Archives for: "July 2010"

Дно

by Don  

One of the words I love in Russian is дно, which means bottom in the sense of the bottom of a glass or the bottom of the ocean or the bottom of a barrell. I love it because words just don't start with 'dn' in English, so it's a complete shock when… more »

Разбираться/разобраться

by Don  

One of the verbs I really like in Russian is разбираться. It has several meanings, but the one I have in mind today is the equvialent of "to have insight into, to understand". In this sense the verb is only used in the imperfective. For instance, На… more »

Фрикадельки

by Don  

Sometimes a word just sounds so funny that you laugh out loud the first time you hear it, and one of those words for me was фрикаделька, which means meatball. Why is it funny? I suppose it reminds me of words like roley-poley or higgledy-piggledy. In… more »

Пакет

by Don  

The Russian word for a plastic bag, like the kind you get in a grocery store to hold your groceries, is пакет. It's a completely regular noun. In many American grocery stores the cost of the bag is included in the price of the food, and the cashier and… more »

Киоск

by Don  

One word that gets used a lot more in Russian than in English is киоск kiosk. I think the average American doesn't normally use this word, and I think most of us don't even have a clear idea of what it means. My first encounter with the word in English… more »

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