Russian Word of the Day

The word for Monday in Russian is понедельник. First a bit of history. The verb "to do" is делать. "To not do" thus is «не делать», and in ancient Russian one of the words for Sunday was неделя "the day on which you do nothing". The preposition по means after, and the suffix -ник forms a noun, thus the word понедельник means "the day after Sunday." Cool, huh? Of course nowadays nobody thinks about that history when they say понедельник. They just think of the first day of the week.

Some Americans say things like "I hate Mondays." The most common phrase about Monday in Russian is «Понедельник — день тяжёлый» "Monday is a tough day."

Though it is easy to memorize the days of the week in Russian, English speakers will need to keep in mind the prepositions that are used with them. If you want to say that something happened (or will happen) on a particular Monday, then you want the preposition в followed by the accusative case:

В понедельник я ходил в японский ресторан.

On Monday I went to a Japanese restaurant.

If you go there every Monday, then you want the preposition по followed by the dative plural:

По понедельникам я всегда хожу в японский ресторан.

On Mondays I always go to a Japanese restaurant.

If something started on Monday and is still continuing, you want the preposition с followed by the genitive case:

С понедельника мой сын страдает поносом.

My son has been suffering from diarrhea since Monday.

And if you want to give a range of days over which something will happen, for the starting day you use с + genitive and for the ending day you use the preposition по + accusative:

С пятницы по понедельник я буду кататься на лыжах, а во вторник я вернусь домой.¹

I'll be skiing Friday through Monday, and on Tuesday I'll return home.

Last but not least, of course, you use the word in the nominative case when answering what day of the week it is:

— Какой сегодня день недели? — Сегодня понедельник.

"What day is it today?" "Today is Monday."

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¹ Some of my native speaker informants prefer the preposition до + genitive in this context along with the adverb включительно inclusively. Thus:

С пятницы до понедельника включительно я буду кататься на лыжах, а во вторник я вернусь домой.¹

I'll be skiing from Friday to Monday inclusively, and on Tuesday I'll return home.

Growing up in the US, children commonly say things like "Me and Johnny went to the store." Although it sounds perfectly normal to many people, it is considered terrible written style (and also bad style for public speaking), and grade-school teachers make a great effort to break kids of this habit. The only acceptable written form is "Johnny and I went to the store."¹ If we transform that word-for-word into Russian, we get the sentence «Иван и я ходили в магазин». Although every Russian will understand such a sentence, it is not the most typical way to say it. Instead the more common way is:

Мы с Иваном ходили в магазин.

John and I went to the store.

The phrase «мы с Иваном» is actually ambiguous. It can mean "John and I" or it can mean "We (a group of two or more people) and also John". The same holds true for the phrase «мы с ним», which can mean "he and I" or "we [two or more people] along with him." For instance, if my wife and I are having pity on our poor, miserable bachelor friend, John, I can say:

Нам с женой очень жалко Ивана, поэтому мы с ним часто ходим в кино.

My wife and I feel really sorry for John, so we three often go to the movies. or My wife and I feel really sorry for John, so we often go to the movies with him.

Although the second translation is the more natural way to put it in English (and thus the better translation on this occasion), the first translation captures the idea that John is included in the concept of мы in the sentence.

On the other hand, if I go to the movies with John but my wife does not come along, the same construction just means me and John:

Мне очень жалко Ивана, поэтому мы с ним часто ходим в кино.

I feel really sorry for John, so he and I often go to the movies.

The same ambiguity holds for the phrase «вы с Иваном», which can mean "you [one person] and John" or "you [more than one person] and John. For instance, let's say I'm talking to a female friend about her son Женя. If I want to ask whether she often argues with him, I might ask:

Вы с Женей часто ссоритесь?

Do you and Zhenya argue often?

Or if I am taking to both her and her husband, I might say the same thing with a different meaning:

Вы с Женей часто ссоритесь?

Do you [two] and Zhenya argue often?

The same holds true for phrases with они, which can be interpreted a variety of ways. Let's say I'm talking about my female friend who is feeling sorry for another female friend. This sentence could result:

Ей очень жалко Веру, поэтому они с ней часто ходят в кино.²

She feels really sorry for Vera, so the two of them often go to the movies.

Of course, if my friend's husband also feels sorry for Vera, we could have a parallel sentence:

Им очень жалко Веру, поэтому они с ней часто ходят в кино.

They feel really sorry for Vera, so the three of them often go to the movies.

The same situation also of course applies if my friend is a man:

Ему очень жалко Веру, поэтому они с ней часто ходят в кино.³

He feels really sorry for Vera, so the two of them often go to the movies.

To review, the phrases «мы с ним», «вы с ним», «они с ним», «мы с ней», «вы с ней» and «они с ней» are ambiguous in that they can refer to groups of two or more people.

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¹ Actually, the teachers do too good a job of breaking us of that habit without explaining the situation more thoroughly. In fact many teachers overgeneralize and just teach their students that any time they are tempted to say "me and you" (or any other combination of "me and..."), they must replace it with "you and I" (or "... and I"). Even very educated people — sad to say that among them are my own mother and sister — thus will say things like, "Just between you and I, I think that is a bad idea." The correct thing to say in that context is "Just between you and me..." But just try to convince them of that... it's a lost cause.

² In this context with the third-person plural pronoun, some native speakers prefer «Ей очень жалко Веру, поэтому она с ней часто ходит в кино», but in rapid speech the «они с ней часто ходят» form is entirely possible.

³ In this context with the third-person plural pronoun, some native speakers prefer «Ему очень жалко Веру, поэтому он с ней часто ходит в кино», but in rapid speech the «они с ней часто ходят» form is entirely possible.

We mentioned the other day that the preposition "с" + the instrumental case means "with." There is another context where it means "with," but we don't translate it as "with," and that is when two nouns are joined together as the subject (or object) of a sentence. In these contexts we must translate "с" as "and." For example:

Глеб с Анной издевались над иностранцами.	Gleb and Anna taunted the foreigners.
Милиционер остановил Петю с Андрюшей и попросил документы.	The policeman stopped Pyotr and Andrei and asked for their identification.
Мама дала Вере с Таней изюм.	Mama gave some raisins to Vera and Tanya.
Моя сестра постоянно болтает об Анжелине с Брэдом.	My sister constantly chatters about Angelina and Brad.

In this context translating "с" as "with" sounds terrible in English and is a grammatical error.

The preposition "с" has several meanings and can be used with several cases. When "с" means "with" it is followed by the instrumental case:

Я работаю с девушкой, которая говорит на четырёх языках.	I work with a woman who speaks four languages.
— Ты хочешь чёрный кофе? — Нет, со сливками.	"Do you want your coffee black?" "No, with cream."
— С кем ты ходил в кино? — С Верой.	"Who did you go to the movie with?" "With Vera."
Я люблю пирожки с капустой.	I love cabbage pirozhki.

One thing a beginner has to watch out for is that sometimes you must NOT use "с" in translating the English word "with." This is particularly true when indicating the "means by which" you do something. This is the "pure instrumental" meaning of the instrumental:

Русские обычно едят торт ложкой.	Russians usually eat cake with spoon.
— Чем ты пишешь? Карандашом? — Нет, ручкой.	"What are you writing with? A pencil?" "No, a pen."
Саша ударил Ваню кулаком.	Sasha hit Vanya with his fist.

In those last three examples it would be wrong in Russian to include "с".

Sometimes Russians seem insane, particularly in their desire to drink hot tea and eat hot soup for lunch in the middle of summer. But they have one soup that is cold that they also like, and it is called окрошка. We don't have any special name for it in English, so we just transliterate it as okroshka. Essentially it is a cold vegetable soup for which the base is kvas, a beerish liquid made of a mildly fermented bread mash, which has almost no alcohol content. If you are going to have soup in summer, it makes sense to my American mind to have this relatively light and cool one. Here's a picture of the окрошка from the Трали-Вали cafeteria at one of the universities in Kazan:

There are quite a few variations on окрошка. If you want to specify that you are making it with квас, then you call it окрошка на квасе. If you use water and кефир instead of квас, then you call it окрошка на кефире. Yesterday morning I was sitting at my currently favorite overpriced (but very tasty) coffee place, Кофейня «Капитал», in Kazan when I spotted this advertisement:

It says that they will make окрошка special for you not just with kvas, not just with kefir, but, if you prefer, with BEER! That's right, окрошка на пиве! You can have it made with dark beer, light beer, or honey beer! Beer soup for lunch... does that not sound like redneck heaven??? Plus they will be happy to add beef tongue, boiled beef, or sausage. See if you can figure out what the остальные ингредиенты "remaining ingredients" are from the sign.

Here are some sample sentences:

Окрошка на светлом пиве мне не очень понравилась.	I didn't care for the okroshka made with light beer.
Мама всегда готовит окрошку на кефире.	Mom always makes kefir-based okroshka.
Я считаю, что редиска в окрошке не нужна.	I think you can do without the radishes in okroshka.
Бабушка всегда угощала внуков окрошкой.	Grandmother always treated the grandkids to okroshka.