59
votes
Accepted
Why do Russians call their women expensive ("дорогая")?
There's nothing special about Russian. In many European languages there's one word that can be used to state that something is highly esteemed and/or expensive.
French - cher means both expensive (...
43
votes
Accepted
Russian word for a male zebra
Russian has a long standing tradition of narrating fables (stories featuring anthropomorphic animals).
In this tradition, the grammatical gender of name of the species (not necessarily the proper ...
- 56k
27
votes
Accepted
Speed and Velocity in Russian
The Russian word скорость is used for both speed and velocity. If you need to be more specific, use вектор скорости ('the vector of speed' or velocity) or модуль/величина вектора скорости ('the ...
- 16.6k
27
votes
Why does she say "Я понимаешь" and not "Я понимаю"?
Right punctuation is
Я, понимаешь, я это чувствую, потом мы всё наверстаем, я предчувствую
The translation is
I, you know, I'm feeling it, we will catch all then, I forefeel it.
"Понимаешь&...
- 1,158
21
votes
Russian word for a male zebra
Zebra is a kind of horse, so жеребец (meaning stallion, a male horse) would be a perfectly valid word to refer to a male zebra. Of course it has to be clear from the context that the male horse you're ...
- 812
20
votes
Accepted
The original word for a wild boar
You are probably looking for “вепрь”. While understandable to a modern Russian speaker, it still has an air of “fairytale-ness”. I personally would just use “кабан”. I don't know how and why “кабан” ...
- 1,537
20
votes
What's the difference between "люблю" and "обожаю"?
Люблю читать is 'I like reading' while your task was to translate 'I love reading'. 'To love' is neutral любить when referring to relationships between people, but when it refers to things or ...
- 26.1k
19
votes
Accepted
Is there a difference between "отель" and "гостиница"?
Well, they are interchangeable but oтель has subtle connotations of something more if not luxurious but at least of higher class, so one can hardly name something very shitty отель ( unless it is ...
- 38k
19
votes
Why do Russians call their women expensive ("дорогая")?
дорогой/ая is not only expensive, it's also dear, the word has at least two meanings
Not only women are called дорогая in the sense of dear, men are addressed as дорогой as well, in formal ...
- 19.6k
18
votes
Accepted
How can I say in Russian "I am not afraid to write anything"?
To eliminate the awkwardness of such double negations a safer approach is to (steer away from English patterns and) use сложноподчиненное предложение, e.g.:
Нет ничего, о чём я побоялась бы написать.
...
- 3,012
17
votes
Accepted
Different expressions for "ten" in Russian: десять, десятка, десяток
Десятка - Typically, an informal reference to something numbered 10 (like a bus following route 10) or about a 10 ruble banknote (in the past, when it mattered more). Now, it can sometimes informally ...
- 11.9k
17
votes
What is the difference between "ещё" and "больше"?
"Ещё" and "больше" intersect only partially and have a lot of usages that are by no means interchangeable.
"Ещё" can mean:
yet (like in "Я ещё не решил, идти ли мне в институт")
again (like in "...
- 38k
17
votes
What's the difference between "люблю" and "обожаю"?
I think that it's a three layered thing in Russian:
мне нравится читать
я люблю читать
я обожаю читать
Just like @V.V. also do believe that "я обожаю" is too strong here. After all, we'll end up ...
- 38k
16
votes
Accepted
Difference between "девушка", "девочка" and "подруга"
Подруга is the feminine form of "friend", друг and can mean, depending on the context, both: either just a friend or a girlfriend (though this is figurative and obsolete).
Девушка is a girl ...
- 38k
16
votes
Accepted
Is there any difference between "окно" and "окошко"?
Окошко is a diminutive for окно.
Russian readily uses diminutive forms for some nouns in their neutral meaning, like солнышко instead of солнце, листок instead of лист, червяк instead of червь etc.
...
- 56k
15
votes
Accepted
What's the difference between "благодарю" and "спасибо"?
They are interchangeable to a certain degree. Благодарю is much more formal. In some cases, it might also be considered more polite. This being said, Спасибо is absolutely "safe" and polite in any ...
15
votes
Accepted
What is the Russian word for the color "teal"?
When I was born, my parents owned zero houses. I would call this color бирюзовый (literally, "turquoise"). As far as I understand, it's another English word for "teal".
I own more ...
- 56k
14
votes
Accepted
The infinitive of "уймитесь"?
It's "уняться". Well, usually the answer supposed to be somewhat wider, but in this particular case that's virtually all that can be said)
UPD: To make this answer slightly more informative, here's ...
- 38k
14
votes
Accepted
Is there a positive Russian word for a whistleblower?
I think there is a good word изобличитель. In my opinion it suits perfectly. It has positive meaning for people who think that being a prophet gains a profit =) For people who think that unveiling ...
- 354
14
votes
Accepted
"Индустрия выдержала удар пандемией" - why instrumental here?
In this very case it is rather problematic to tell if it is a mistake or an intended pun. The Instrumental case names an instrument, and удар пандемией alludes to удар плетью or удар кулаком and ...
- 26.1k
13
votes
Is there a difference between "болен" and "заболел"?
In most cases they are synonyms.
Я болен means I am sick at the
moment. (I am sick)
Я заболел means I wasn't sick before,
but now I am (I got sick)
The context:
-You don't look well. How are ...
- 606
13
votes
Difference between "азбука" and "алфавит"
In addition to the correct answer provided I just want to add that азбука can be used to indicate something very basic, the most fundamental laws, like in following phrases:
Это просто настолько ...
- 38k
13
votes
A Russian verb for finding support for one's idea or theory from a hardly-relevant source
You can use the informal word приплести to strongly express your disapproval and skepticism about it. It would emphasize the irrelevance of the source used.
В поддержку своих безумных идей он ...
- 11.9k
13
votes
Accepted
Difference between "папа" and "отец"?
In Russian is there a difference between папа and отец? If there is,
is it like Dad vs Daddy in English?
Yes, there is, and no, it is not like Dad vs Daddy. ''Отец'' is a formal, official word and ...
- 1,467
13
votes
How can I say in Russian "I am not afraid to write anything"?
I believe the tum_'s answer is very good in the context.
A shorter version without the сложноподчиненное предложение would be
Я ни о чём не побоюсь написать
- 1,073
13
votes
Accepted
Как правильно использовать "внесите пароль" или "введите пароль"?
“Введите” is correct. “Внесите”, to me personally, sounds
like a verb your would use when talking about money. E.g.:
Внесите необходимую сумму.
- 1,537
13
votes
What is the difference between "рядом", "около" and "возле"?
"Возле" and "около" are indeed quite interchangeable (thanks @shabunc) when we are talking about location. Small nuance is that "около" implies more vague and potentially ...
- 4,339
12
votes
Accepted
Почему люди путают цифры и числа?
Тут дело не в неграмотности населения, а в многозначности слова,точнее в расширении значения в языке. Посмотрите в словарь.
Значение слова Цифра по Ефремовой:
Цифра - 1. Знак для обозначения числа. ...
- 21.9k
12
votes
Difference between "девушка", "девочка" and "подруга"
As a native Russian speaker, I wanted to drop a couple of comments...
Девушка means "girlfriend" if and only if it comes with a possessive (pro)noun, for example: "моя девушка", &...
- 129
12
votes
Accepted
Succinct and gender-neutral Russian word for "writer"
In Russia there's ongoing discussion - and it's getting quite fervent- on whether so called feminitives (the English wiki is called just "Gender_marking_in_job_titles") should or shouldn't be used.
...
- 38k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible