Russian Word of the Day

American business can't exist without charts. We make pie-charts and bar charts as if presenting data in charts somehow makes the data true. (The most amusing idea is that an idea is somehow scientific because it is presented in a chart.) That, of course, is complete foolishness. You can lie on a chart as easily as you can in person or in a letter or by text message. Nonetheless, when ethical people produce them, charts are valuable visual aids to processing data. Thus you should know that the Russian word for chart is график.

For instance, you can have the graph of the function y=x³-9x (which is expressed in programmer's fashion as y=x**3-9*x):

A bar chart in Russian is called a столбиковая диаграмма or a столбчатая диаграмма:

A pie chart is called a круговая диаграмма or a секторная диаграмма:

Nowadays one of my favorite sites is graphjam.com, which comments on popular culture by putting things in chart form. For instance:

Enjoy!

With approaching summer and rising temperatures, all the thick layers of warm clothing will soon be coming off. Along with them, the naked truth will come out: what these few cold sunless months have done to your skin. That is what some lucky people worry about, the ones who are actually able to tan. I, personally, cannot do so. I gave up a long time ago and made peace with my sad white existence. I live in Arizona, where the sun shines most of the year, so you might think my skin would cooperate… You’d be wrong.

In Russian tan is called загар. It is a noun of male gender. Its diminutive form is загарчик. However, загарчик is usually used as a joke, to describe bad or even unfortunate tan cases.

The adjective formed from загар is загoрелый.

Unfortunately, sometimes we want that perfect tan so much that we forget what a few extra minutes in the sun can do to our skin. However, if you have overdone it, I know the best way to treat it! Brace yourself: it’s sour cream! All of my American friends make fun of my folksy methods; but the truth is that it really works! Just apply fresh sour cream on your sunburned skin and leave it for a few minutes. Not only does it feel refreshing and calms down the burning sensation but it also helps the burns subside faster. The trick is to apply it as soon as possible. Ever since I can remember, my family has used sour cream to treat the sunburns. So, I hope you all will be careful and won’t get sunburned. However, if it happens, you should try this method. Trust me, you won’t regret it!

The word класс can also be used in the sense of social classes социальные классы. These phrases were ubiquitous in Russian during the Soviet period because communist ideology framed its arguments in terms of social class. Among the classes defined by Karl Marx were:

Although Americans have heard the word bourgeoisie, we often have a fairly vague idea of what it means. Dictionary.com defines it thus: “(in Marxist theory) the class that, in contrast to the proletariat or wage-earning class, is primarily concerned with property values. ” (Can you say “American financial crisis”?)

Sample sentences:

The word класс can mean class in the sense of first class accomodations, second class seats, etc:

Although the noun form of класс can be used in this meaning, you probably find it more often in adectival forms like первоклассный:

I’m sure we have all had our moments, drinking at a party, when all of the people somehow keep managing to have a great time, but you feel so sick that you simply must leave… Hopefully, it happens at the end of the night after someone safely drops you off at home. Unfortunately, not all of us are always that lucky…

The magical feeling preceding the gross outcome, nausea, is called тошнота in Russian. Consequently, the verb for being nauseous is тошнить. Unlike in English, when you say, “I’m sick” or “I’m nauseous”, Russians say that something is being done to them.

The adverb тошно is also used to describe a feeling of nausea.

Just like in English, the verb тошнить can be used figuratively.

I remember the first time I went to San Diego. My friend and I drove all day and after checking into our hotel, we realized we were hungry. However, everything was closed except for a little convenient store down the street. We figured we could grab something small to eat before doing anything else. That was a rookie mistake: I can barely remember what happened to me for the next couple of days. I don’t remember the famous San Diego zoo because we never made it there. However, what I remember perfectly is the fastest way to get from the bed the bathroom and back crawling. It was the most awful food poisoning I have ever experienced. I wouldn’t wish that to my worst enemy.

The second meaning of класс is grade in the sense of first grade, second grade, third grade — in other words, the early years of school life. First grade begins at the age of seven for most Russians, and there are ten years of grade school, which essentially covers what we Americans think of as grade school, elementary school, junior high school, and high school, although the Russians start a year later and end a year earlier.

The Russians have a special word for boiled water which is кипяток. It is derived from the verb кипятить “to boil,” so etymologically кипяток means “boiled stuff.” Nowadays we Americans are convinced of the healthful benefits of water. We drink it from from the tap, from special spigots on refrigerators, from dopey coin-machines that charge us extra money for water delivered through the same distribution system as the water that flows into our kitchens and bathrooms, and from environmentally-assinine plastic bottles with designer names. Americans are so water-focused that we are stunned to learn that many Russians believe that drinking tap-water is unhealthy.

That's right: unhealthy. Truth to tell, city-wide distribution of clean water is a recent phenomenon in the history of man, and one that is not even consistent in the United States. Water quality in Russia still varies widely. As recently as 1997 one study reported a 95% incidence of giardiasis (nasty diarrheal disease) among travelers to St. Petersburg.¹ So when a Russian tells you that it's not a good idea to drink tap water, they are not passing on some quaint superstition, but rather a serious concern. For that reason, seasoned travelers to Russia often drink and brush their teeth in кипяток. Well... that's not quite right. Кипяток is water that is still boiling hot. Once it has cooled off, it is no longer кипяток. So experienced travelers drink and brush their teeth with water that was once кипяток. The noun has a fleeting vowel, so it declines like this:

Sample sentences:

¹ Ortega YR, Adam RD. Giardia: overview and update. Clin Infect Dis. 1997 Sep;25(3):545-9.

The Russian word for Moscow is Москва. It's а perfectly regular second declension noun:

Now if you are a foreigner and you want to prove how stupid an American is, simply ask “What is the name of the main river that runs through Moscow?” Sadly, most Americans will probably look at you like a deer caught in headlights and say “Idunno.” (I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop as I type this entry, and I just tried that question on the barista. He was stumped.) It's funny. Sometimes American education produces profoundly well-rounded and insightful people, but when it comes to geography almost all Americans come up short.

So for my American readers I should point out that the main river that runs through Moscow is called… are you ready for this?… the Moscow River! (Москва-река in Russian, always hyphenated.)

A little while ago I wrote about words that can have multiple meanings because of their use in Russian slang. The verb «ломать» as well as its reflexive form «ломаться» are also such words.

The main meaning of this verb is “to break”. However, someone could say меня ломает to express a feeling of withdrawal after using drugs or when being sick and running high fever. Consequently, the word for withdrawals is «ломка».

There is also a rather well used idiom using this verb: «ломать себе голову». It means to puzzle or rack one's brains over something.

The reflexive form, ломаться, means to quit working or functioning.

However, ломаться can also mean, “crack” when referencing changes in a young’s man’s voice.

Also, ломаться has two other meanings in Russian slang. The first one is to "put on airs, while the second one is to "stubbornly refuse to concede".

Here's a video from Kira Muratova's movie. Her movies are always very unique. More often than not the main character is played by Renata Litvinova, who is the queen of putting on airs.

If you would like to see a transcript and translation of this clip, click here.

If you want to say that you met someone for the first time in such-and-such a place, then the verb to use is знакомиться/познакомиться, which is conjugated like this:

The verb can express the idea that two people met in two different ways. Either a) one person is the subject of the verb and the other is the object of the preposition с + instrumental, or b) they can both be part of the subject of the verb. Thus if Lyudmila wants to say that she met Gleb last year, she may use either of these sentences:

Other examples:

This verb cannot be used to say “I met Tanya at the airport” in the sense of “I went to the aiport to pick her up.” For that meaning you have to use the verb встречать/встретить, which we will discuss in the weeks to come.

Note the вы imperative познакомьтесь: to see a discussion of it's usage, see this blog entry.

Why is it that complicated words in a language never cause problems, but simple words do? I mean, no foreigner who studies Russian ever messes up a sentence with the phrase дезоксирибонуклеиновая кислота in it, but Americans who speak Russian misuse the word класс all the time.¹ Let's get to the heart of the matter. First of all, the word класс has multiple meanings that we will address over the next couple of weeks. Today we'll start with its most physical meaning, which is classroom, like the classrooms you find in a grade school or high school:

The trouble with the word for college-age Americans comes from the English usage “I am going to class.” In English the phrase means something like “I am about to attend the regularly scheduled event by which knowledge is passed on to me.” Even if your class is not meeting in a regular classroom, we still use the word class; for instance, “Today the professor is holding class in a conference room at the museum.” The sentence «Я иду в класс» means “I am going to the classroom.” It does NOT mean “I am going to class” in the normal English meaning. For that purpose one says “Я иду на занятия.” Notice that занятия is a neuter plural noun, but despite its plurality we will usually translate it as a singular in English, although sometimes the plural sounds okay as well:

¹ Дезоксирибонуклеиновая кислота = deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)

In Russian when we want to express how light (in weight) something is we compare it to «пух», “down” or “fluff” or a piece of fluff, «пушинка».

Пух is a noun of masculine gender that has no plural form. The diminutive is пушок. There can be various adjectives formed from the word пух: пуховый or пуховой and пушистый. The first two mean something made out of down. There can be пуховое одеяло or пуховик, which is essentially a comforter or a пуховка, “down jacket”. However, the third adjective means ‘fluffy’ and is used to describe fur, hair or fabrics. A cat can also be пушистый. In fact, a very popular cat name is Пушок, which is sort of like Fuzzball or Fluffball. Interestingly enough, Winnie the Pooh in Russian is translated as Винни Пух. The reason for it might be just similar sounding Pooh and Пух; however, it fits well – Winnie is a fluffy toy!

Also, there is пухлый that describes someone chubby, often unhealthy; while пухленький is usually used in a positive sense, as an attractive quality.

There are various expressions and idioms in Russian that use пух. For example, instead of saying “good luck”, we say, «Hи пуха, ни пера!» “neither down nor feather!” If you think this is weird, check this out! The standard response to this is «К чёрту!» “To devil!” Even though it doesn’t make much sense, I feel better, when someone says it to me before my exams.

Another good one is «в пух и прах». This idiom means “to the maximum”, “completely” or “utterly”.

Lastly, «рыльце в пушку» “snout in down/feathers” means that someone is not as innocent as they try to appear, just like “have a finger in a pie”. This idiom comes from a fable about a fox that wanted to appear innocent but its muzzle was covered with chicken feathers.

When I was little I really liked different riddles. I remember one time in class in elementary school our teacher decided to have a tricky question hour. Whoever would answer the most riddles would get a prize. It is funny that the question that got me my prize was very easy, “what is heavier: a kilogram of nails of a kilogram of down?” However, no one in my class seemed to know the answer right away. I remember I got up and said, «Они весят одинаково - один килограмм!», “they weigh the same – one kilogram!”… I couldn’t be prouder of myself that day!

¹ Don comments: Although “What a cute, chubby baby!” is an accurate translation of the Russian sentence, I should warn Russian readers never to call an American baby fat or chubby. The parents will be offended.

The second important phrase in Russian that deals with visiting is «в гостях». It is a location phrase, which means it is used with location verbs, not motion verbs. In Russian when you are at someone's home or office, you express that idea with the preposition у followed by the genitive case. Thus:

Of course you can add other phrases that specify where the person was located when you visited them:

One of the important phrases in Russian that deals with visiting is «в гости». It is a motion phrase, which means it is used with motion verbs, not location verbs. In Russian when you go to someone's home or office, you express that idea with the preposition к followed by the dative case. Thus:

Now here is where it gets interesting. In English if you mention that place you are going to in addition to the person, that place is expressed as a location phrase. In Russian that place shows up after the preposition в/на + accusative, in other words in a motion phrase:

There is another phrase «в гостях» that treats visiting as a location instead of a motion. We'll discuss it in a day or two.

Some say that pigs make great house pets. They call them charming and intelligent with expressive personalities. However, for most of us pig pets are too exotic. I mean, would you like to be awakened by loud grunting noises?

In Russian a pig is свинья. It is a word of feminine gender; in conversational Russian свин can mean a male pig, but when people talk about pigs they usually just use the feminine form

Russian pigs don't go “oink-oink”; they go хрю-хрю, which, in my opinion, makes sense; it reminds me of grunting sounds.

Figuratively both свинья and свин can be used to describe a messy person, while свинарник, “pigpen” could describe the filthiness of their home.

Also, it serves as an insult following one’s shabby act. In that case this person’s actions can be called свинство “swinishness” or “rudeness.”

We have a rather well used expression, свинью подложить, which means to intentionally cause trouble or play a dirty trick on them.

There is a theory that this expression comes historically from the ban on eating pork, свинина in Judaism and Islam. You can imagine someone, intentionally slipping a religious Muslim some pork in order to get them in trouble or cause mischief (source).

In Russian the mumps also have something to do with pigs: we call it свинка. The name comes from the look of one’s swollen cheeks when the salivary glands get inflamed. Incidentally, свинка is the diminutive form for свинья.

Another use of the word свинья is piggy bank, свинья-копилка. I found a really cute cartoon from the 1960’s that was based on Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, Свинья-копилка, “The Piggy Bank”.

In English you might hear a sentence like “I introduced John to Mary a year ago, and last month they got married.” The equivalent sentence in Russian will not use “to introduce” but rather “to acquaint,” which is знакомить/познакомить, which is conjugated like this:

The verb takes two complements: a direct object and a prepositional phrase with the preposition с + instrumental:

I acquainted John with Mary.

Despite the fact that the verb literally means “to acquaint,” a good English translation will substitute the verb “to introduce”:

The Russian word for bus, as in public transport, is автобус. It is a perfectly regular first declension noun. Public transport is well developed in large Russian cities, so it's a perfectly normal of the Russian daily routine to ride a bus. To say you are riding “on a bus/by bus” most often they use the preposition на followed by the prepositional case, but occasionally you'll find a bare instrumental case used without a preposition:

If something happens inside the bus, then of course you use в + prepositional:

Although автобус is a fairly simple word, it's the verbs used with it they are sometimes surprising to English speakers. For instance, the most common way to say “to get on the bus” is “to sit into the bus” in Russian, using the verb pair садиться/сесть:

When you get off the bus, Russians either say “to step down from the bus” сходить/сойти or “to exit from the bus” выходить/выйти:

Some words in Russian are formed in a very simple way, almost as if someone just looked at an object and made an observation. Take, for example, подушка, “pillow”. Под means “under” and ушко is “little ear”. So, what do you put under your ear – a pillow!

Подушка is a noun of feminine gender. The plural form is подушки, diminutive is подушечка.

Airbag in Russian is called подушка безопасности, ‘safety pillow’.

Fingertips are called подушечки пальцев, which literally means ‘little finger pillows’.

My mom sometimes uses a phrase that my great grandfather would always say, "спите скорее, подушка нужна!", "sleep faster, we need the pillow!". I would hear it when I took too long to fall asleep. I'm not sure where he got it from, but this saying has been in my family for a long time!

Don adds: Although it is true that some people connect подушка with the root ух- ‘ear,’ there is an alternative hypothesis that connects it with an ancient word for feather based on the stem дух- ‘breath/puff.’ See Fasmer for discussion.

Every culture has a set of words and rules used in the social ritual of introducing people. For Russians the key word is «Познакомьтесь!», which is the вы imperative form of the verb познакомиться “to become acquainted;” познакомьтесь literally means “Acquaint yourselves!” The introduction ritual for Russians can be remarkably brief. Let's say Tanya and and her friend Olga are standing on the corner talking. Up to them walks Tanya's friend Vera, who doesn't know Olga. The following conversation could ensue:

In this context Tanya uses the вы form because she is thinking about both Vera and Olga, but if she is only thinking about Vera, she might use the ты form:

Both approaches are grammatical, but in the познакомьтесь version Tanya is addressing both of her friends, and in the познакомься version she is addressing only Vera. Notice also that each of the people being introduced simply states her name, nothing more is required. Of course, more complex sentences are also possible:

And of course the person doing the introduction can also give more information.

In English we would never say “Acquaint yourelves!”, so a professional translation will use the standard phrases of English that include the word ‘introduce’:

Russian does have the verbs представлять/представить “to introduce” and представляться/представиться “to introduce oneself,” but they are not used in most day-to-day introductions. Someone who has had a very formal upbringing might use them. You will hear them in formal meetings and official introductions during public events. For most of your interactions in Russia, though, познакомься and познакомьтесь will serve you well.

We mentioned that these words are imperative forms of the perfective verb познакомиться. We will explore the related words знакомиться, знакомить and познакомить over the next week or two.

The Russian word for apple is яблоко. Note that it has an unexpected nominative/accusative plural:

Sample sentences:

The word for church in Russian is церковь. It is a third-declension feminine noun with a complication: the о drops out in every case except the nominative/accusative singular and the instrumental singular:

You will notice that there are alternative forms for the prepositional, dative and instrumental plurals: they can be soft or hard. The справка division at gramota.ru suggests both forms are acceptable, but I didn't really believe them because the soft versions should be much more natural by analogy with other feminine nouns in -ь, so I did a quick Google hit count (6 Feb 2010) and came up with these results:

So much for my theory. It seems like the hard forms are dominating.³ (Take that conclusion with a grain of salt. Such Google searches do not tell you how many times a particularly source is simply copied, so you can't tell how many unique instances there are of the word.) Despite the ambiguity, we can still produce some sample sentences:

¹ «Ни за что» means “not for anything” in the sense of “I wouldn't do it for anything in the world.” The ни and за are unstressed, and the что is stressed. Notice that there is a slight spelling difference (and a major stress difference) between that phrase and the phrase «не за что». In the latter the не is stressed the за and что are unstressed; it literally means “there is nothing for which” in the sense of “There is nothing for which to thank me”; we usually translate it as “don't mention it”: «Спасибо». «Не за что». “Thanks.” “Don't mention it.”

² This is an old stock phrase I encountered in Даль. People used it even though there were fewer than 1,600 churches in Moscow, so in effect it really means “There are a great many churches in Moscow.” Human languages often use large numbers to mean a non-specific “great many.” It is a common literary trope which we call “numerical hyperbole.” This use of language seems quite unnatural to those of us who were taught arithmetic from an early age and who were penalized if a number was off by even one. We tend to think “A number is precisely what a number says, nothing more and nothing less.” Alas, that is a common error in thought produced by otherwise good education.

³ Ah, it looks like my original guess that the soft forms are dominating is correct. See the discussion in the comment section. Thanks to the readers who gave such great feedback!

I’ll have to admit that I can’t take credit for today’s word of the day: my kitty helped me come up with it. She woke me up this morning by tickling my nose with her tail as she lay comfortably on my pillow. Still sleepy, I tried to move the little bugger without having to get up and inevitably being forced to start my day. After a few unsuccessful attempts to redirect that fuzzy fur piece, I gave up. (It was time to get up anyway ).) Meanwhile, I thought that the word “tail” was worth writing about.

In Russian tail is «хвост». It is a noun of masculine gender. The plural form is «хвосты» and diminutive is «хвостик».

In Russian this word has a few meanings, just like in English. The main one is an animal's body part.

Another meaning is ‘ponytail’ (the hairstyle). For example:

Also, it could mean a tail of something very long, such as a ship or an airplane.

Just like in English, this word can mean to chase or to follow someone.

Also, the word «хвост» has a very interesting meaning in student life. It describes an assignment that a student has not turned in in time, and because of which his grade is pending.

The latter sounds funny and provokes lots of jokes about students literally turning in their tails...

Here is an episode from the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh, where the donkey loses his tail!