Archives for: "February 2009"
Приствольные круги
Every once in a while it's simply a great joy to know an incredibly obscure piece of Russian vocabulary. The wife of one professor of Russian I know prides herself on knowing the Russian phrase for werewolf. (There are quite a few shape-shifters in… more »
Я тебя люблю — to say or not to say
When talking about emotional life, there are differences in how Russians and Americans express emotions. Upon arrival into the US, it was striking just how often people used the phrase “I love you”, even in a casual phone conversation. I thought, "Wow,… more »
Каша
Каша means any type of boiled grain. No ethnic group eats more boiled grain than the Russians. And we're not talkin’ just plain old cream of wheat. We're talkin’ oatmeal, buckwheat, rice, barley... you name it. Probably the most popular version is… more »
Фамилии на -ович
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… more »
Прописные буквы
One of the ways that Russian orthography differs from English is in its use of capital and lowercase letters. The phrases «прописная буква» and «заглавная буква» mean ‘capital letter,’ and «строчная буква» means ‘lowercase letter.’ С прописной буквы… more »