Archives for: July 2010, 13

Мороженое

July 13th, 2010 by Don

The generic word for ice cream in Russian is мороженое. In form it is declined like a neuter adjective, although they use it as a noun. Theoretically the plural forms exist, though I have not personally encountered them yet:

SgPl
Nomмороженоемороженые
Acc
Genмороженогомороженых
Preмороженом
Datмороженомумороженым
Insмороженымморожеными

We Americans have all heard stories of those crazy Russians buying ice cream in the dead of winter. During my first trip to Moscow in 1986, I asked my acquaintance Алёша about that:

— Правда ли, что русские стоят в очереди за мороженым даже зимой, когда на улице минус десять градусов? "Is it true that Russians will stand in line for ice cream even in the winter when it's ten below outside?"
— Правда. "It's true."
— Но почему же? Ведь так холодно! "Why in the world? I mean it's so cold!"
— Потому что вкусно. "Because it tastes good."

Oh. Well, ask a stupid question...

During the Soviet period you could mostly buy vanilla ice cream, although ice cream with a chocolate coating (эскимо) was commonly available as well. Occasionally you would see chocolate or strawberry. Nowadays they have all sorts of flavors and toppings. I had a crème brûlée (крем-брюле) ice cream the other day that was wonderful. Here are a few sample sentences:
— Хочешь мороженое?
— Хочу.		 "Do you want ice cream?"
"I do."
На десерт мы заказали блинчики с мороженым. For dessert we ordered crepes with ice cream.
Без мороженого я не могу жить. Я его ем каждый день. I can't live without ice cream. I eat it every day.
Мама всегда добавляет орешки в домашнее мороженое. Mom always adds nuts to her homemade ice cream.

Although мороженое is a generic word for ice cream, there is another word you have to know nowadays to be ice-cream-competent in Russia. I'll blog about it in a week or so. Your assignment: take your best guess what that word is and post it in the comment section.

Posted in Food | 3 comments »