Russian Word of the Day

The Russian phrase for “each other” is formed by saying the word друг twice in a row. The second друг occurs in a case other than the nominative, i.e. you can find these five forms:

Nom	-
Acc	друг друга
Gen	друг друга
Pre	друг о друге
Dat	друг другу
Ins	друг другом

The case of the second друг depends most often on the verb in question. If the verb requires a direct object, the second друг shows up in the accusative case; if the verb requires a dative object, the second друг shows up in the dative case. Likewise genitive — genitive, and instrumental — instrumental. Here are some examples:

Мы хорошо знаем друг друга.	We know each other well.
Мы с женой часто покупаем друг другу подарки.	My wife and I often buy each other gifts.
Американцы и русские раньше боялись друг друга.	Americans and Russians used to be afraid of each other.
Несмотря на их взаимную подозрительность, русские и американцы интересовались друг другом.	Despite their mutual suspicion, Russians and Americans were also very interested in each other.

If the verb requires a prepositional phrase as its complement, then the preposition comes between the two другs:

Мои сёстры постоянно сплетничают друг о друге.	My sisters constantly gossip about each other.
Когда мы были детьми, мы с братом постоянно ссорились друг с другом.	When we were boys, my brother and I constantly argued with each other.
Во время дуели противники стреляют друг в друга.	During a duel the contenders shoot at each other.
Улитки медленно подползали друг к другу	The snails slowly crawled toward each other.

Native English speakers, of course, will be tempted to write things like «Мои сёстры постоянно сплетничают о друг друге». And truth to tell, native Russians will say or write something like that, but it is not considered good written style.

Interestingly enough, sometimes the Russians substitute дружка for the second друг. Thus you get:

Nom	-
Acc	друг дружку
Gen	друг дружки
Pre	друг о дружке
Dat	друг дружке
Ins	друг дружкой

That makes the phrase much more informal and conversational. For instance:

Солистки «ВИА Гры» ненавидят друг дружку лютой ненавистью. (source)

The singers of [the pop group] “VIA Gra” hate each other bitterly.

I was interested to find the phrase as well in a site devoted to Russian folk magic. Here is a spell people use to help repair a family fracas:

Жгут ладан на сковороде и обходят с ним дом.	Burn incense in a frying pan and walk around the house with it.
Читают следующее: Ночь с луной, звезда с звездой, я со своей семьёй.	Read the following: Like the moon and the night, like star with star, so me and my family.
Как любит Христос свою мать,	As Christ loves his mother,
так чтобы мы все друг дружку любили,	so may we love each other
а не грызлись и друг друга не били.	may we not squabble nor beat each other.
Ладан, лад дай, мир и клад. Аминь.	Incense, give us amity peace and order. Amen.

You'll notice that жгут, обходят and читают are not command forms but third person plural verbs. In the translation they are rendered as imperatives to make the English flow better.

The word for nothing in Russian is ничто. Grammatically we call it a negative pronoun, and as a pronoun of course it occurs in all six cases:

Nom	ничто
Acc	direct object: ничего after prepositions: ни во что, ни на что
Gen	ничего
Pre	не о чём
Dat	ничему
Ins	ничем

The first curious thing to note about the word is that you rarely encounter the nominative case form; instead you often find the genitive. For instance, if you wanted to say “nothing helped,” you might expect the translation to be «ничто не помогло». That is a perfectly grammatical sentence, but more often you would hear something like this:

Я попробовала разные лекарства, но ничего не помогло.

I tried various medicines, but nothing helped.

That's not to say you won't ever see ничто. Back around 1997 there was an advertising campaign in Russia for Sprite. It began with posters of sexy models that said «Имидж ничто…» “Image is nothing…” and followed a while later by another set of posters with sexy models that said «Жажда всё» “Thirst is everything.” I remember being confused when I saw the first set of signs because they had nothing about Sprite on them, but weeks later I understood it when the second set of signs appeared that included Sprite images. Apparently the campaign worked: even a decade later you can still find people playing with the phrase. For instance, at the beginning of this month there was an article on podrobnosti.ru entitled «Имидж ничто, ответственоость всё» “Image is nothing; responsibility is everything.” The phrase has even penetrated popular humor:

“Image is nothing; thirst is everything. I won't let myself dry out.”

It's worth remembering that once you put a form of ничто in a sentence, you must also include the negative particle не before the verb. And if ничто is the object of a preposition, the ни separates from the rest of the word and moves in front of the preposition:

Я ничего не понимаю.	I don't understand anything.
— О чём ты говорил? — Я ни о чём не говорил.	“What were you talking about?” “I wasn't talking about anything.”
Книжный шкаф упал, когда на него влез ребёнок, так как он ничем не был прибит к стене.	The book shelf fell over when the child climbed up it because it wasn't attached to the wall with anything.
Раненый солдат ни на что не смотрел, просто сидел тихо, не тратя силы.	The wounded soldier didn't look at anything. He simply sat quietly without wasting his energy.

In conversation ничего acquires a wide range of meanings:

— Как дела? — Ничего.	“How are you doing?” “Okay.”
— Спасибо за деньги. — Ничего.	“Thanks for the money.” “No big deal.”
— Как новое платье? — Ничего себе!	“What do you think of my new dress?” “Not bad at all.”

Thus in the end nothing means a lot of different things. Ironic.

How do Russians deal with the last names and first names of foreigners? The general rule makes sense: the name declines if it ends in a sound that is typical for a male/female name and if it matches the gender typical of such names.

Not too surprisingly, if the foreigner is male, and if his first name and last name end in a consonant typical of a Russian masculine first declension noun, then the first and last names decline just like masculine first declension nouns. For example, Brad Pitt's name declines like this in Russian:

Nom Acc Gen Pre Dat Ins

Брэд Питт Брэда Питта Брэда Питта Брэде Питте Брэду Питту Брэдом Питтом

Likewise if a female foreigner's names end in a letter typical of a second declension noun, the names decline like second declension nouns. Thus Christina Aguilera's name declines like this in Russian:

Nom Acc Gen Pre Dat Ins

Кристина Агилера Кристину Агилеру Кристины Агилеры Кристине Агилере Кристине Агилере Кристиной Агилерой

If either of a man's names ends in a sound that is not typical for a masculine first or second declension Russian noun, then that name is not declined. The other name may still decline. Here's how the names of Antonio Banderas and Gérard Depardieu work:

Nom Acc Gen Pre Dat Ins

Антонио Бандерас Антонио Бандераса Антонио Бандераса Антонио Бандерасе Антонио Бандерасу Антонио Бандерасом

Жерар Депардьё Жерара Депардьё Жерара Депардьё Жераре Депардьё Жерару Депардьё Жераром Депардьё

If either of a woman's names ends in a sound not typical for a second declension noun, then that name does not decline. The other name may still decline. As example we see Paulina Rubio and Jane Fonda:

Nom Acc Gen Pre Dat Ins

Паулина Рубио Паулину Рубио Паулины Рубио Паулине Рубио Паулине Рубио Паулиной Рубио

Джейн Фонда Джейн Фонду Джейн Фонды Джейн Фонде Джейн Фонде Джейн Фондой

If a foreign name ends in a sound atypical for Russian male and female names, then usually the name doesn't decline at all, e.g. the names Вупи Голдберг, Мелани Гриффит, Пинк, and Антонио Сабато never change their endings.

A few general examples:

В 1995 году разгорелся роман между Бандерасом и Мелани Гриффит.	In 1995 an affair flamed up between Banderas and Melanie Griffith.
Джейн Фонда — дочь Генри Фонды.	Jane Fonda is the daughter of Henry Fonda.
Моя мама безумно влюблена в Хулио Иглесиаса.	My mother is crazy in love with Julio Iglesias.

(Can you believe that Julio Iglesias, the idol of menopausal women everywhere, even has an official website in Russia? Click here to immerse yourself in the degradation.)

The generalizations we just discussed take care of most foreign names in Russian. There are lots of other possibilities, but they are too many to enumerate in a short blog entry. Suffice it to say that every once in a while names surprise you.

Quirky exceptions:

• Heaven knows why, but—in terms of official written Russian stylistics—Polish last names in -ski are usually transliterated into Russian not as -ский but as -ски, and they do not decline, thus «фильмы Романа Полански» “the films of Roman Polanski.” If you are writing a formal report in Russian or giving a formal presentation, that's how you have to treat them. But those rules don't hold up later in the day. Even overeducated native speakers of Russian with a fetish for film will say фильмы Романа Поланского when socializing after their big presentation.
• Likewise, although first and last names in -а are generally declined, officially speaking last names that end in -иа are not declined in überformal contexts, thus you'll hear «книги Джона Гарсиа» “the books of John Garcia” if someone is making a formal presentation, although afterwards, when their students are fawning over them at the parties after the conference, the same speaker will say книги Джона Гарсии.

One last thought: the Russians themselves are not always sure how to handle foreign last names and whether to decline them or not, or even how to spell them. When I looked at the Russian Wikipedia entry today for author John David Garcia, I saw that in the title of the page they spelled his name Гарсиа (standard transliteration of the name), but in the body of the article they tended to write Гарсия.

Some Russian last names end in -ович. That's right: every once in a while you come across a last name that looks like an отчество patronymic. For such names the general rule is that if the bearer is a man, the last name declines, but if the bearer is a woman, the last name doesn't decline. One person who has such a last name is the well-known composer Дмитрий Шостакович. His own name declines like this:

Nom Acc Gen Pre Dat Ins

Дмитрий Шостакович Дмитрия Шостаковича Дмитрия Шостаковича Дмитрии Шостаковиче Дмитрию Шостаковичу Дмитрием Шостаковичем

His wife's name declines like this:

Nom Acc Gen Pre Dat Ins

Ирина Шостакович Ирину Шостакович Ирины Шостакович Ирине Шостакович Ирине Шостакович Ириной Шостакович

There are many, many Russian last names that end in -ский and its variations. Good students will note that it looks like an adjectival ending, and in fact such names decline exactly like the adjective русский. The first name, of course, still declines just like an ordinary noun. Examples:

	Masculine	Feminine	Plural
Nom	Фёдор Достоевский	Мария Достоевская	Достоевские
Acc	Фёдора Достоевского	Марию Достоевскую	Достоевских
Gen	Фёдора Достоевского	Марии Достоевской	Достоевских
Pre	Фёдоре Достоевском	Марии Достоевской	Достоевских
Dat	Фёдору Достоевскому	Марии Достоевской	Достоевским
Ins	Фёдором Достоевским	Марией Достоевской	Достоевскими

Although the last names in -ский are the most common adjectival last names, there are other last names that also decline like adjectives: Толстой declines like молодой; the last name Гладкий declines just like the uncapitalized adjective гладкий; and the last name Поперечный declines just like the uncapitalized adjective поперечный. There aren't very many of these adjectival names that don't end in -ский.

The fun really sets in, though, when you encounter last names that end in -ых or -их in the nominative case, which descended from old genitive plural forms. In these cases the last name itself does not decline, although the first name (and patronymic, if present) does. Examples:

	Masculine	Feminine	Plural
Nom	Константин Седых	Наталья Седых	Седых
Acc	Константина Седых	Наталью Седых	Седых
Gen	Константина Седых	Натальи Седых	Седых
Pre	Константине Седых	Наталье Седых	Седых
Dat	Константину Седых	Наталье Седых	Седых
Ins	Константином Седых	Натальей Седых	Седых

Because such last names can be interpreted as masculine, feminine, or plural, not to mention they can be used in any case without a change of ending, interpreting the name in context can tricky. Thus «Я послал телеграмму Седых» could theoretically be interpreted to mean:

• I sent a telegram to [Mr.] Sedykh; or
• I sent a telegram to [Ms.] Sedykh; or
• I sent a telegram to the Sedykhs; or
• I sent [Mr.] Sedykh's telegram; or
• I sent [Ms.] Sedykh's telegram; or
• I sent the Sedykhs' telegram.

In such cases it is wisest to add either a first name and patronymic or some other more specific noun before the last name to clarify the situation: «Я послал телеграмму Константину Седых» or «Я послал телеграмму Наталье Седых» or «Я послал телеграмму семье Седых».