Russian Word of the Day

Yesterday we mentioned that the word глаз declines like this:

	Sg	Pl
Nom	глаз	глаза
Acc
Gen	глаза, глазу	глаз
Pre	глазе, глазу	глазах
Dat	глазу	глазам
Ins	глазом	глазами

Note the alternative forms of the prepositional case. The prepositional form in -у is a ‘locative’ form, which appears after the prepositions в and на when they indicate location. Thus I might say:

У меня соринка в глазу.

I have a speck in my eye.

But if I'm talking about an eye, then the form in -е appears:

У моего брата разноцветные глаза. Я хочу сказать тебе о его левом глазе.

My brother's eyes are different colors. I want to tell you about his left eye.

Luludya withdrew her lips from mine, gazed up at me soulfully and whispered:

У тебя такие красивые глаза, как у верблюда!

Your eyes are as pretty as a camel’s!

Several hours later, in the exhausted aftermath, it struck me that perhaps some Americans might have taken those words the wrong way, had they been in my oh-so-fortunate place. Camels have the most beautiful eyelashes of any animal. It is no surprise that a Gypsy woman in the throes of passion would say such a thing. And upon reflection it strikes me that all the best things in life are born in love, so it is only suitable that Luludya's love for me should elicit a blog entry on eyes.

The Russian word for eye is глаз, which declines like this:

	Sg	Pl
Nom	глаз	глаза
Acc
Gen	глаза, глазу	глаз
Pre	глазе, глазу	глазах
Dat	глазу	глазам
Ins	глазом	глазами

Old Russian in addition to singular forms and plural forms had ‘dual’ forms, which were used to indicate things that came in pairs. For masculine nouns like глаз, that ending was -а, producing Old Russian глаза ‘two eyes, a pair of eyes.’ Nowadays that form has generalized to the plural form. We'll deal with the alternative forms of the genitive and the prepositional soon.

When you describe someone's eyes, the most common common colors are these:

У моего брата голубые глаза.	My brother has blue eyes.
У её сестры зелёные глаза.	Her sister has green eyes.
У моего племянника карие глаза.	My nephew has brown eyes.
У вашего соседа серые глаза.	Your neighbor has gray eyes.

When one is with one's beloved, it is absolutely essential to compliment the eyes, and since Russian intonation is different from English intonation, one must practice the phrases over and over again so that they sound sincere. Intonation construct (IC) 2 is often used for emphatic statements, so one could make the following compliment:

IC 5 is used for oohing and aahing, so one could pose the compliment thus:

Now we should probably address the issue of... damn... Luludya is calling my cell phone. Half a mo... Ohmigoodness, she just said:

У тебя лапы, как у медведя!

You have paws like a bear’s!

Gods! Is it any wonder that I love this woman? I must go to her immediately! Grammar must wait until tomorrow!

Russian has two words for blue, and the one that is the equivalent of light blue is голубой, which declines like this:

	Masc	Neut	Fem	Pl
Nom	голубой	голубое	голубая	голубые
Acc	*		голубую	*
Gen	голубого		голубой	голубых
Pre	голубом
Dat	голубому			голубым
Ins	голубым			голубыми

In its primary meaning the word means the same as its English equivalent:

Она любит носить голубые свитера.	She likes to wear light-blue sweaters.
Она сегодня в голубом свитере.	Today she is wearing a light-blue sweater.
Банк находится около пятиэтажного голубого здания.	The bank is located near a five-story, light-blue building.
Сегодня небо без облаков, ясное и голубое. В такие дни у меня такое хорошее настроение.	Today the sky has no clouds; it's clear and blue. On days like this I feel so good.

The word also has an alternative slang meaning, which is ‘gay, pertaining to homosexuals’:

— Я так люблю Гришу. Он будет моим парнем! — Даже не надейся. Разве ты не знала, что он голубой? — Правда? Чёрт подери. Я должна была знать. Он ведь так хорошо одевается.

“I really like Grisha. He's going to be my boyfriend!” “Don't even think it. Did you seriously not know that he's gay?” “Really? Goddammit. I should have known. He dresses so well.”

Interesting enough, голубой in this sense can only be applied to men, not to women.

The Russian word for tea is чай. It declines like this:

	Sg	Pl
Nom	чай	чаи
Acc
Gen	чая	чаёв
Pre	чае	чаях
Dat	чаю	чаям
Ins	чаем	чаями

You don't usually find the plural forms, but occasionally they are used to mean ‘types of tea.’ Mostly you just use the singular.

Фу, чай уже остыл.	Yuck, the tea has already grown cold.
— С чем ты любишь чай? — Я люблю чай с лимоном.	“What do you like with your tea?” “I like tea with lemon.”
— Ты любишь зелёный чай? — Мне всё равно, но мне больше нравится чёрный чай.	“Do you like green tea?” “I have nothing against it, but I like black tea better.”
— Я очень интересуюсь чаем. — В смысле, ты любишь чай пить? — Да нет, у меня аллергия на чай. Я интересуюсь историей чая и тем, как чай стал таким популярным в России и Средней Азии.	“I'm really interested in tea.” “You mean you like to drink tea?” “Oh, no, I’m allergic to tea. I'm interested in the history of tea and how it became so popular in Russia and Central Asia.”

Tea always reminds me of a classic English joke. Supposedly between Lady Astor and Winston Churchill there was constant verbal sparring:

ЛА: Винстон, если бы я была вашей женой, я бы подсыпала яд в ваш чай. ВЧ: Мадам, если бы Вы были моей женой, я бы сразу же его выпил.

LA: Winston, if I were your wife, I would poison your tea. WC: Madam, if you were my wife, I would promptly drink it.

If you want to ask how often something happens in Russian, you can use the phrase «как часто»:

Как часто вы ходите в ресторан?	How often do you go to restaurants?
Как часто ты звонишь бабушке?	How often do you call your grandmother?

Now here's one of those subtle differences that occur between languages. Although the «как часто» phrase is perfectly grammatical in both Russian and English, the frequency of the use of the phrase is not the same. The English phrase is much more common in usage. In Russian it is more common to ask the question slightly differently, phrasing it simply "Do you often?":

Вы часто ходите в ресторан?	Do you go to restaurants very often?
Ты часто звонишь бабушке?	Do you call your grandmother very often?

When you ask the question, it is usually used with intonation construction three, jumping up on the stressed syllable of часто: