When used to mean world
, мир
and свет
are synonymous, though the latter can sound somewhat poetic and is more often used in literature and set expressions than in day-to-day life. For example:
Ничего
на свете
лучше нетуЧем бродить друзьям
по белу свету
Or to quote the Russian national anthem:
Одна ты на свете
There are other situations where the two cannot be substituted for each other. For instance, one can't use свет
when talking about the world of ______
«В мире животных»
В мире политики.
Of course, both words also have other meanings which are entirely unrelated (e.g., peace
and light
).
Also note that мир
is used with the preposition в
, whereas свет is used with на
Ни за что
на свете
!Что
в мире
неизменно?