Russian Word of the Day

Over a year ago I posted an entry on the words блузка/кофта that included a translation contest. Then I headed to Russia and lost track of it. Finally here are the results. The original and somewhat vulgar poem is posted here.

The best translation was submitted by D. Preker, and the first runner up was B. Schilke. Both translations are posted here.

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PS to D. Preker. The e-mail address you originally wrote from is no longer valid. Send my your mailing address to collect your prize money. Specify the e-mail address from which you originally sent the translation as well so I know it's the real you.

The Russian word for ‘that,’ as in “that car,” “that dog” or “that house” is тот. Grammatically it is a demonstrative adjective, thus it occurs in forms that vary for case, number, and gender, and of course it agrees with the noun it modifies. It declines like this:

	Masc	Neut	Fem	Pl
Nom	тот	то	та	те
Acc	*		ту	*
Gen	того		той	тех
Pre	том
Dat	тому			тем
Ins	тем			теми

Here are some sample sentences:

— Кто живёт в том доме? — Вампир. Туда не ходи.	“Who lives in that building?” “A vampire. Don't go there.”
В том году мы жили в Уфе.	That year we lived in Ufa.
На той планете никогда не было настоящей атмосферы.	There never was a real atmosphere on that planet. or That planet never had a real atmosphere.

In English the difference between ‘this’ and ‘that’ is essentially distance. Theoretically the same thing is true in Russian, but somehow the distance factor is not quite the same in these languages. Truth to tell, I haven't come up with a proper explanation of the difference, but here are my current hypotheses:

English

• If something is close to me, I use ‘this.’
• If something is close to you, I use ‘that.’
• If something is far from both of us, I use ‘that.’

Russian

• If something is close to me, I use «этот».
• If something is close to you, I use «этот».
• If something is far from both you and me but I can use a gesture (either hands or a glance) to point it out and we can both clearly see it, I use «этот».
• If something is far from both you and me and it is partially blocked by intervening items, I use «тот».
• If something is far from both of us and not visible but we have spoken about it before, I use «тот».

In other words, there are quite a few contexts where even этот is best translated as ‘that’ in English. For instance, let's say your Russian friend sees you reading a book and wants to know the name of the book, the question will most likely come out like this:

Как называется эта книга?

What's the name of that book?

If you and a Russian friend are standing on the sidewalk looking at a building across the street. If your friend points to the building and inquires who lives there, then it's most likely to come out like this:

Кто живёт в этом доме?

Who lives in that building?

If you and your Russian friend are talking about a building in the distance that is partially blocked by other buildings, you will most likely use «тот»:

— Кто живёт в том доме? — В каком? — Вон в том с красной крышей, за церковью.»

“Who lives in that building?” “In which one?” “There in that one, the one with the red roof behind the church.”

And if you can't see the building but you've discussed it before, «тот» is best:

Кто живёт в том деревянном доме на Садовой улице? Помнишь, мы о нём говорили, там ещё такая злая собака, лает без умолку. Не знаю как соседи бедные спят

Who lives in that building on Sadovaya Street? You remember, we talked about it. There's a really mean dog there that never stops barking. I don't know the poor neighbors manage to sleep.

In short, one cannot mechanically say that этот always corresponds to ‘this,’ and тот always corresponds to ‘that.’ You will need practical experience wth Russian life to start getting a feel for the contexts where each is used.

BTW, I'm actively on the lookout for better explanations of the this/that этот/тот distinction. Please feel free to express disagreements, corrections, or other insights in the comments. We are all here to do a better job at cross-cultural communication, so your input will be appreciated.

The verb pair переводить/перевести means ‘to translate’ and is conjugated like this:

	Imperfective	Perfective
Infinitive	переводить	перевести
Past	переводил переводила переводило переводили	перевёл перевела перевело перевели
Present	перевожу переводишь переводит переводим переводите переводят	No such thing as perfective present in Russian.
Future	буду переводить будешь переводить будет переводить будем переводить будете переводить будут переводить	переведу переведёшь переведёт переведём переведёте переведут
Imperative	переводи(те)	переведи(те)

This is a typical transitive verb; that is, it has a do-er (grammatical subject) that occurs in the nominative case, and a done-to (grammatical direct object) that occurs in the accusative case:

Кто перевёл эту статью?	Who translated this article?
Что ты переводишь?	What are you translating?

The language you are translating from appears in the genitive case after the preposition с and the language you are translating to appears in the accusative case after the preposition на:

Переведите эту статью на английский к понедельнику.	Translate this article into English by Monday.
— С какого языка перевели «Преступление и наказание»? — С русского, конечно.	“What language was ‘Crime and Punishment’ translated from?” “From Russian, of course.”
Хотя он сам русский, Набоков писал «Лолиту» по-английски. То есть, потом пришлось перевести её с английского на русский.	Although he himself is a Russian, Nabokov wrote ‘Lolita’ in English. That is, later it had to be translated from English into Russian.
— Этот софт перевёл «ни пуха, ни пера» как «neither fuzz nor feather». Что за чушь? — Это дословный перевод. Правильный перевод — «good luck».	“The software translated ‘ни пуха, ни пера’ as ‘neither fuzz nor feather.’ What kind of nonsense is that?” “That's a word-for-word translation. The correct translation is ‘good luck.’”

So how would you say in Russian “How do you translate ‘обезьяна’ into English?” A beginning Russian student named Hiram with good study habits would probably say “Как ты переводишь «обезьяна» на английский?” That's a perfectly grammatical translation. The Russians would understand the translation. But it's not the way they would normally say it. For those kind of generic questions the Russians usually use either indefinite personal constructions, that is, verbs in the present tense они form, or infinitive constructions. So theoretically one could say:

Как переводят «обезьяна» на английский?

How do you translate ‘обезьяна’ into English?

That is a perfectly grammatical construction, and it's definitely better than Hiram's original translation, but the infinitive constructions are better yet:

Как перевести на английский «обезьяна»?

How do you translate ‘обезьяна’ into English?

Even better are phrases that don't use ‘to translate’ at all:

How do you say ‘обезьяна’ in English?

Как сказать по-английски «обезьяна»?
Как по-анлглийски будет «обезьяна»?
Как по-анлглийски «обезьяна»?

And when you combine that with the answer, you get short dialogs like this:

— Как по-английски будет «обезьяна»? — «Обезьяна» будет «monkey» или «ape».	“How do you say ‘обезьяна’ in English? “‘Monkey’ or ‘ape.’”
— Как сказать по-английски «обезьяна»? — «Monkey» или «ape».	“How do you say ‘обезьяна’ in English? “‘Monkey’ or ‘ape.’”
— Как по-английски «обезьяна»? — «Monkey» или «ape».	“How do you say ‘обезьяна’ in English? “‘Monkey’ or ‘ape.’”

When you learn a foreign language, one of the things that causes problems are false cognates, which are words that sound similar but can have quite different meanings. The classic example for Spanish students is ‘embarazada’ which sounds like the English word ‘embarrassed’ but actually means ‘pregnant.’ If an American woman tries to say that she is embarrassed using ‘embarazada,’ the reaction of her cohorts will teach her her error promptly. She won't make that mistake a second time.

It's a little trickier when the meanings of the false cognates are much closer in the two languages. In that case there is much more likely to be continuing confusion and cross-cultural mis­com­munication, and that miscommunication can be both on the dictionary-meaning level and on the emotional level. A case in point are the words туалет and toilet. In American English toilet means the actual device one sits upon, and in Russian туалет means the room in which the toilet (but usually not the bathtub) is located. Since the Russian word is so similar to the English word, American students of Russian only have to hear it once to remember it forever, and they promptly start producing sentences like:

Я хочу пойти в туалет.

I want to go to the toilet.

In terms of grammatical communication it is a perfectly adequate sentence, but the student hasn't said quite what he thinks he has said, and there is a very good chance he has just committed a cultural faux pas. The sentence is a little too direct for polite company, and simply saying you want to go to the toilet summons up unpleasant images of... well, you get the idea. In American English we avoid those images because the word “bathroom” focuses on the ‘bath’ idea; that is, there is a subtle association with cleanliness, not urination or defecation. So to avoid being quite so direct, the Russians have several ways of euphemistically expressing the idea. The one I use most is «помыть руки», which word-for-word means “to wash the hands”:

Можно, я помою руки? or Можно помыть руки?

May I use your restroom?

If you say it that way, there will be a bit of ambiguity to the Russian, who won't necessarily be sure if you need the toilet or the sink, but since in a Russian apartment the room with the toilet is usually right next to the room with the bathtub and sink, they will lead you right to where you need to go for either purpose. Of course, if you are not directly discussing bodily functions, it's perfectly fine to use the word туалет:

— Где в этом здании находятся туалеты? — На втором, четвёртром и шестом этажах.	“Where are the bathrooms in this building?” “On the second, fourth and sixth floors.”
— Ваня, почему ты опять курил в туалете? — Потому что на кухне было много народу, некуда было сесть.	“Ivan, why were you smoking in the bathroom again?” “Because there were a lot of people in the kitchen, and there was nowhere to sit.”
Люба вошла в туалет и заметила, что не было туалетной бумаги.	Lyubov walked into the bathroom and noticed that there was no toilet paper.
Рядом с туалетом находится ванная.	Next to the bathroom there is a room with a bathtub.

The social contexts that affect the direct use of the word туалет are complex. My friend Tanya assures me that if she is at a restaurant with a mixed group of men and women, she never uses the word туалет. Instead she would just stand up, say «Я сейчас приду» “I’ll be right back,” and then leave. But if she is with just her female friends at the restaurant, she might well say «Я пойду в туалет» “I'm going to the bathroom,” and since she is with her friends she might add to one of them «Ты хочешь со мной?» “Do you want to come with me?” Similarly a Russian man in mixed company will use euphemistic phrases like the ones mentioned before or «Я отойду на минутку» “I'll step away for a moment.” (But unlike Russian women, a Russian man won't ask a buddy to go to the bathroom with him.)

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.