Russian Word of the Day

Over time words change their meanings, and their meanings can change in several ways:

• A particular meaning of a word can be used less and less often to the point that many people don't know the old meaning. For instance, “charity” in English used to mean “love of one’s fellow man,” a meaning of the word that nowadays is not well known outside of religious circles.
• A general meaning of a word can be used more often in a more specific sense. “Charity” is again a good example, which nowadays mostly means “giving money to the needy” or “an institution that helps the needy.”
• A particular meaning can be generalized.
• A brand new meaning can be applied to a word with only the vaguest of connections to its previous meanings. The use of “mouse” in the sense of a device used to reposition the cursor on a computer screen.

And when a word is being used in a new sense, that sense is not usually reflected in dictionaries for some time. One such word that has a very common meaning these days that is not shown in most dictionaries is the word акция which can now mean "sale, special" in the sense of a temporarily reduced price. I was very surprised to learn this meaning this summer, because previously the most common meaning of акция was “a share of stock.”

Here are some examples of that usage from this summer. In this first ad if you buy малютка, then you get a free bib, so probably the best translation of акция is “special”:

In this next one if you buy Ryaba brand mayonaisse, you can win 10,000 rubles, so again “special” is the best translation:

This next one is a banner hung in front of a Пятерочка grocery store. Notice they've added супер to the word, so here we have a supersale:

The Russian verb that means ‘to exit, walk out of, step out of’ is выходить/выйти:

	Imperfective	Perfective
Infinitive	выходить	выйти
Past	выходил выходила выходило выходили	вышел вышла вышло вышли
Present	выхожу выходишь выходит выходим выходите выходят	No such thing as perfective present in Russian.
Future	буду выходить будешь выходить будет выходить будем выходить будете выходить будут выходить	выйду выйдешь выйдет выйдем выйдете выйдут
Imperative	выходи(те)	выйди(те)

The verb is most often used with the preposition из and the genitive case to indicate the place from which the subject is leaving. Although the essential meaning of the verb is 'to exit,' it often sounds stiff to use 'exit' in translation. A good translation will substitute other phrases that capture the same idea but flow better:

Маша вышла из комнаты.	(Mary exited the room.) (Mary exited from the room.) Mary left the room. Mary stepped out of the room.
Володя вышел из библиотеки без пальто и простудился.	Vladimir stepped out of the library without his coat and caught a cold.
Как только гости выйдут из номера, горничная начнёт убирать.	As soon as the guests step out of the hotel room, the maid will start straightening up.
Когда пассажиры выходят из метро, их окружают цыганские дети.	When passengers come out of the subway, they are surrounded by gypsy children.

The Russian word for devil is чёрт. It's a bit irregular because it becomes soft in the plural, thus it declines like this:

	Sg	Pl
Nom	чёрт	черти
Acc	чёрта	чертей
Gen
Pre	чёрте	чертях
Dat	чёрту	чертям
Ins	чёртом	чертями

In English it sounds rather quaint to say "Go to the devil," but in Russian the phrase is much stronger and not quaint at all. To catch the emotional color of it in English, it is best to translated it as "Go to hell":

Иди к чёрту! Идите к чёрту!

Go to hell!

Another way to say about the same thing is to literally say "The devil with you":

Чёрт с тобой! Чёрт с вами!	To hell with you!
Чёрт с ним!	To hell with him!
Чёрт с ней!	To hell with her!
Чёрт с ними!	To hell with them!

In the US many Christians consider it offensive to take the Lord's name in vain. In Russia it is more offensive to swear using the word "devil," so to soften the curse, instead of saying "To the devil with him," they say "To God with him." It's almost the same as saying "The hell with him," but is slightly softer, so I think it is better to translate those phrases into English with "To heck with him/her":

Бог с ним!	To heck with him!
Бог с ней!	To heck with her!
Бог с ними!	To heck with them!

Of course, if you are a sensible foreigner, you aren't going to go around Russia telling the Russians to go to hell, but you will still encounter the word in real life, art, and literature. My favorite "to hell with you" is in a song by Веня Д’ркин called «Ты нравишься мне» “I like you”. Ah, rage and betrayal and desperate love all wrapped up in one melodious package. You can listen to the song here, along with a translation.

The word for Monday in Russian is понедельник. First a bit of history. The verb "to do" is делать. "To not do" thus is «не делать», and in ancient Russian one of the words for Sunday was неделя "the day on which you do nothing". The preposition по means after, and the suffix -ник forms a noun, thus the word понедельник means "the day after Sunday." Cool, huh? Of course nowadays nobody thinks about that history when they say понедельник. They just think of the first day of the week.

Some Americans say things like "I hate Mondays." The most common phrase about Monday in Russian is «Понедельник — день тяжёлый» "Monday is a tough day."

Though it is easy to memorize the days of the week in Russian, English speakers will need to keep in mind the prepositions that are used with them. If you want to say that something happened (or will happen) on a particular Monday, then you want the preposition в followed by the accusative case:

В понедельник я ходил в японский ресторан.

On Monday I went to a Japanese restaurant.

If you go there every Monday, then you want the preposition по followed by the dative plural:

По понедельникам я всегда хожу в японский ресторан.

On Mondays I always go to a Japanese restaurant.

If something started on Monday and is still continuing, you want the preposition с followed by the genitive case:

С понедельника мой сын страдает поносом.

My son has been suffering from diarrhea since Monday.

And if you want to give a range of days over which something will happen, for the starting day you use с + genitive and for the ending day you use the preposition по + accusative:

С пятницы по понедельник я буду кататься на лыжах, а во вторник я вернусь домой.¹

I'll be skiing Friday through Monday, and on Tuesday I'll return home.

Last but not least, of course, you use the word in the nominative case when answering what day of the week it is:

— Какой сегодня день недели? — Сегодня понедельник.

"What day is it today?" "Today is Monday."

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¹ Some of my native speaker informants prefer the preposition до + genitive in this context along with the adverb включительно inclusively. Thus:

С пятницы до понедельника включительно я буду кататься на лыжах, а во вторник я вернусь домой.¹

I'll be skiing from Friday to Monday inclusively, and on Tuesday I'll return home.

Growing up in the US, children commonly say things like "Me and Johnny went to the store." Although it sounds perfectly normal to many people, it is considered terrible written style (and also bad style for public speaking), and grade-school teachers make a great effort to break kids of this habit. The only acceptable written form is "Johnny and I went to the store."¹ If we transform that word-for-word into Russian, we get the sentence «Иван и я ходили в магазин». Although every Russian will understand such a sentence, it is not the most typical way to say it. Instead the more common way is:

Мы с Иваном ходили в магазин.

John and I went to the store.

The phrase «мы с Иваном» is actually ambiguous. It can mean "John and I" or it can mean "We (a group of two or more people) and also John". The same holds true for the phrase «мы с ним», which can mean "he and I" or "we [two or more people] along with him." For instance, if my wife and I are having pity on our poor, miserable bachelor friend, John, I can say:

Нам с женой очень жалко Ивана, поэтому мы с ним часто ходим в кино.

My wife and I feel really sorry for John, so we three often go to the movies. or My wife and I feel really sorry for John, so we often go to the movies with him.

Although the second translation is the more natural way to put it in English (and thus the better translation on this occasion), the first translation captures the idea that John is included in the concept of мы in the sentence.

On the other hand, if I go to the movies with John but my wife does not come along, the same construction just means me and John:

Мне очень жалко Ивана, поэтому мы с ним часто ходим в кино.

I feel really sorry for John, so he and I often go to the movies.

The same ambiguity holds for the phrase «вы с Иваном», which can mean "you [one person] and John" or "you [more than one person] and John. For instance, let's say I'm talking to a female friend about her son Женя. If I want to ask whether she often argues with him, I might ask:

Вы с Женей часто ссоритесь?

Do you and Zhenya argue often?

Or if I am taking to both her and her husband, I might say the same thing with a different meaning:

Вы с Женей часто ссоритесь?

Do you [two] and Zhenya argue often?

The same holds true for phrases with они, which can be interpreted a variety of ways. Let's say I'm talking about my female friend who is feeling sorry for another female friend. This sentence could result:

Ей очень жалко Веру, поэтому они с ней часто ходят в кино.²

She feels really sorry for Vera, so the two of them often go to the movies.

Of course, if my friend's husband also feels sorry for Vera, we could have a parallel sentence:

Им очень жалко Веру, поэтому они с ней часто ходят в кино.

They feel really sorry for Vera, so the three of them often go to the movies.

The same situation also of course applies if my friend is a man:

Ему очень жалко Веру, поэтому они с ней часто ходят в кино.³

He feels really sorry for Vera, so the two of them often go to the movies.

To review, the phrases «мы с ним», «вы с ним», «они с ним», «мы с ней», «вы с ней» and «они с ней» are ambiguous in that they can refer to groups of two or more people.

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¹ Actually, the teachers do too good a job of breaking us of that habit without explaining the situation more thoroughly. In fact many teachers overgeneralize and just teach their students that any time they are tempted to say "me and you" (or any other combination of "me and..."), they must replace it with "you and I" (or "... and I"). Even very educated people — sad to say that among them are my own mother and sister — thus will say things like, "Just between you and I, I think that is a bad idea." The correct thing to say in that context is "Just between you and me..." But just try to convince them of that... it's a lost cause.

² In this context with the third-person plural pronoun, some native speakers prefer «Ей очень жалко Веру, поэтому она с ней часто ходит в кино», but in rapid speech the «они с ней часто ходят» form is entirely possible.

³ In this context with the third-person plural pronoun, some native speakers prefer «Ему очень жалко Веру, поэтому он с ней часто ходит в кино», but in rapid speech the «они с ней часто ходят» form is entirely possible.