All Questions
4,665
questions
6
votes
2
answers
438
views
Повторение короткого слова/частицы дважды подряд ("вот он он" и т.п.)
Недавно при разговоре с одним моим знакомым я заметил, что он изредка в своей речи повторяет некоторые короткие слова дважды, причём такое повторение не звучит неправильно, а, наоборот, даже как-то ...
- 161
2
votes
1
answer
120
views
when to use adjective and noun versus noun and a genitive noun
I tried to form the English sentence "he is public enemy number one" and came up with «Он общественный враг номер один», but google prefers «Он враг общества номер один», which to me means ...
- 23
2
votes
3
answers
198
views
What's the meaning of "было" in these contexts/sentences?
I'm wondering what the purpose and meaning of "было" is in these sentences, and if it is a conjugation of "быть" or a separate word. The word "было" meaning "there ...
- 329
-1
votes
1
answer
176
views
Difference between "Я бы хотел..." and "Прошу вас"
What construction would you use when writting a letter to a bank or your boss, asking for something
Я бы хотел попросить вас сделать что-то...
Прошу вас сделать что-то...
Я бы хотел, чтобы вы ...
In ...
- 396
1
vote
3
answers
309
views
Rendering emphatic "that" in Russian
Below are two uses of that in the sense of настолько. In the first example, it just means not very, but in the second one, it means (emphatically) to the extent you’re implying(!). How is this ...
- 8,265
1
vote
4
answers
120
views
Is "оформить товар двумя частями" correct?
You're ordering a product and the seller offers you a installment plan. You want to pay it off in two installments.
Прошу вас оформить это товар двумя частями
Прошу вас выпустит это товар в два ...
1
vote
3
answers
152
views
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 ...
- 221
-1
votes
2
answers
261
views
How to reply to пожалуйста (you're welcome)
If I'm not mistaken, "пожалуйста" means both "please" and "you're welcome" in Russian. But how do I reply if someone says "You're welcome" to me in Russian? I'...
- 221
1
vote
3
answers
964
views
Is it "How's your name?"?
Why is it:
Как тебя зовут? = How's your name?
and not:
Что тебя зовут? = What's your name?
- 133
1
vote
2
answers
130
views
Why is кто not accusative in the question Кто им был нужен? (Who did they need?)
In Russian, нужен/нужно/нужна/нужны take the dative. The person needing something is put in the dative case. So им был нужен is quite clear and means "they needed". Now, the sentence:
Кто ...
- 335
0
votes
0
answers
67
views
What is "ж" by itself? [duplicate]
Google says "ж" is one of 10 single-lettered words in the Russian alphabet. I've tried searching what "ж" means on its own, but most of the results were either written entirely in ...
- 221
2
votes
1
answer
180
views
Negation: When to use the nominative and when the genitive
I've always thought when expressing negation in Russian, the genitive was always used. As in case of not having something:
"У меня нет машины."
However, I know I'm wrong. I came across the ...
- 335
0
votes
1
answer
130
views
Квитанция на оплату налоги или об оплате налоги
If I'm emailing the bank to ask for a receipt for a payment and want to sound formal, what should I use? What would sound most natural?
Прошу вас прислать квитанцию на оплату налоги(обучение....)
- 11
2
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Difference between "это" and "этот"
Are these two words interchangeable or is there a difference? My online dictionary says that "это" and "этот" both mean "this". I'm a bit confused.
- 221
3
votes
3
answers
213
views
Are there natural ways to say "No small feat"?
I'd like to be able to say a phrase like "no small feat", if Russians ever talk that way. In other words, I want to express that something has a level of difficulty which might be ...
- 33
3
votes
1
answer
700
views
What is the meaning of the Russian proverb "После дождичка в четверг"?
I have heard this saying, После дождичка в четверг, a few times before and I tried looking it up, but all I found was a movie and a pretty confusing translation: After rain on Thursday. What is the ...
- 221
0
votes
1
answer
433
views
Diminutive Short Form for Russian Male Names
I heard that in Russian, the diminutive short form of girl names often ends in "а" or "ка", but how do the diminutive short forms (I don't mean the endearing form) of male names ...
- 221
3
votes
4
answers
277
views
Why много раз if много requires genitive plural in the case of countables?
I'm not sure if I understand completely the usage of the genitive case here, or if this is simply a one-time thing based on this individual expression. If, for instance, Много + кошка = Много кошек ...
- 98
1
vote
2
answers
202
views
Жарко́е: fried or roasted?
According to Ozhegov dictionary, Жарко́е is
Жареное кушанье, обычно мясное.
As Жареное can mean both fried or roasted, this definition is somewhat ambiguous. The Oxford Russian Dictionary translates ...
- 343
2
votes
2
answers
185
views
"Нефть, которой избегают" или "которую"?
Сosider this sentence "Нефтеперерабатывающие заводы в этих странах раскупают дешевую российскую нефть, которой избегает большинство западных покупателей."
Shouldn't the part "нефть, ...
- 123
4
votes
2
answers
319
views
How is "дача" related to "дать"?
I recently began working through "Leveraging Your Russian with Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes" by Gary Browning, David K. Hart and Raisa Solovyova. In it, they list дача as being derived ...
- 113
3
votes
2
answers
283
views
The strange behavior of “обо” (=about), apparently valid only for two expressions? What is the historical reason?
In Russian, the preposition “o” when meaning "about" becomes “обо” when we say “обо мне” (=about me) and “обо всей книге” (=about all the book) but why do we then say:
“о многих книгах » (=...
- 335
1
vote
0
answers
85
views
What are the lyrics to this song translated into english? [closed]
Улыбка - Крошка енот - Moscow Boys' Choir DEBUT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANNQrVKUjws
The video says its from the song or poem Smile from "Baby Raccoon".
- 21
0
votes
2
answers
108
views
Conflicting accusative case declensions
I recently bought Russian For Dummies and it says that the only thing in the accusative case that depends on animacy is for consonant (zero) endings (animate -> add -a, inanimate -> no change). ...
- 23
4
votes
2
answers
137
views
Aspect and tense for the verb Войти/Bxодить
In a charming old book "Russian Through Pictures" designed by Harvard University we have a picture of a mother and daughter preparing to enter a shop, and the text underneath says
Они ...
1
vote
1
answer
75
views
Translating constructions of the form "a lot to..." and "little to..."
I was wondering how to translate constructions of the form "a lot to ..." or "little to ..." in Russian. For example "I have little to say", "I have a lot to do"...
- 395
1
vote
1
answer
271
views
On the etymology of Чубайс
I am curious about the origin of Anatoly Borisovich's family name. Is it derived from Чуб? Or, perhaps, do Чубайс and Чуб have a common origin? Is anything at all known about it?
0
votes
1
answer
59
views
Would someone have an Excel list of at least 20’000 most frequent Russian lemmas with part of speech based on a large and modern corpus?
For non-commercial purposes (personal research), I have researched the resources freely available on Internet and have found lists that did not contain lemmas with part of speech or were based upon ...
- 335
6
votes
4
answers
261
views
In the impersonal expression “Мне везёт” (=I am lucky), what was originally the implicit subject and what would be its literal translation?
I understand that in the expression “Мне везёт”, it is not the transitive verb “везти́” (to carry by transportation - unidirectional) that is used but it is the intransitive verb “везти́”, meaning to ...
- 335
2
votes
2
answers
102
views
Записаться на курсы, genitiv/accusativ case
I have the following sentence:
Я хочу записаться на курсы немецкого языка.
english: I would like to register/sign up for the german language course(s).
The question of the case is to be answered ...
- 335
1
vote
4
answers
339
views
How do you pronounce время?
I've been studying Russian for like 3-4 years and I still don't know how to pronounce this word. I see the я and I want to say ya but the more I listen to people speak the more it sounds like vremeh ...
- 41
3
votes
1
answer
180
views
What is the difference between Посещать and Навещать
What is the difference between Посещать and Навещать? I think that they both mean "to visit".
0
votes
3
answers
157
views
What is the difference between возложить and наложить?
Both возлагать/возложить and накладывать/наложить seem to have the meaning of putting something onto others. But I could not find anything that explains the difference between two.
So what difference ...
- 1,157
0
votes
1
answer
160
views
Expressing irony and sarcasm
How would you translate sarcastic phrases like "oh yeah, that would be GREAT" in reaction to unwanted advances?
- 1
0
votes
1
answer
478
views
Есть ли у русского языка официальный словарь?
Существует ли у русского языка единый официальный, "авторитетный" (толковый, и не только) словарь?
В рунете ясного ответа не нашёл, кроме этой древненькой статейки.
Какое состояние дел на ...
- 203
0
votes
1
answer
131
views
What does что ~ что ... mean?
In the following sentence:
Французы различают стадии отношений, а в России как бы считается важным максимально быстро начать пользоваться такими называниями как "жена", "моя жена" ...
- 1,157
-1
votes
4
answers
291
views
Can someone help explain case declension
In my work book there are a set of rules for Nominative case ect. Now what I’m having trouble with is what the difference is between (first declension, second declension, and third declension.) In the ...
0
votes
1
answer
120
views
Does отходить/отойти include the moving by train?
While learning on Memrise course (Top 10,000 words, Part 1), I found that отоходить/отойти shows the meaning of not only leaving by foot, but also leaving by train. The user-based Memrise course often ...
- 1,157
1
vote
0
answers
108
views
How to detect automated translations? [closed]
I got a translation from a translator which I found online and feel like they might not know Russian at all and just used some of the services like Google translate. I wonder if there is some way to ...
- 119
1
vote
2
answers
752
views
Detailed rules when о (=about) becomes об or обо?
I have gathered from various sites/resources, the following rules concerning the preposition “o” which, when its meaning is “about”, is always followed by the prepositional case (предложный падеж):
1. ...
- 335
1
vote
1
answer
129
views
The perfective verb опереться (to lean on) has the strangest conjugation in the future and imperative, what is the etymological reason for it?
From the impf/pf pair опираться/опереться (=to lean on), опереться seems to be the only verb that exhibits the following strange conjugations, though apparently belonging to the -e- conjugation group:
...
- 335
0
votes
1
answer
124
views
Should I use singular or plural after некоторый?
In the following sentence:
Некоторые мужчины/мужчин плохие.
I'm not sure whether the singular or the plural should be used. At least in my dictionary, for the entry сколько, it says that if the noun ...
- 1,157
1
vote
2
answers
112
views
What's the most common usage and meaning of the verb исходить, which belongs to two impf/pf verb pairs, each with a different meaning?
According to a table of frequency I found, the verb исходить ranks pretty high (1716 out of 100,000). However, since it has two usages and meanings, I wonder which one is most frequently used:
in the ...
- 335
2
votes
2
answers
214
views
Singular usage of волосы
The word волосы only exists now in plural form. Was the obsolete form волос ever used to refer to anything but a single strand of hair, like in a mass noun (e.g., мокрый волос instead of мокрые волосы)...
- 4,964
1
vote
2
answers
281
views
What's the difference between дочь and дочка?
What's the difference between дочь and дочка? They seem synonymous, so how does one choose between one or the other?
- 145
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Do Russian use the Cyrillic Thousands Sign (“҂” U+0482)?
In English (at least in North America, don't know about other English area) you see things like 10k as an abbreviation of 10000. I'm wondering if Russian does something similar, particularly ...
- 81
4
votes
2
answers
111
views
Tenses used in relative clauses
а) Читая книгу, Иван не обращал внимания на то, что происходило вокруг.
б) Читая книгу, Иван не обращал внимания на то, что происходит вокруг.
Are both sentences correct?
Do they have the same meaning?...
- 343
1
vote
2
answers
177
views
Epenthetic л: why there is no л in the conjugation of the verb звать between the в and the ё in зовёшь, зовёт, зовём and зовёте?
I understand that an epenthetic л should always appear between any of the five labial consonants б, п, м, ф and в and the sound /j/ (except in front of the sound /ja/), so that, for example, in the ...
- 335
0
votes
2
answers
240
views
"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 ...
- 121
1
vote
1
answer
57
views
First conjugation verbs and first person singular in -ю or in -y ? What is the phonological or orthographical underlying rule?
It seems that for first conjugation verbs (or -e- conjugation verbs i.e. those with endings in -ю/-у, -ешь, -ет, -ем, -ете, -ют/ут), the -y ending is always used at the first person singular after any ...
- 335