Russian Word of the Day

The verb “to cost” in Russian is стоить:

The verb is mostly used in the third person. Bear in mind that the thing whose price you are discussing is the subject of the verb, so the verb has to agree with it:

The price itself goes into the accusative case. You don't normally notice that it's accusative because the accusative of most numbers is the same as the nominative; but if the cost includes a feminine singular noun like копейка, then you will clearly see the accusative. Likewise the number тысяча ‘one thousand’ is a noun in form, so you may see its accusative form as well.

One thing a beginner has to be careful about is the stress on these verb forms since they are different from the forms of стоять, even though they are mostly spelled the same. You can take a look here for a quick review of that verb.

The Russian word for tea is чай. It declines like this:

Чай first of all means the leaves of the tea plant and the drink made from those leaves. Sample sentences:

Just as in English, infusions and tisanes of other leaves are also called чай even when they contain no tea leaves:

The plural of the word can mean “varieties of tea,” although it's an uncommon use of the word:

Every once in a while you will encounter an old-fashioned u-stem genitive form of this word. Even though it looks like a dative, it's a genitive in meaning, which adds the idea of “some” to the sentence:

You may also encounter an old-fashioned u-stem locative form of the word as well. Again, although it looks like a dative, the meaning is locational:

Водород is the Russian word for hydrogen. The English word is made up of Greek roots where ὑδρο- (hydro-) means ‘water’ and γεν- (gen-) means ‘‘bring forth/become,” thus hydrogen means “the substance that forms water.” Notice that the Russian word is formed similarly: the root вод- means ‘water’ and the root род- means “give birth to”; thus the Russian words also means “the substance that forms water.” It is not a coincidence that these words have a similar structure. When one language models a new word by following the structure of the word in another language but subsitutes its own roots, that word is called a calque. The use of calques in a language is a very sensible way to build new words. A Russian child can learn the word водород and immediately see a connection between the word and the substance ‘water.’ An English speaking child will most likely never see the connection between hydrogen and water unless he takes a class on English roots or studies Greek.

Just as in English, водород is usually only used in the singular; we rarely say ‘hydrogens.’ It declines perfectly regularly:

Let's explore some sample sentences:

If you see a diagram of methane in a Russian textbook, you will something like this:

Notice that Latin letters are used, not Cyrillic letters. That's an international convention, which means that when you begin reading Russian chemistry articles, you will be able to understand the diagrams easily, although of course you will still have to learn the Russian names of the elements to discuss them intelligently.

Henry Cavendish is usually credited as first identifying hydrogen as a discrete substance in 1766 (source). Before that, mankind rarely saw the substance in its pure gaseous form on Earth. In the eighteen hundreds it was discovered in the sun and other stars by its spectral signature. This was a great shock. This substance, whose gaseous form was completely outside the day-to-day experience of most ordinary human beings, turned out to be the most common form of matter in the universe.² This strange truth reminds me of a line from the song Fireflies: “Everything is never as it seems.”³ At every moment of every day we should remember that everything is different from what it appears to be, whether the seeming solidity of the table in front of us or the blueness of the sky or the unexpected short-temper of our neighbor. In relating to inanimate things, this should give us a sense of wonder at the beauty and complexity of physical existence. In relating to living beings, it should give us a sense of graciousness and compassion toward the occasional quirks of others since we never truly know the pains that underlie them. In both cases we can be reminded of the incredible privilege of being alive and conscious at this moment.

¹ Not all organic molecules necessarily have hydrogen. I'm fudging for the sake of this blog entry.

² Nowadays some scientists posit that the majority of the universe's mass may be in dark matter, which has a corollary that hydrogen may not be the most abundant substance in the universe. Nota bene: even those who are expert in their subject may have to radically shift their views on subjects they know well, thus we should all hold our opinions with an easy grace, open to change.

³ The most common way to say this in English is “Nothing is ever as it seems.” Adam Young showed a beautiful artistic touch when he rephrased it in this song.

Another common verb pair for “to close” in Russian is закрываться/закрыться:

This is a reflexive verb. Reflexive verbs are verbs that add the prefix -ся or сь after the standard endings. Reflexive verbs usually have meanings that are somewhat different from their non-reflexive verbs. Sometimes they have a passive meaning, sometimes a habitual meaning, sometimes other meanings. For this verb the reflexive forms has a ‘medio-passive’ meaning. Thus:

In the early nineties, when the Soviet grocery stores were nearly empty, куриные окорочка “chicken legs” (the cut that has leg and thigh) became very popular. They were called ножки Буша “Bush’s legs” because of the trade agreement that was signed between Mikhail Gorbachev and George H. W. Bush. The agreement made the United States the largest exporter of frozen chicken drumsticks to the former USSR (now the Russian Federation).

I remember when I was growing up they were everywhere: from a major celebration to a family dinner. Because they were cheap, housewives all over Russia would try to find more and more ways to prepare them. They would put them in various soups and cold salads or stuff them with liver pate and mushrooms.

Окорочок “drumstick” is diminutive for окорок, which means the leg and hip portion of an animal prepared as food.

Here is a funny cartoon called Масяня. It is very popular in Russia. In this particular episode the creators are poking fun at how Russians speak (or rather don't speak) English.

The determinate verb for “to carry” in Russian is нести:

This is a determinate imperfective verb which means it is used to describe motion heading in a single direction. Although it means “to carry,” it is often best translated with variations on ‘take’ and ‘bring’:

The Russian word for ‘there’ in the sense of motion ‘to there’ is туда.

Recently I wrote about bugs and how their little legs can make us shudder uncontrollably. That made me think about something even more horrifying: caterpillars. Even though some of them are really pretty with their perfect little geometrical figures on their skin, I can hardly bring myself to get near one… and as for touching them — forget it!

In Russian caterpillar is гусеница. It is a noun of feminine gender that incidentally has nothing to do with гусь “goose” that seems to have the same root.

Some dream interpretations suggest that seeing a caterpillar in your dream means getting involved with something undesirable, causing you distress. A caterpillar on your clothes that can’t be shaken off means some unpleasant encounters in the future. However, if you squish a caterpillar in your dream, good luck won’t leave your side. (source)

I remember when I was little, my friends and I were playing on the swing we had in our garden. That swing was big enough to fit several people. Being a good girl, I took my shoes off and climbed onto the swing ready to have fun. Little did I know what my friends were plotting. They found a big fuzzy caterpillar with a green body and a bright orange head and placed it carefully in one of my shoes. When I finally put my shoes back on, I could feel that my foot was not alone in there. As soon as I realized what it was, I jumped so suddenly that the swing jerked and folded in half, dumping us all on the ground. I remember shrugging and screaming but the joke was on my friend who pulled the prank — he landed on the caterpillar!

Do you ever think about how you learn certain words? You grow up using some of them without even stopping for a second to think of their meanings or how you came to know them. For example for me, apart from the obvious books and movies, my parents have always been a great source.

One of the words that I am sure I have learned from my mom is «колоритный». It is an adjective that means “vivid” or “colorful” and mostly appears in literature. It can be used to describe a painting that catches the eye with its bright colors and a special attention to details.

Also, this word is used figuratively to describe a person’s distinctive style and originality or a writer’s lively manner, in which one expresses his or her thoughts on paper.

The nouns formed from the same root are «колорит» and «колоритность» and the adverb is «колоритно».

As teenagers we all go through different stages of trying new styles. More often than not they fail and we inevitably move on to something else. Likewise, I was experimenting with my hair color and outfits. Luckily, I had a mother who, instead of laughing in my face or getting mad, would just call my look «колоритный», no matter how weird it seemed to her. That is not to say she didn’t try to change it later… As they say, “mother knows best”...

Bugs gross out many people. However, very rarely you can find a person who is afraid of ladybugs. There is something so cute about them that even when their little legs touch your skin you don’t want to shake them off. Well, at least I wouldn’t. I remember playing with my friends as a kid, trying to get ladybugs to land on our palms. However, the bugs were smart enough to choose flower tops over us… I guess I shouldn’t take it personally; they were probably just hungry

Interestingly enough, in Russian a ladybug is called «божья коровка», which is literally “God’s little cow”. I guess the “little cow” part is plausible because of the black spots on the bug’s back. Also, it turns out that ladybugs secrete special orange milk that comes from the insect’s joints when they are in danger. It has a bitter unpleasant taste, which makes animals and other insects change their mind about eating a ladybug. But what about «божья», what does this bug have to do with God? One possible reason is that the word «божий» used to be used as “nice”, “peaceful”, and “harmless”. This bug is traditionally considered an herbivore, whereas in reality it feeds on plant lice (source). So I bet the latter would not be too fast to call a ladybug cute or harmless…

Also, there is a band in Russia called «Божья коровка». It was formed in the 90's and and still active today. They don't really have a single style, so for lack of a better word we might call it soft pop; however they also sing блатные песни (a style of songs based on prison camp themes and criminal life), and sometimes they do little parodies. Here, I would like to share one that they did in response to Mambo Number 5 by Lou Bega. They called it «Мамбо по-русски», "Russian Mambo".

I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't many people who have heard of this band. I came across their name only when doing my research on ladybug. But I hope that this video will make you smile, just like it did me!

PS. If you would like to see the video along with words & translation, simply click here.

One of the greatest Russian writers, Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, once said that Russian language is «великий и могучий», “great and mighty”. I believe that one of the reasons it is true is that some words in Russian encompass a few completely different meanings.

Previously I talked about the word «лист», meaning “leaf”, but «лист» can also mean a piece of paper or two pages in a book.

The diminutive for лист is «листик» or «листок». Both of them can be used interchangeably.

The plural form of the word «лист» in its current meaning is «листы».

The verb «листать», "to turn" or to "flip through" pages is also formed from the root «лист» as well as the word «листовка», which means “flyer”.

In English the word list sounds like «лист» but means «список», in Russian. Having lived in the United States for a few years now I sometimes add some altered English words to my Russian speech without even noticing. For example, I caught myself a few times using «лист» when I mean to say «список» partially because the pronunciation is so similar. While I work on improving my English, I also try to avoid little mistakes like that; thus, maintaining a very good level of Russian.

The word часы means a watch or a clock. It has no singular form, only plural; such nouns that lack singulars we label “pluralia tantum.” It declines likes this:

Since the word only has plural forms, the pronouns that refer to it must also by in the plural:

Since the word only occurs in the plural, you might wonder how to say “one watch.” Easy: you use the plural of the number one!

If you are talking about two, three, or four watches, then двое, трое and четверо can be used:

These collective numbers don't combine very well with the other ordinal numbers. That is, don't try to say something like:

In these circumstances it is best to add the word штука ‘unit’ to the phrase:

Some Russians allow the use of the word пара ‘pair’ in place of штука:

I say “some Russians” because to some other Russians that type of phrase sounds like просторечье “substandard speech” (see Rosenthal's commentary). If you want to be sure you sound okay, use the штука approach.

¹ Yes, yes, I know that one properly is supposed to say “no fewer than four,” but frankly “no less than four” is the way most Americans will say it nowadays, even educated ones. “No fewer than four” sounds forced and unnatural, as if someone with a mediocre education is trying to prove that he isn't ignorant.

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!