Russian Word of the Day

The most generic verb for “to carry” in Russian is носить. Note the consonant mutation in the я form:

This is an indeterminate imperfective verb which means it can be used with the preposition по + dative to indicated carrying something here and there, all over the place:

Most indeterminate imperfective verbs can bear the meaning of “go there and back.” Носить is a bit odd in that it really isn't considered good style to use the verb that way. You will find it used conversationally, though, in that sense:

Notice that the translation of the last sentence doesn't contain the word “carry” in it. It is often the case that the Russian verbs of carrying (носить, нести, возить, везти, and the dozens of words derived from them) are best translate with “bring” or “take” in English.

Носить can also be used to take something to a particularly place on multiple occasions:

The most common verb pair for “to close” in Russian is закрывать/закрыть:

The person who closes something goes in the nominative case, and the thing closed goes in the accusative:

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:

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.

One 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:

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.

The perfective verb means “to wear something 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.

The word против in Russian means “against” in the sense of being for or against an idea. It can be used adverbially, without an object:

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:

The word против can also be used as a preposition that governs the genitive case:

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.

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:

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».

Do note carefully how the noun is declined in the plural:

The Russian word for ‘there’ in the sense of being located ‘there’ is там.

Of course, it's used in much simpler sentences as well.

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.

Russian has a specialized adverb that means “from here,” and that word is отсюда. Sometimes you can find it in extraordinarily short sentences that confound beginners:

The word combines naturally with verbs of departure, although it can often be left out of as well, just as in English:

The old-fashioned word for отсюда in English is hence. Nowadays it is mostly used when discussing the source of a logical conclusion. The Russian word can be used the same way:

It is interesting how similar sounding words mean different things in different languages. I wonder how it came about. Maybe a long time ago a group of friends visiting a foreign land dropped a word in a conversation, while speaking their native tongue. The natives heard it, liked the sound of it and decided to adopt it in their language. However, because they did not know what that word meant, they came up with a whole different meaning for it.

Take for example батон. In Russian it means an oblong loaf of white bread. However in English button, which sounds similar, has a completely different meaning.

The word батон comes to Russian language from French bâton, which means stick, hence the elongated form of this particular bread loaf.

There can also be «батон колбасы» “sausage loaf/stick” or «батончик» a candy bar.

I remember when I first started learning English in primary school; I had this girl, Nastya, in my class. She was an “A” student and really good at languages. One time we were working on an exercise together and she decided to play a joke on me. She kept asking me different questions about батон, interchanging the meanings between English and Russian. Even though I knew what button meant in English, I kept falling for it. She would say:

When I, being gullible, would say “sure,” she would laugh and exclaim:

I wonder whatever happened to that girl...

Recently I came across some really pretty pictures of sea waves that inspired me. In those pictures I could see the white foam tongues slowly go up and down the shore. I could almost feel a light breeze go through my hair. In Russian that white foam is called «пена» and just like in English this word has multiple meanings.

For example, “shaving foam” is «пена для бритья» and “bath foam” is «пена для ванн».

Interestingly enough, the verb «пениться» in Russian slang is formed from the same root but means to get "angry”, “annoyed” or "worried".

However, when we talk about foam in cappuccino, or any other hot drink we call it «пенка», “little foam”. Speaking of which, I think the most disgusting thing you can try is молоко с пенкой, “milk with foam”. That’s that little skin that forms on milk when you boil it. It’s so gross, I’m shuddering even now as I type. I remember when I was at kindergarten, they would make us drink it… one of the most horrifying experiences of my childhood! Luckily, my mom soon came to my rescue and protected me from the evil пенка, “foam”! Thanks, Mommy!