Russian Word of the Day

Do you ever think about how you learn certain words? You grow up using some of them without even stopping for a second to think of their meanings or how you came to know them. For example for me, apart from the obvious books and movies, my parents have always been a great source.

One of the words that I am sure I have learned from my mom is «колоритный». It is an adjective that means “vivid” or “colorful” and mostly appears in literature. It can be used to describe a painting that catches the eye with its bright colors and a special attention to details.

Also, this word is used figuratively to describe a person’s distinctive style and originality or a writer’s lively manner, in which one expresses his or her thoughts on paper.

The nouns formed from the same root are «колорит» and «колоритность» and the adverb is «колоритно».

As teenagers we all go through different stages of trying new styles. More often than not they fail and we inevitably move on to something else. Likewise, I was experimenting with my hair color and outfits. Luckily, I had a mother who, instead of laughing in my face or getting mad, would just call my look «колоритный», no matter how weird it seemed to her. That is not to say she didn’t try to change it later… As they say, “mother knows best”...

Злой is an adjective that beginners trip over for several reasons. First off, it is so short that it looks funny and they can't really believe that it's not longer:

Very often beginners memorize the word as meaning “wicked.” That's true as far as it goes:

However the word very often just means “mean” or “angry”:

In English we say a man is handsome and a woman is pretty. Russians roll both concepts up in the single word красивый. It is completely regular in its declension, including its comparative form красивее:

Sample sentences:

(Note that when «донельзя» is used to mean “very,” it is written as a single word and the stressoccurs not on the last syllable, but on the penultimate syllable. You could also say «до невозможности» in that context.)

Какой is one of the question words in Russian. It asks a question, so we call it ‘interrogative,’ and in terms of its endings it's an adjective, so we call it an ‘interrogative adjective.’ It declines like this:

Although какой can be translated several ways, it's most common meaning is “what kind of”:

Sometimes какой has about the same meaning as который, and in those instances we can often translate it as ‘what’ or sometimes ‘which’:

English is interesting in terms of comparatives. Sometimes you can use a comparative with -er, but you can't use a comparative with “more.” Thus “cuter” is okay, but “more cute” is not. We call the -er form the simple comparative. Sometimes the “more” form is okay, but the “-er” form is not. Thus “My life is more interesting than yours” is okay, but “My life is interestinger than yours” is not. When you use “more” with an adjective, we call that the compound comparative. Russian also has both simple and compound comparatives. The word used for compound comparatives is более. The более form is almost always acceptable in Russian:

Note: Задача really means assignment or taks, but in certain contexts like арифметическаая задача it can mean the equivalent of equation. The normal word for equation is уравнение.