Закрывать/закрыть
March 10th, 2010 by DonThe most common verb pair for “to close” in Russian is закрывать/закрыть:
| Imperfective | Perfective | |
| Infinitive | закрывать | закрыть |
| Past | закрывал закрывала закрывало закрывали |
закрыл закрыла закрыло закрыли |
| Present | закрываю закрываешь закрывает закрываем закрываете закрывают |
No such thing as perfective present in Russian. |
| Future |
буду закрывать будешь закрывать будет закрывать будем закрывать будете закрывать будут закрывать |
закрою закроешь закроет закроем закроете закроют |
| Imperative | закрывай(те) | закрой(те) |
The person who closes something goes in the nominative case, and the thing closed goes in the accusative:
| Нина закрыла дверь. | Nina closed the door. |
| Не закроешь окно? | Could you close the window? |
| Игорь закрыл за собой дверь | Igor closed the door behind him. |
| Когда выйдешь из дома, не забудь закрыть дверь на ключ. | When you leave the house, don't forget to lock the door. |
This very common verb can be used to illustrate some of the amazing flexibility of Russian grammar. Let's say I was supposed to buy bread at the store, but I got there too late. I might explain the situation like this:
| 1. Магазин уже был закрыт. 2. Магазин уже закрыли. 3. Магазин уже закрылся. |
The store was already closed. |
All three sentences are grammatically correct and communicate essentially the same idea, but they are syntactically very different. Sentence 1 is a passive sentence where магазин is the subject and закрыт is a short-form past passive participle. Word for word it could be represented as “Store already was closed.”
In sentence 2 магазин is in the accusative case as the direct object of the verb закрыли. The verb is in the plural past tense with an implied “they” as the subject. Word for word it can be represented as “Store already (they) had closed.” Sentences with an unexpressed “they” are very common in Russian, and they are called indefinite personal sentences. They are used when they actual doer of the sentence is not particularly important in the context in which the sentence is uttered.
In sentence 3 магазин is in the nominative case as the subject of the reflexive verb закрылся. We call this use of a reflexive verb the medio-passive meaning, where the subject of the verb undergoes a change of state but the people who cause the change are not significant to the context. Word for word the sentence can be represented as “Store already had closed.”
The medio-passive use of the reflexive is common in other verbs like октрываться-открыться, начинаться-начаться, заканчиваться-закончиться, and пролжаться-продолжиться. We will discuss the medio-passive use of закрываться/закрыться in the near future.
Носить (часть первая)
March 9th, 2010 by DonOne way to say “to wear” in Russian in the sense of “to wear clothing” is носить/поносить. Note the consonant mutation in the я form:
| Imperfective | Perfective | |
| Infinitive | носить | поносить |
| Past | носил носила носило носили |
поносил поносила поносило поносили |
| Present | ношу носишь носит носим носите носят |
No such thing as perfective present in Russian. |
| Future |
буду носить будешь носить будет носить будем носить будете носить будут носить |
поношу поносишь поносит поносим поносите поносят |
| Imperative | носи(те) | поноси(те) |
The imperfective verb can mean either “to wear regularly” or “to wear over a long period of time”; it is not usually used to ask about what someone is wearing today or at the moment.
| — Почему она каждый день носит синюю юбку и белую блузку? — Тише, не огорчай её. У неё почти нет денег, и таким образом она всегда аккуратненько выглядит. За это её надо уважать. |
“Why does she always wear the blue skirt and white blouse?” “Hush, don't embarrass her. She hardly has any money and this way she always looks sharp. You've got to respect her for that.” |
| Какая она угрюмая! Каждый день она носит только чёрное. | She is so gloomy. Every day she wears nothing but black. |
The perfective verb means “to wear something for a while”:
| Синюю кофту бери, а зеленую я еще поношу… ¹ | You take this navy blue blouse, but I'm going to keep on wearing the green one for a while… |
| Брат дал мне поносить шерстяной свитер. | My brother let me wear his wool sweater for a while. |
¹ From Иностранка by Sergei Dovlatov. I love Dovlatov. He was one of the few writers of the Soviet era who wrote with humor. I actually wrote a paper about him once—not a very good one—and delivered it at a conference which he was attending. He stuck his head in the door… but he left when he realized I was speaking in English. We chatted afterwards for a few minutes. Alas, he died before I had another opportunity to get to know him better.
Против
March 8th, 2010 by DonThe word против in Russian means “against” in the sense of being for or against an idea. It can be used adverbially, without an object:
| — Мы решили поехать кататься на лыжах. Ты не против? — Нет, совсем не против. Я с удовольствием поеду. |
“We decided to go on a ski trip. Are you okay with that?” “I'm not at all against it. I'll be happy to go.” |
In the above dialog the phrase that is translated “Are you okay with that?” literally means “You aren't against?” This is one of those places where a word for word translation would get the tone of the dialog wrong; instead a good translator will select a phrase in English that matches the emotional content of the original. Another example:
| В июне девяносто шестого года Лужкова выбрали мэром Москвы. Девяносто пять процентов населения проголосовало за него, и только пять процентов против. | In June of ninety-six Luzhkov was elected mayor of Moscow. Ninety-five percent of the population voted for him, and a mere five percent against. |
The word против can also be used as a preposition that governs the genitive case:
| Кто не с нами, тот против нас. | Whoever is not with us is against us. |
| Во второй мировой войне русский народ сражался против нацистов. | In the second world work the Russian people struggled against the Nazis. |
Hm... what other things have the Russians battled against? Ah, yes, here's a glorious reminder of one of the lesser known battles of World War II:

Can you read the sign? That's right: STALIN VERSUS THE MARTIANS! What, dear reader? You didn't know that Stalin saved the planet from evil aliens while also fighting the Nazis? That is because you have an American education and can't tell the pax romana from the chicken pox. This vital battle is commemorated in an RTS game by BWF/DreamLore/N-Game. In short, it's an übersimplified version of Blitzkrieg II (review here). Do you want to know more? Do you want to see Stalin dancing like a raver kid strung out on Ecstasy? Then you need to view this trailer:
Attentive students will notice that Stalin's Russian is not so great. That's because he was an ethnic Georgian who never really perfected the language. Russians love to poke fun at people what can't talk right.
Лист (часть первая)
March 5th, 2010 by Tatiana
Just recently I have been thinking about the things that I miss since I moved to Phoenix. I was going though the pictures I took on my fall trip to the East Coast. The first thing that catches the eye is gorgeous trees dressed in their colorful gowns: red, yellow, green, and anything in between. While adults enjoy the pretty view and romantic walks in the park, the kids have the best time running around and diving in a huge pile of leaves... at least in Russia they do ![]()
| The word leaf in Russian is «лист». It can be any tree leaf as well as fig, cabbage, laurel, currant, or a oak leaf. We have a rather well used expression with the latter: | ![]() |
| Пристал, как банный лист! | "He follows me everywhere like a puppy dog!" |
This expression is used when one person constantly follows the other to ultimately express his or her affection for them without the subject’s consent or reciprocation. It literally means “He has stuck to me like a sauna leaf.” This saying comes from the famous Russian bathhouses, where hitting oneself with a bundle of green birch twigs while steaming is considered a great cleansing procedure. The repeated thrashing eventually breaks the leaves off the twig, and they stick as flat as can be on your sweat-soaked body. Now that is a great image.
The plural form of the word «лист» is «листья».
| Я люблю гулять по осеннему парку, усыпанному золотыми листьями. | "I love walking in the park in the fall when it is covered in golden leaves." |
| Дворник собрал опавшие листья. | “The street sweeper gathered the fallen leaves.” |
| — Какой лист является символом Канады? — Кленовый, конечно! Ты разве не видел их флаг? |
“Which leaf is a symbol of Canada?” “Maple, of course! Haven't you seen their flag?” |
Do note carefully how the noun is declined in the plural:
| Sg | Pl | |
| Nom | лист | листья |
| Acc | ||
| Gen | листа | листьев |
| Pre | листе | листьях |
| Dat | листу | листьям |
| Ins | листом | листьями |
Там
March 4th, 2010 by DonThe Russian word for ‘there’ in the sense of being located ‘there’ is там.
| — Разве ты не знаешь, что Серёжа служил в Афганистане? — Серьёзно? Удивительно, как он там выжил. |
“Didn't you know that Sergei served in Afghanistan?” “Really? I'm amazed he survived.” |
| — Я очень люблю Москву. — Правда? А я считаю, что там живут только подлизы и негодяи. |
“I really like Moscow.” “Really? I think only brown-nosers and jerks live there.” |
Of course, it's used in much simpler sentences as well.
| Там сегодня нет лука. | “There are no onions there today.” |
| Я там не был. | I've never been there. |
The one thing we as Americans have to be careful about is not to use the word when talking about going ‘to’ a place. In other words, you can't say in Russian «Я там езжу каждое лето» “I go there every summer.” For that sense we have to use туда, which we will address in the next couple of days.
