Russian Word of the Day

The Russian word for cookie is печенье. Making cookies from scratch is a lot of fun for me because I can experiment with different ingredients. Every year, I make a variety of different types of cookies for Christmas to give away to friends and family. I especially enjoy dusting the tops of my cookies with red красный and green зелёный colored sugar to give them a Christmas like appearance. I like sugar cookies because I can cut them out in different shapes such as bells колакола, stars звёзды, Christmas trees ёлки, and snow men снеговики.

Last Christmas, my friend was coming to visit me from California. I wanted to make him a few of my favorite Christmas cookies and wrap them up in a beautiful Christmas box. When he arrived, I presented him with my box of Christmas cookies and asked him to try a few. I was pleased when he said «Как вкусно! Я люблю, когда ты делаешь рождественские печенья!» “How tasty! I love when you make Christmas cookies!” He finished all my cookies within the hour which gave me concrete evidence that he truly liked my cookies.

Don's additional comments: the word печенье is grammatically neuter and singular. It is often used as a mass noun, so Olga's friend could also have said «Я люблю, когда ты делаешь рождественское печенье!» where «рождественское печенье» is singular. The sentence would have meant the same thing. That's right: the English plural word “cookies” is most often translated by the singular Russian word печенье.