Archives for: "July 2009"

Текстовое сообщение, СМС, смс-ка, SMS

by Don  

As I recall, back in 1997 nobody had cell phones in Russia.* Now they are all over the place. “Mobile phone” is trans­lated мобильный телефон or мобиль­ник, and cell phone is trans­lated сотовый телефон, although sometimes people just say… more »

Война

by Don  

Война means war. It is a на word: Мама, иду на войну. Поцелуй меня и пообещай, что будешь каждый день обо мне молиться. Mama, I'm going to [fight in the] war. Kiss me and promise that you will pray for me every day. Мой дядя Марк погиб на войне во… more »

Один

by Don  

The most common word for one in Russian is один in its various forms. Morphologically it is an adjective, which means it occurs in masculine, feminine, neuter, and plural forms in all six cases: Singular Plural Masc Neut Fem Nom один одно одна одни Acc… more »

Поить/напоить

by Don  

Back in 1988 or so I was in Moscow at «Дом книги» with a former student. He was thirsty. I asked a saleswoman whether there was any place he could get a drink of water. I figured the woman would say to one of her coworkers something like «Покажи нашему… more »

Орёл

by Don  

On July 4th I neglected to put together anything for the blog, so to assuage my feelings of patriotic inadequacy, today we will discuss the word орёл eagle. The ё is a fleeting vowel, so the word declines like this: Sg Pl Nom орёл орлы Acc орла орлов… more »

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