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Стих
The Russian word for a verse in a poem is стих, but it gets a lot more use in Russian than in English. First we'll look at its forms, and then we'll discuss why it is used so much in Russia. It is an end-stressed noun, which means whenever you add a grammatical ending to it, the first syllable of the grammatical ending gets the stress.
| Sg | Pl | |
| Nom | стих | стихи |
| Acc | ||
| Gen | стиха | стихов |
| Pre | стихе | стихах |
| Dat | стиху | стихам |
| Ins | стихом | стихами |
The word can mean either a verse in a poem or a verse in the Bible:
| Каждый русский знает наизусть первые стихи «Евгения Онегина». | Every Russian knows the first verses of Eugene Onegin by heart. |
| Каждый серьёзный христианин знает наизусть шестнадцатый стих третьей главы Евангелия от Иоанна. | Every serious Christian knows John 3:16 by heart. |
The word стих doubles as meaning a poem, so a parent might a Russian schoolchild to recite a poem like this:
| Олечка, расскаже мне стих. | Olga, recite a poem for me. |
Every American child knows the poem/riddle “Humpty-Dumpty,” and every Russian child knows this poem (which is also sung as a New Year's song):
| В лесу родилась ёлочка В лесу она росла Зимой и летом стройная Зелёная была |
A fir tree was born in the forest In the forest it grew In the summer and the winter It was shapely and green |
The plural стихи is used to mean poetry in general:
| — Ты любишь стихи? — Да, очень. |
“Do you like poetry?” “Yes, quite a bit.” |
| Когда я жил в Сиэттле и мне было очень грустно, я исписывал сотни страниц грустными стихами, пока грусть не прошла. Я убежден, что само писание стихов вылечило мою депрессию. | I was really sad when I lived in Seattle, and I covered hundreds of pages with gloomy poetry until the sadness went away. I'm convinced that the very act of writing the poetry cured my depression. |
| — Какие стихи ты любишь? — Я никаких стихов не знаю. — Ах, да, я забыла, что у тебя американское образование. |
“What poetry do you like?” “I don't know any poems.” “Oh, that's right. I had forgotten that you have an American education.” |
| Стихи могут довести меня до слёз, особенно «Реквием» Ахматовой. | Poetry can bring me to tears, especially Akhmatova's “Requiem.” |
* Notice the atypical stress. Normally it should be родилась.
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Keep going!!! Good Luck!!!
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