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"Нелегкая" (adj.) literally means "not light [i.e. heavy]" and is used primarily in the sense of "not easy, hard, complicated" (life, choice, subject). In the context of this old saying "нелегкая нес …

This "[smth.] in nominative+instrumental" construction is used in conversational speech, indeed, when you want to convey "[smth.] is fine [by itself]/does as it must do, but ..." or "putting [smth.] a …

Other similar examples would be: "брать измором" -- "to wear down (the issue, person, etc.)"; "брать нервом" (oldish; used in 1930s "Вратарь республики") -- "to do/achieve by the strength of spirit, n …

What's omitted in such a phrase is expansion/explanation of the ellipsis to the tune of "still same old self [compared with old self who was/did/looked/etc. ...]". Actually, "все такой/такая/такие же …

That's the ("clear") imperative form use case. The (tending to) future tense use would include some introducing words, e.g.: "Думаю, вы согласитесь, что..." (I think/believe you'll agree that...); "Ве …

Handling this a little differently: "не" is straightforward "no/not", but "ни" may indeed mean "nothing", like @shabunc rightly says, but also, depending on context, may mean "neither" or "nor" or sor …

Well, "тетка" (written with "e", BTW) wasn't considered an "improper" form of naming the relative in the 19th c. language (and even more so when peasants were considered). In some regional dialects " …

Yes, you're right, "нет уж" expression serves as an intensifier, introducing a (somewhat) emotional attitude of the speaker into the phrase, sometimes even as a joke. It does not add anything to the c …

When you are freezing cold, all your muscles start shaking, trying to generate heat. Likewise the jaw muscles, like @Alex_ander says, so "teeth do not meet teeth" (and when you try to speak in that co …

No difference in meaning, the first phrase just using a contracted form of the expression. Might indicate more hurried or emotional speech, and might not, just speaker's preference. Both phrases rathe …

In the context of that brief example there's no perceivable distinction. The meaning of "разбираться" here is "to look into (smth.), to process (smth.)" ; for "справляться" it's "to (begin to) cope, m …

The verb "творить" was "always" having as one of the meanings "to make mischief", with perfective "натворить" rather restricted to that use, and both forms were generally used when referring to childr …

Nos. 1 and 4 are plain, narrative variants, slightly emphasising "his last word" meaning and differing in grammar only. No. 2 changes emphasis to "my name", stays in the narrative style. No. 3 reord …

This conversational expression, which is indeed much more popular in the form @Quassnoi points out: "не царское это дело"--"not a job for a tsar", means more precisely "I/you/... won't bother with tha …