22
votes
Accepted
Equivalent letter for H in Russian?
Russian has no special letter for the Latin letter H, in different words it is rendered differently, you have to consult a dictionary every time a proper name has H. The main ways it can be written ...
- 25.8k
19
votes
The word подарок - abstract meaning?
Подарок means 'gift' in the sense of 'present'. It's usually a physical object indeed, but can be used in a sense of 'gift' in other cases as well - for example, something like "that back-pass ...
- 1,740
17
votes
Accepted
Difference between грусть, печаль, тоска?
Let's broaden your set of dark and depressive feelings.
Грусть ≈ sadness. The shortest and the lightest. May be caused by bad weather or a sad film/song/book.
Мне грустно от этой книги.
Серое осеннее ...
- 643
17
votes
Why has the word Жид (Jew) become a taboo in Russian?
As a rule you just can not ask question like "why some words has changed their meaning". Well, you can but quite often we just can not say why. Just like phonetic changes, semantical shifts ...
- 37.4k
15
votes
Accepted
"She wants him to like her." - Where is "her"?
"Her" isn't implied, there's just no need for it. Она хочет ему нравиться literally translates to "She wants to be liked by him". Hyper-literally, something like "she wants to disposition herself to ...
- 19k
14
votes
Accepted
Why do some people pronounce "о" as "a" and some just pronounce "o" as "o"?
This is a phenomenon called vowel reduction.
A good starting point would be the Wikipedia article on Russian phonology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_phonology#Vowel_mergers
In a nutshell, ...
- 47.7k
13
votes
Упалось vs Сдулось
No reason; it's a possible verb that never acquired a meaning to become an actual verb. It's just how you don't say "think down" or "open off" in English — it's not that there's something inherently ...
- 19k
13
votes
Accepted
How are the short forms of Russian patronymics formed?
Do all Russian patronymics have such forms? No. For example, Ilyich and Petrovna are never reduced.
Is there a simple rule to form them? What you took for short forms are merely phonetic reductions. ...
- 696
11
votes
Accepted
Is there a Russian equivalent of "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk?
The classic works on the topic are Rosenthal's books, namely Справочник по правописанию и стилистике.
It covers orthography, punctuation, word usage and sentence composition.
It's available online ...
- 47.7k
11
votes
Accepted
What are the rules of the locative case?
But just today, I notice that the locative case isn't used once it is
modified by an adjective?
Not quite, it's totally correct to say
На белом/рыхломadj. снегУ
На крутомadj. валУ
В ...
- 19.6k
11
votes
The word подарок - abstract meaning?
Подарок has got a figurative meaning in Russian, when we mention something causing great pleasure.
Ваш приход - большой подарок для меня.
Такая хорошая погода — просто подарок!
Его приезд — настоящий ...
- 20.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Original version of a passage by Gogol'
Cyrillic:
Да в целом мире не отыщете вы подобного наслажденья! Здесь, именно здесь подражает Богу человек. Бог предоставил себе дело творенья, как высшее всех наслажденье, и требует от человека ...
- 47.7k
10
votes
Does "Zzz" (sleep) have the same meaning in Russian?
No, it can not be used to symbolize sleep. Instead of it, we sometimes use "Хррр" to denote sleep.
- 296
10
votes
What does "так и есть" and "ну что ж" mean?
Так и есть means "that's right," "that's true." It's used to agree with someone:
Жизнь не проста. - Так и есть (= действительно, и правда, верно, согласен/согласна).
In English it's not always ...
- 1,685
9
votes
Accepted
What does прокачать mean
Yes, it's slang. Качать means pump. This word (by my opinion) came from bodybuilders, who pump theirs muscles. Today this word got wide meaning as improve something. Прокачать игрового персонажа в Wow....
- 106
9
votes
Accepted
I'm very confuse with this word "учить"?
both
Вася учит физику - Vasya learns/studies physics
Вася учит студентов - Vasya teaches students.
IIRC, there were questions about this word already.
Google Translate gave me not one but four ...
- 8,397
9
votes
Accepted
Difference between "ну" and "значит"
In the following explanation, translations are not at all word by word translations, and each translation relies on the context of the discussion used in the answer.
"Значит" translates to &...
- 206
9
votes
Очередь на Серова (=выставку Серова): A specific type of metonymy?
You are right. It's a metonymy. Here's an extract from the dictionary
МЕТОНИМИЯ (переименование) (троп)– перенос названия с одного предмета на другой на основании их смежности. Переименование может ...
- 20.5k
8
votes
Accepted
Communicate to Russians with only Latin alphabet
What you are searching for is translit:
Translit is a method of encoding Cyrillic letters with Latin ones. [...]
The translit system arose when Russian speakers first needed to write their ...
8
votes
Can ппц word use for a good manner?
This ппц is an abbreviated way to write the word пипéц (pee-PETS) which is in its turn a euphemism for the word пиздéц (peez-DETS), an obscene way to say "God damn!" or "Fucking shit!" It's an ...
- 25.8k
8
votes
Accepted
Which это? Particle or Special Adjective/Pronoun
Э́то is the subject in this case, it does not need to agree with пра́вда.
Э́то ма́льчик. It's / that's / this is a boy.
Э́то де́вочка. It's / that's / this is a girl.
Э́то молоко́. It's / that's / ...
- 15.3k
8
votes
Difference between царь and король?
The difference is mainly in word origin. Царь comes from Caesar and король comes from the name Карл, and its derivatives are used in Eastern Europe (however, it's цар in Bulgaria). The word king ...
- 11.8k
7
votes
How do you describe homosexual marriages in Russian?
Usually it's said
они заключили брак/брачный союз/связали себя узами брака
This is the way used by News Sites, Agencies and so on.
Your last two variants sound strange and therefore are not used.
- 170
7
votes
Accepted
"У папы есть вопросы" or "у папы вопросы"?
In the majority of cases it's actually not wrong to omit word "есть" and your particular example it is indeed completely acceptable to say just "У папы всегда вопросы".
In Russian whenever you can ...
- 37.4k
7
votes
Выставка фотографов, или Выставка фотографий?
Выставка фотографов — это выставка, на которой представлены фотографии определенных фотографов. Это выражение используется с каким-нибудь определением (например "выставка молодых фотографов" или "...
- 2,749
7
votes
Accepted
City name change when used in sentence?
Well, "is it possible" heavily depends on what you actually want to achieve. If you intention is to have some sort of summary data, something like report, then you can go with:
Лиман — Казымяк, ...
- 37.4k
7
votes
Kamchadalskii dialect
Eh, that's pretty outdated. I'm from Kamchatka. Grew up there and lived there until I moved to California at 25. There aren't that many native people in Kamchatka percentage-wise, but certainly there ...
- 1,740
7
votes
Accepted
How to type "@" symbol in Russian keyboard layout?
We do not use it in the Russian layout, as all the email addresses are typed in Latin letters.
- 4,376
7
votes
Can стакан сока be used here instead of сок?
My Russian is at the A2 level, at best, and I don't know your teacher, so I don't know what reason he or she may have had for telling you that сок cannot be replaced by стакан сока, but I know why I ...
- 2,205
7
votes
Accepted
Strange use of 'и': для этого и делается
The "и" in Russian apart from its main function also serves as - very roughly - as a counterpart of English so, like in phrase "so what"? - this is translated like "и что"...
- 37.4k
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