Archives for: February 2009, 04

Бум-бум

February 4th, 2009 by Don

Every once in a while Russian throws you something so absurd that you just can't believe it, and today we'll see it in the slang phrase бум-бум which means "don't/doesn't understand":

Он в математике ни бум-бум. He doesn't understand mathematics at all.
Я по-французски ни бум-бум. I don't undersand French at all.
Не будем говорить о вещах, в которых мы ни бум-бум. Let's not talk about things that we don't understand.

Notice that in this phrase we write ни and not не. That's because ни бум-бум is really the equivalent of ничего, not the equivalent of a verb.

If you're in the mood for a pop song that contains the phrase бум-бум in this meaning, take a look at this video and translation of the song «Бум, бум, бум» by the group Любовные истории.

Posted in Slang | 2 comments »