The Russian word for ‘that,’ as in “that car,” “that dog” or “that house” is тот. Grammatically it is a demonstrative adjective, thus it occurs in forms that vary for case, number, and gender, and of course it agrees with the noun it modifies. It declines like this:

Here are some sample sentences:

In English the difference between ‘this’ and ‘that’ is essentially distance. Theoretically the same thing is true in Russian, but somehow the distance factor is not quite the same in these languages. Truth to tell, I haven't come up with a proper explanation of the difference, but here are my current hypotheses:

English

• If something is close to me, I use ‘this.’
• If something is close to you, I use ‘that.’
• If something is far from both of us, I use ‘that.’

Russian

• If something is close to me, I use «этот».
• If something is close to you, I use «этот».
• If something is far from both you and me but I can use a gesture (either hands or a glance) to point it out and we can both clearly see it, I use «этот».
• If something is far from both you and me and it is partially blocked by intervening items, I use «тот».
• If something is far from both of us and not visible but we have spoken about it before, I use «тот».

In other words, there are quite a few contexts where even этот is best translated as ‘that’ in English. For instance, let's say your Russian friend sees you reading a book and wants to know the name of the book, the question will most likely come out like this:

If you and a Russian friend are standing on the sidewalk looking at a building across the street. If your friend points to the building and inquires who lives there, then it's most likely to come out like this:

If you and your Russian friend are talking about a building in the distance that is partially blocked by other buildings, you will most likely use «тот»:

And if you can't see the building but you've discussed it before, «тот» is best:

In short, one cannot mechanically say that этот always corresponds to ‘this,’ and тот always corresponds to ‘that.’ You will need practical experience wth Russian life to start getting a feel for the contexts where each is used.

BTW, I'm actively on the lookout for better explanations of the this/that этот/тот distinction. Please feel free to express disagreements, corrections, or other insights in the comments. We are all here to do a better job at cross-cultural communication, so your input will be appreciated.

The verb pair переводить/перевести means ‘to translate’ and is conjugated like this:

This is a typical transitive verb; that is, it has a do-er (grammatical subject) that occurs in the nominative case, and a done-to (grammatical direct object) that occurs in the accusative case:

The language you are translating from appears in the genitive case after the preposition с and the language you are translating to appears in the accusative case after the preposition на:

So how would you say in Russian “How do you translate ‘обезьяна’ into English?” A beginning Russian student named Hiram with good study habits would probably say “Как ты переводишь «обезьяна» на английский?” That's a perfectly grammatical translation. The Russians would understand the translation. But it's not the way they would normally say it. For those kind of generic questions the Russians usually use either indefinite personal constructions, that is, verbs in the present tense они form, or infinitive constructions. So theoretically one could say:

That is a perfectly grammatical construction, and it's definitely better than Hiram's original translation, but the infinitive constructions are better yet:

Even better are phrases that don't use ‘to translate’ at all:

How do you say ‘обезьяна’ in English?

Как сказать по-английски «обезьяна»?
Как по-анлглийски будет «обезьяна»?

Как по-анлглийски «обезьяна»?

And when you combine that with the answer, you get short dialogs like this:

When you want to say ‘to meet’ in the sense of ‘to get together’ with someone, then you can use the reflexive verb встречаться/встретиться. It is conjugated like this:

Of course, the place you meet at is expressed as a location phrase, i.e., using forms like в + prepositional case, на + prepositional case, or у + genitive case. Adverbs of location work as well.

Sometimes you are walking down the street and suddenly come across someone you haven't expexted. To describe that situation in Russian you can use the verb встречать/встретить, which means ‘to meet.’ It is conjugated like this:

The verb actually has several meanings, and the first one is ‘to meet’ in the sense of ‘to spot’ someone somewhere, ‘to come across’ someone somewhere:

The verb also means ‘to meet’ in the sense of ‘to make contact’ with someone at their point of arrival:

One mistake English speakers often make is to use this verb when asking when Russians first met their wives, husbands, etc. In that context it's better to use the verb знакомиться/познакомиться ‘to become acquainted’:

The verb pair привозить/привезти is usually translate as ‘to bring.’ It conjugates like this:

The bringer appears in the nominative case, and the thing brought appears in the accusative:

When you bring something to a person, the person appears in the dative case.

When you bring something to a place, you usually use в/на + accusative: