Archives for: "April 2009"
Слушать/послушать
The verb pair слушать/послушать means “to listen,” and it is completely regular in its formation: to listen Imperfective Perfective Infinitive слушать послушать Past слушал слушала слушало слушали послушал послушала послушало послушали Present слушаю… more »
Кофейня
A small restaurant where they sell кофе is called кофейня, and its genitive plural is кофеен. Doubtless the most well known coffee trademark is Starbucks, and sure enough you can even find their shops in Russia nowadays. Here's a sign from one of their… more »
Кофе
The Russian word for coffee is кофе. It's an indeclinable noun, which means it never changes its ending for case or number. Despite the ending, it's a masculine noun, not a neuter one. In other words, one is supposed to say чёрный кофе, not чёрное кофе.… more »
Косметика: inside secrets of Soviet beauty routines
In Soviet Union лёгкая промышленность “light industry,” including парфюмерная промышленность “perfume industry,” were not developed at all, as many might know. But every woman wants to be beautiful, in any country or place. So, how did the… more »
Быть (not have, there is/are not)
Every once in a while when you have mastered some grammatical backflip, you discover that one is not enough: you have to do a grammatical double gainer. This is the case to say that someone “doesn't have” something or that “there isn't” something… more »