Archives for: August 2010, 27

Шоколад

August 27th, 2010 by Don

The Russian word for chocolate is шоколад, which is a perfectly regular noun. Theoretically it occurs in the plural, but it is fairly uncommon to encounter the plural form:

SgPl
Nomшоколадшоколады
Acc
Genшоколадашоколадов
Preшоколадешоколадах
Datшоколадушоколадам
Insшоколадомшоколадами

In Russian sometimes people use the genitive form of a noun to mean “a small quantity of” or “some”:

Ты хочешь шоколада? Would you like some chocolate?

Шоколад is one of those words that has an alternative old genitive form that ends in -у. Such a form is called the second genitive. When it is used in the meaning of “some,” we call that usage the partitive genitive. It's entirely possible that you might encounter a sentence like this:

Ты хочешь шоколаду? Would you like some chocolate?

Those second genitives are old-fashioned. You are more likely to hear it from the mouth of a Russian бабушка than from someone under thirty years of age.

When you go to Russia you will encounter all sorts of chocolate that you have never seen before. My favorite one this summer was this one:

The line беречь от женщин means “keep away from women.” I about died laughing when I first encountered it. I wonder what happens when you feed it to women? Perhaps they turn into gremlins?

Here are some sample sentences:

— Володь, что такое эскимо?
— Это мороженое, покрытое шоколадом.		 “Vladimir, what is an ‘Eskimo’?”
“It's ice cream covered with chocolate.”
Я просто не могу жить без шоколада. I just can't live without chocolate.
— Ты любишь шоколад?
— Люблю, но у меня появляются прыщики от него.
— Это полнейший бред. У тебя прыщики, потому что ты никогда не моешь лицо.		 “Do you like chocolate?”
“I do, but it gives me pimples.”
“That's complete bunk. You have pimples because you never wash your face.”
— Ты слышал, что одесский завод производит сало в шоколаде?

— Слышал, но в действительности это лишь карамель с привкусом сала, а не настоящее сало.		 “Did you hear that a factory in Odessa produces fatbook covered with chocolate?”

“I did, but really it is only caramel with some fatback flavoring, not real fatback.”

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