Archives for: "April 2011"
Космонавт
One of the few Russian words that every American knows is космонавт, which of course is spelled ‘cosmonaut’ in English.¹ It is a perfectly regular noun that declines like this: Sg Pl Nom космонавт космонавты Acc космонавта космонавтов Gen Pre космонавте… more »
Радуга
In February of 1995 my maternal grandmother died. I flew from Washington to Arizona for her funeral, where we all remembered her kindness and love. It is never a joy to deal with death. The pain of losing those we love cannot be overestimated. But after… more »
Мы (часть первая)
The word мы means we. It declines like this: Pl Nom мы Acc нас Gen Pre Dat нам Ins нами I often encounter the word in sentences like this: Мы купили пять aбиссинских кошек. We bought five Abysinnian cats. Нас выбросили за борт. They threw us overboard.… more »
Из (часть первая)
One of the prepositions that takes the genitive case is из, which means ‘from’. But not all froms are created equal in Russia. Let's start thinking about to/from/at in Russian like this. There are three words for to, three words for at, and three words… more »