала удар пандемией (source)
why is пандемия in the instrumental? I understand that the sentence means "The book industry endured (survived) the hit of ...
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votes
3
answers
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Oдин or раз (Rammstein Moskau lyrics)
In Rammstein's "Moskau" the singer uses "раз два три" which I had understood as meaning "one, two, three", however I am now learning that the proper way to count up would be "один два три". I've come ...
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answers
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What's the difference between the two suffixes -то and -нибудь?
Can someone, somehow please explain what the differences are between the suffixes -то and -нибудь? They tend to decorate words like как, кто, где, что, когда́ as in
как-то, как-нибудь (somehow)
кто-...
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answers
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views
Use of ‘это’ after a dash
Is there a particular significance to the use of это after a dash? For instance, I think Москва — столица России or Москва — это столица России mean the same thing. But I don't know the point of ...
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3
answers
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views
What is difference between вождь and лидер?
When one should use the first or the second? Is вождь a direct equivalent to English headman?
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3
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"Сказать" and "поговорить" as perfective aspects of "говорить" in the past tense
I'm struggling to understand the difference between говорить/сказать and говорить/поговорить.
I've been making notes from the Master Russian website, which lists говорить/сказать as meaning to say, ...
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4
answers
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How to decide whether to use "делать" vs "готовить" in cooking?
I have found the following sentences:
Он делает салат.
Они готовят суп.
Она готовит десерт.
In my dictionary, делать means do or make while готовить means prepare. But how can I decide which to use ...
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2
answers
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When do you use так как, потому что, из-за, благодаря, по, ради
There are many words in Russian for 'because'. I am unclear whether they are equivalent or are they used in different situations.
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Не отвести глаз или не свести глаз?
Is there any difference in meaning between these two expressions?
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1
answer
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What is the difference between пытаться and стараться?
I am trying to understand the difference between the words "пытаться" and "стараться".
According to the dictionaries that are available both mean "try" or "attempt" something, but in slightly ...
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2
answers
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Differentiate Russian words for "nowadays"
сегодня
ныне
в настоящее время
нынче
в наше время
в наши дни
As the ngram shows в наше время / в наши дни are rather seldom. Maybe they are somewhat profound.
Anyway, I'd like to know how сегодня, ...
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1
answer
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To imply "but" when should I use "а" and when should I use "но"?
I want to imply but
Now, a can mean both and and but
And, но also means but
So, when should I use a and when should I use но?
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What is the difference between "закат" and "заход"?
Could you please describe situation, when one word should be used instead of other?
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Are there any differences between "купи дорогой сыр" and "купи дорогого сыру"?
The first example appears to be not flective at all, like in analytical languages. The second is sound more correctly to me, because it's using grammatical case... Am I right? The second is right and ...
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What word was used in Russian for line before the borrowing of "линия"?
What word was used in Russian for a line before линия was borrowed in the 18th century?
Was it черта? Or something else?
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What do "случайно" and "не случайно" mean?
Somebody sent me a letter that included this sentence
Извини, это я сделала не случайно.
I looked up случайно and it had the definition
accidentally, by accident, casually, by chance
So I ...
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answer
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поде́лать vs сделать, both mean to make/to do and are perfective
Beginner here.
I'm trying to figure out the difference between поде́лать and сделать.
According to the above wiktionary links, they both mean to make / to do and are both perfective verbs.
Are they ...
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2
answers
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What is the difference between "кафедра" and "факультет"?
It seems both words can translate to "department", "college", or "school", and each of those English words refers to some division of a higher educational institution.
How does one distinguish the ...
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Aspect following должен
Is there any rule governing the choice of aspect following forms of должен? It seems that in a negative sentence with должен, the best choice is often the imperfective, i.e.:
Мы не должны были ...
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3
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What's the difference between стихи and стихотворение?
It sounds like стихотворение has something to do with творческий, so I'd guess it's more like epic poetry, but I was taught поэм/поэзия is used for epic poems. Is стихи just short for стихотворение?
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Difference between помнить and запомнить?
What's the difference between помнить and запомнить?
Both are translated as "remember" in Google Translate.
[I know there's another question already on the difference between помнить and вспомнить. ...
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answers
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Смельчак - храбрец
Чем отличаются слова смельчак и храбрец?
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3
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В чем разница между чистящий и очищающий?
Мне интересно в чем разница между чистящий и очищающий. Спасибо.
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Колготки or колготы?
There was a small discussion between texnic and me about the appropriate way to denote tights - a classical question on forums related to Russian linguistics. As I do not consider myself an expert in ...
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2
answers
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What is the difference in usage between "ветвление" and "разветвление"?
The word ветвление (branching, ramification) appears to be a purely technical synonym for разветвление. I can find разветвление in ordinary dictionaries, but ветвление is not there, although it is ...