Archives for: March 2010, 30

Чай (часть первая)

March 30th, 2010 by Don

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

SgPl
Nomчайчаи
Acc
Genчаячаёв
Preчаечаях
Datчаючаям
Insчаемчаями

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

Ты будешь чай? Would you like some tea?
Мама пила чай с молоком и сахаром. Mom used to drink tea with milk and sugar.
Маша никогда не пьёт чай с лимоном, так как у неё аллергия на лимоны. Masha never drank tea with lemon since she was allergic to lemons.
Мой брат предпочитает чай без сахара. My brother prefers tea without sugar.

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

Пей мятный чай перед сном, и у тебя будут хорошие сны. Drink mint tea before bed and you have sweet dreams.
Ромашковый чай помогает лучше спать. Chamomile tea helps you sleep well.

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

В китайском квартале Сан-Франциско продаютя всякие чаи. All sorts of tea are sold in San Francisco's Chinatown.

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:

Ты хочешь чаю? Do you want some tea?

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:

Тьфу! В моём чаю муха. Я чуть не проглотил её. Ugh! There's a fly in my tea. I almost swallowed it.

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