Questions tagged [существительные]

Questions concerning nouns, their form, spelling, functions, derivation, meaning and so on.

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How would you render the phrase, "the symbol for the suit of spades in a deck of playing cards" in Russian?

How would you write: ♠ "This is the symbol for spades in a deck of playing cards" The following is not a very good translation: ♠ Это символ пики в колоде игральных карт.
Samuel Muldoon's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
98 views

Which noun forms to learn in order to know how to decline the noun in all forms?

I'm making an Anki deck to learn vocabulary and, when it comes to nouns, I don't really know which forms of each noun to include and learn. Up to now I've been learning the nominative singular and ...
McNight121's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
234 views

About sugar, tea and raisins and their partitive case (сахару, ча́ю, изюму, кишмишу)

I've noticed that some words, such as sugar (сахар), tea (чай) and raisins (изюм or кишмиш), have a partitive case (разделительный падеж), different from their genitive. However, I've also heard that ...
Xavier's user avatar
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2 answers
140 views

Is it possible to write «я слушаю музыки» and what would be its meaning?

Usually we encounter «я слушаю музыку» (I listen to music - accusative) but would it be possible, as music is uncountable, to use the partitive-genitive: я слушаю музыки» ? If it is possible and does ...
Xavier's user avatar
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3 answers
123 views

Would somoene have a pretty complete list of masculine nouns that have an irregular plural in -а (or in -я for nouns ending in -ь)?

Singular Plural English адрес адреса address берег берега shore бок бока side буфер буфера buffer век векa century вексель векселя promissory note вечер вечера evening глаз глаза eye год года ...
Xavier's user avatar
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2 votes
5 answers
313 views

What would you call a drinker of non-alcohol beverages in Russian?

A noun derived from the verb “to drink” is a “drinker”. Following this analogy, how would I derive a noun from Russian verb «пить»? Would that be «пьец», «питьец», «пьюн»? I know that there are words ...
wintermute's user avatar
2 votes
5 answers
244 views

What is the difference between "украшение," "драгоценность," and "ювелирные изделия"?

This one is just in time for Valentine's Day ... I came across "ювелирные изделия" in my Russian textbook ТРОЙКА. I was curious about the etymology of it, so I looked it up in Wiktionary ...
Lisa Beck's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
194 views

What's the Russian for suspenders/garter belt?

I'm looking for the specific, correct Russian translation for suspenders/garter belt — the kind a lady wears when she wants to be sexually provocative. I'm explicitly looking for this kind of lingerie,...
BertHobe's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
219 views

What does "дл. тонны" mean?

From Russian Wikipedia on the Fletcher-Class Destroyers, it says, Двигательная установка компоновочно повторяла тип «Гливз» — была высокотемпературной установкой среднего (43 Атм.) давления, которая ...
DrZ214's user avatar
  • 551
3 votes
5 answers
850 views

Is there a shorter or more colloquial word for "pet"?

The Russian translation for "pet" is домашнее животное, in this case meaning a domesticated animal one keeps in one's home. To a native English-speaker that seems like quite a bookish term. ...
user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
169 views

Are "свет" and "свеча" forms of the same word?

"Свет" and "свеча" are the same part of speech, they have the same lexical root, and they haven't got any other word parts, only the root and the ending. But "свеча" ...
Yanb's user avatar
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2 answers
118 views

Крово- и слёзопролитная война

Как я должен говорить и писать: Это была крово- и слёзопролитная война Это была крово и слёзопролитная война Это была крово-и-слёзопролитная война Это была крово и слёзопролитная война
Michael Azarenko's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
469 views

Люди or человек after numerals?

From what I know, the plural noun "people" is люди when no numeral precedes it. Whereas "people" preceded by a numeral take the stem человек-, as in два человека, пять человек (the ...
swrutra's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
159 views

Plural of сын as сыны instead of сыновья

On a poster of the Stalinist era, I saw the following extract: Будем сынами и дочерьми (...) Then I looked for some information on dictionaries. If I understood correctly, does the usual (and "...
swrutra's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
84 views

Cases after connectives

In a given sentences, does the noun after a connective go into the same case of the noun before the connective or does it go into a different case. For example: Я должнá звони́ть матери и (тётя) пóсле ...
Victor Mendoza's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
201 views

Difference between "в тишине" and "в тишину"?

What is the difference between в тишине and в тишину? I know the first one is the prepositional singular of тишина, and the second is the accusative singular of тишина, but I don't really understand ...
MeL's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
129 views

Is it true that adding an attributive sometimes causes a change in part of speech of the main word?

Please look at the following two sentences: Летом она отдыхала в санатории. Этим летом она отдыхала в санатории. What part of speech is the word "летом" in the 1st and in the 2nd sentence? ...
Alexander's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
281 views

What is the internal distribution of -ов/-ёв/-ев in the genitive plural and ой/-ёй/-ей in the instrumental singular?

If we disregard those nouns whose genitive plural ending is zero, -ей, or -ий, are the rules for which vowel letter to use in the genitive plural ending -ов/-ёв/-ев the same as the rules for which ...
telghvy m's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
155 views

what is the nominative for кутасы (and what does it mean)

I believe the nominative form of кутасы will be кутаса? What does кутаса mean? I found this word in the following sentence, which I took from Война и мир (Толстой)/Том I/Часть II/Глава VII: ...
user2587106's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
148 views

Anthropomorphized inanimates masculine declension

Take a clearly inanimate masculine noun, say подсолнух, and put it in a fable with anthropomorphic features. Now how should I put it in accusative? Мы видели высокий подсолнух, когда он пришёл..... ...
rslemos's user avatar
  • 221
4 votes
1 answer
613 views

Plural for indeclinable nouns

Some foreign nouns are indeclinable (take пальто for example), yet sometimes we want to express many of it. How to do it?
rslemos's user avatar
  • 221
7 votes
3 answers
301 views

How should I inflect animate nouns when they are used to figuratively call inanimate objects, and vice versa?

In Russian, animate and inanimate nouns inflect differently. Let's compare "кабан" and "стакан": Я вижу кабанов. Я стреляю в кабана. Я вижу стаканы. Я стреляю в стакан. It is all ...
Mitsuko's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
3k views

Одушевлённость шахматных фигур

Являются ли слова вроде ферзь одушевлёнными? С одной стороны, ферзь отвечает на вопрос "что", а не "кто". С другой, склоняется это существительное, по крайней мере в ед. ч., как одушевлённое: ...
user31264's user avatar
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4 votes
5 answers
228 views

"у нас туго с деньга́ми": Does this instrumental "деньга́ми" stem from "де́ньги" or "деньга́"?

у нас туго с деньга́ми The descriptions on Wiki have me puzzled, as it seems the "деньга́ми" can be the plural instrumental of either the plural-only noun "де́ньги" or the colloquial singular noun "...
Con-gras-tue-les-chiens's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
310 views

Russian noun that ends with -ы in singular: Myth or Reality?

I was wondering, if there are any or -ы ending is always a definite indicator of plural form...
ACKA's user avatar
  • 151
6 votes
2 answers
383 views

Why are some city names, when named after people, given -sk suffix, but others aren't?

Two examples: Yekaterinburg was renamed to Sverdlovsk in 1924, after the man Yakov Sverdlov. Notice the -sk prefix. Orenburg was renamed to Chkalov in 1938, after the man Valery Chkalov. Notice this ...
DrZ214's user avatar
  • 551
4 votes
3 answers
280 views

I am confused by the difference between the word for a language and the word for a people who speak that language [duplicate]

The word for a Russian is Русский. The word for the Russian language is по-русский or русский язык (i.e. they are the same). So you could say я Русский. However the word for an Englishman is ...
Bob Daley's user avatar
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5 votes
4 answers
206 views

"Я один кто не знал, что вариантов у итогового теста два?"

вариантов или варианта? Или можно использовать обе вариации? Нужна ли запятая перед что? Можно ли использовать один, или грамматически верно использовать только единственный? Нужна ли запятая перед ...
Ramid's user avatar
  • 153
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Describe a Language Without the Noun for "Language"

In English it is rare to use the noun "language" when describing them. It is most common to name the language as such: Engl -ish Span -ish French Russi -an Germ -an Is it acceptable/common/...
TomSchober's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
254 views

Does anyone know of any good resource(s) that categorize the declensions of Russian plurals?

Occasionally I see a reference to categorized noun declensions (e.g., first, second, third). I would imagine some question whether or not learning about such declensions is essential to learning the ...
6 votes
5 answers
900 views

Difference in usage between "пи́ща" and "еда"

As the title asks, what is the difference in usage between пи́ща and еда? Is one just a more formal version of the other? Are there any people/situations to which you could not usually apply one or ...
araihada's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
282 views

How is яблони different from яблоки?

Consider the first line of the famous song Катюша: Расцветали яблони и груши In English, this line roughly translates to "Apples and pears were blossoming". However, the plural noun "apples" in ...
DanielSank's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
221 views

Colours as nouns

Ran into this situation when trying to order fabric. Can colours in Russian take a noun form, or must it always be adjective + цвет? Secondly, if you were to name multiple colours, would you have to ...
araihada's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
571 views

Does the Russian numeral rule for the adjective that comes between the number and the noun (see below) apply to animate nouns in actual usage?

The rule I refer to is this: For numeral + adjective + noun in genitive case structures where the numeral-noun-adjective phrase is serving in a nominative case (e.g., the three little pigs went to ...
Lisa Beck's user avatar
  • 2,215
13 votes
3 answers
660 views

Can anyone clear up some discrepancies between rules for numeral+adjective+noun agreement for 2/3/4 and actual usage (as found through e-sources)?

While trying to augment my knowledge on Russian numerals with regard to how they combine with nouns and adjectives, I paid a visit to Reverso after learning that any adjectives placed between the ...
Lisa Beck's user avatar
  • 2,215
2 votes
1 answer
184 views

"Радио" or "ра́дио"

I was wondering which is the correct form. радио or ра́дио ? I mean I've seen people writing both of them. And I've also seen many letters with this accent above the a. Is it necessary? Which spelling ...
Shader's user avatar
  • 23
8 votes
4 answers
413 views

«И беспечной птицей» - why instrumental?

Every source I can find of the lyrics of Тополиный пух claims that the song contains the following line near the beginning: И беспечной птицей в небо улетаешь If I understand correctly, «беспечной»...
Doorknob's user avatar
  • 183
1 vote
0 answers
502 views

Changing nouns into adjectives [closed]

How can I change nouns into adjectives? Ветер → Ветреный
SolacunaRT's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
143 views

Other nouns formed by prepending _само_ to an action

There are a number of nouns formed by prepending само to the action that that thing does that are very common: самолет, самовар. Other similar formations, like самодвижущийся, are uncommon. Are ...
meatspace's user avatar
  • 137
6 votes
2 answers
4k views

Forming Russian nouns from verbs

I've noticed a couple of patterns in regards to forming nouns from verbs. 1) Removing the -ть from verbs ending in -бить/быть, -вить, чать and -ять and adding -тие (for example: разбить --> разбитие,...
Dylan Heard's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
393 views

Meaning of "подъезд"

When I look in dictionaries, they give me driveway, but then the following sentences don't really make sense. It sounds more like a part of a building (complex): Мы живем в одном подъезде. Моя ...
CocoPop's user avatar
  • 8,265
7 votes
2 answers
213 views

"Добавить в друзья" - why nominative?

As far as I can tell, the Russian equivalent of the English phrase "to add smb" with regards to social media accounts like Facebook, VKontakte, etc. is "добавлять/добавить в друзья." My question is: ...
Гамлет Бененгели's user avatar
4 votes
4 answers
447 views

What's the difference between пользование and использование?

I looked пользование and использование up in the dictionary but they look the same to me. They translate the english word "use" or "usage". Could you please explain in which contexts you can use these ...
AltGei's user avatar
  • 466
2 votes
2 answers
362 views

Is there a locative for words not ending in a consonant?

There are some nouns that take the ending -у (locative) instead of -е (prepositional) after the prepositions в, на, like год, лес, сад. Question: Is there any such noun which does not end on a ...
arney's user avatar
  • 357
2 votes
2 answers
193 views

"Отца не стало в июне." Why is Отца not Отец?

Shouldn't it be in nominative form, not (I assume) genitive?
ycele's user avatar
  • 2,827
8 votes
4 answers
372 views

Difference between сожитель, любовник and фаворит

I encountered three different words to say "lover". My teacher said that сожитель has a negative connotation, it is rather "plebish", but I don't actually understand what kind of bad connotation it ...
AltGei's user avatar
  • 466
1 vote
6 answers
529 views

Is there a word for Motherworld, similar to Motherland (Родина)?

родина means motherland, but I'm looking for the translation to a related word, "motherworld". This is similar to mother earth or mother nature. Google translate does not even attempt a translation ...
DrZ214's user avatar
  • 551
2 votes
2 answers
284 views

When does неделя become неделю?

I've seen неделю, but I don't know of when the transformation occurs. Could somebody explain it to me?
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
310 views

Why do you use "воды" in this sentence?

I just saw the following two sentences: У мальчиков есть вода. У мальчиков нет воды. It seems that the meaning is something like The children have water. and The children don't have water.. However, ...
Blaszard's user avatar
  • 1,157
2 votes
2 answers
290 views

Is the "Great Patriotic War" used only for the Eastern European Theater 1941 - 1945?

In the west, it's called World War 2. For Russians, this is called the Great Patriotic War...but does this only refer to the Eastern European Front 1941 Jun 22 to 1945 May 9? Is the Battle of Britain,...
DrZ214's user avatar
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