Archives for: October 2010, 14

Ванная

October 14th, 2010 by Don

In most Russian apartments the bathtub is located in a room next to, but separate from, the room that has the toilet. Since bathtub in Russian is ванна, the room that contains it is called a ванная. Ванная is a deadjectival noun; that is, it is an adjective in form, but a noun in meaning, so it declines like this:

SgPl
Nomваннаяванные
Accванную
Genваннойванных
Pre
Datванным
Insванными

Now, we are going to have a bit of a translation problem here. In the US the word bathroom means the room that contains the toilet. (It might be different in the UK...) I just asked a buddy of mine “What do you call a room in America that has a bathtub but not a toilet?” He looked at me with incredulity, as if I were an American manqué, and said “I don't know. I have never encountered the situation.” ‘Washroom’ doesn't work, because it, too, implies a toilet, as do john, head, wc, powder room, restroom and lavatory. So for the purposes of this blog entry I will call it the “bathtub room.” That sounds odd in American English, so if you are a Russian reading this blog, don't use the phrase yourself; just understand that we are making do. That said, here are some sample sentences:

— Почему Маша в ванной?
— Она принимает ванну. Ты, что, думаешь, что она не имеет право мыться?		 “Why is Maria in the bathtub room?”
“She's taking a bath. What, you don't think she has the right to bathe?”
Войди в ванную и уберись там. Go into the bathtub room and straighten it up.
Когда я вышел из ванной, я увидел огромнейшего таракана и закричал, как девочка. When I stepped out of the bathtub room, I spotted the most enormous cockroach and I shrieked like a little girl.
— Кто вы по профессии?
— Я специалист по ремонту ванных.		 “What do you do for a living?”
“I specialize in repairing and upgrading bathtub rooms.”

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