Category: "Uncategorized"

Каждый

by Don  

The Russian word for every is каждый. In terms of its endings it is a simple adjective that agrees with its noun in case, number, and gender:

Я обожаю каждую девушку, которую я вижу. I worship every woman that I see.
Каждый американец знает, что надо пить восемь стаканов воды в день. Every American knows that you should drink eight glasses of water a day.
Каждый русский знает, что для всех законов есть свои исключения. Every Russian knows that there is an exception to every law.
Марина такая добрая учительница. Она в каждом своём ученике находит хорошее. Marina is such a kind teacher. She finds the good in each one of her students.

The word каждый is often used in time phrases like every day, every month, every year. If it modifies a masculine noun, you might think that it is used in the nominative case, but once you see it with a feminine noun, you realize that those time phrases are in the accusative case:

Каждый год мой сын растёт всё выше и выше. Every year my son grows taller and taller.
Каждую субботу хожу на птичий рынок посмотреть, какие там собаки. Every Saturday I go to the pet market to see what kind of dogs they have.
Каждую секунду на земле рождается четыре человека. Every second four people are born on Earth.

If the accusative number phrase has a number in it, then каждый comes before it in the plural:

— Я зубы чищу каждые три часа.
— Каждые три часа? Это уже какой-то комплекс.
— Ну, понимаешь, моя мама зубной врач. Она меня так воспитала.
“I brush my teeth every three hours.”
“Every three hours? That's some kind of mental dysfunction.”
“Well, y'know, my mother is a dentist. She raised me like that.”

Ночь (часть первая)

by Don  

The Russian word for night is ночь. You may remember that the Spanish word for night is noche, which might lead you to wonder whether Spanish borrowed it from Russian or vice-versa. The answer is neither. Russian ночь and Spanish noche are cognates. In historical linguistics ‘cognates’ are words that descended from the same source many years ago, and due to the fact that they have a common ancestor, they still have a resemblance to each other.¹ Thus German nacht and English night are also cognates with Russian ночь because they are all descended from the same Proto-Indo-European word.

Ночь is a third-declension noun, which means it declines like this:

SgPl
Nomночьночи
Acc
Genночиночей
Preночах
Datночам
Insночьюночами

Many of the uses of ночь are similar to the use of night in English:

Ах, какая красивая ночь! Смотри, как сверкают звёзды! Oh, what a beautiful night! See how the stars are sparkling?
Наш ребёнок всю ночь не спал. Our baby didn't sleep all night.
Мне надоели одинокие ночи. Мне нужна подруга! I'm tired of these lonely nights. I need a girlfriend!
В детстве я любил книгу «Тысяча и одна ночь» In my childhood I loved the book “A Thousand and One Arabian Nights.”

The most famous nights of Russia are the white nights белые ночи. Officially Moscow and Petersburg are too far south to have proper white nights, but during the two weeks on either side of the summer solstice Petersburg's nights are very white indeed, and the city hosts a world-famous celebration that attracts artists and celebrants from all over the world:

На фестивале «Белых ночей» я слушал Шерил Кроу и Джо Кокера I saw Sheryl Crow and Joe Cocker at the White Nights Festival.
В белые ночи в Петербурге можно гулять на улице в полночь под голубым небом. Это до нельзя красиво и на душе становится спокойно и просто. During the white nights in Petersburg you can walk outside at midnight under a light-blue sky. It's unbelievably beautiful, and everything in your heart becomes peaceful and uncomplicated.

When discussing time by the clock, there is a difference between Russian and English. In English night is sometimes conceived of as the time between sundown and midnight. In Russian ‘night’ is the time between midnight and roughly 4:00 a.m. So instead of saying “3:00 in the morning” the Russians say “3:00 at night”:

English Russian
one in the morning час ночи
two in the morning два часа ночи
three in the morning три часа ночи
four in the morning четыре часа утра²
five in the morning пять часов утра

Thus:

Я обычно ложусь спать в час ночи. I usually go to bed at one in the morning.
— Почему ты так устала?
— Я читала до трёх часов ночи.
“Why are you so tired?”
“I read until three o'clock in the morning.”

¹ Outside of historical linguistics sometimes people use ‘cognate’ to mean a word that is superficially similar to another word in both sound and meaning. In that sense English television and Spanish televisión may be called cognates, but that's a sloppy use of the word. In all likelihood the Spanish word is a direct borrowing from French or English.

² There is some variation here. Some people will say четыре часа ночи. I wouldn't be surprised if the time of year actually affects this as well, with more people saying утра in the summer when it gets light earlier, and ночи in the winter when it stays dark later. A quick Google search also shows variation with five a.m.

bgнощ
dedie nacht
esla noche
frla nuit
psماسختن
plnoc

Мечта

by Tatiana  

We are all different in so many ways with different desires and aspirations. However, we have one sure thing in common: we all dream. Sometimes our dreams are all that gets us by on a grueling school or monotonous work day. It is the thought that we’ll get what we want, that the world will change for the better and that with that change we will finally be happy.

A dream in Russian is мечта. It is a noun of feminine gender. At first glance, this word is simple and unpretentious. However, there are some things about it that are not so typical. Sometimes in classic literature мечта is used as ghost or vision, which is uncertain and unclear by its nature, just like a dream itself.

The second interesting thing about this word is that it seems to be missing its genitive plural form in modern Russian.

SgPl
Nomмечтамечты
Accмечту
GenмечтыNo such thing
in Russian.
Preмечте мечтах
Datмечтам
Insмечтоймечтами

The only way to say it would be мечт. Even though it was previously used, it sounds wrong and archaic nowadays. It could still be used in speech but more often than not in a playful-ironic sense. Therefore, instead, we usually use мечтаний. This word, мечтание essentially means the same but has the missing genitive plural form.

— Какая у тебя самая заветная мечта?
— Я не могу выбрать только одну - у меня много разных мечтаний!
“What is your most cherished dream?”
“I can’t pick just one – I have many different dreams.”
Тебе так посчастливилось встретить Влада, он просто мечта! You are so lucky to have met Vlad, he is just dreamy!
— Когда я была маленькой, у меня была мечта о красивой любви и бесконечном счастье...
— Да, а потом ты подросла и перестала верить в сказки!
“When I was little, I had a dream about beautiful love and endless happiness…”
“Yes, but then you grew up and stopped believing in fairy tales!”
Поехать в Венецию всегда было моей мечтой. Visiting Venice has always been a dream of mine.
После того, как я женился, мне пришлось забыть о своих мечтах о профессиональной музыкальной карьере. After I got married I to forget about my dream of a professional music career.

Here is silly cartoon about мечта.

I believe there are always ways to make things better. We always get what we want sooner or later, this way or the other… as long as we never stop dreaming!

Мурашки

by Tatiana  

I don’t like most horror movies. There is always a naïve dummy being led into the hands of an evil master, who is driven by his utter insanity or various psychological issues. All this blood spill doesn’t do anything for me except for giving me an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Personally, I prefer suspense. I like that little chill and goose bumps you get when thinking “Can this really be possible?”

In Russian the goose bumps are called «гусиная кожа» “goose skin.” However, a more folksy word is мурашки.

The reason мурашки is used to describe this feeling is because this is also a word for ants or other little insects. Therefore, «мурашки по коже побежали», “ants ran on the skin” is probably one of the most used expressions to describe goose bumps along with the feeling causing them. (Insects running on your skin… mmmagical feeling… :no: Gross!)

Я люблю читать, сидя у большого дуба у реки. Только вот там очень много всяких мурашек и букашек бегает... I like reading next to a big oak tree over by the river. Too bad there are a lot of ants and other bugs there…

I am not sure what the context should be but I suppose you one could talk about a singular goose bump, мурашка, even though it is usually seen in its plural form. However, мурашка can definitely be used when talking about an ant.

Just like in English, you can get мурашки from being cold or overcome by feelings, either positive or negative.

Когда я слушаю музыку Моцарта, у меня аж мурашки по коже! When I listen to Mozart’s music, I get goose bumps!
— Тебе Коля рассказывал, как он по темноте домой вчера возвращался?
— Да, страшно так, у меня муражки по коже пробежали!
“Did Kolya tell you how he was getting home in the dark yesterday?"
“Yes, so scary, I even got the goose bumps!”
Какая ужасная история! У меня мурашки выступили! What a horrible story! I got goose bumps!
Тебе не холодно? Смотри, ты вся в мурашках! Are you cold? Look, you are all covered in goose bumps!
Когда меня начальник к себе вызвал, у меня муражки по спине пробежали: думала, уволит! When my boss called me in to see him, I got goose bumps: I thought he was going to fire me!

Класс (часть третья)

by Don  

The word класс can mean class in the sense of first class accomodations, second class seats, etc:

В Нью-Йорк мы летели во втором классе. We flew to New York second class
На самолёте в первом классе на ужин подавали оленину. In first class they served venison for dinner.
На Титанике погибло больше пассажиров третьего класса, чем первого и второго классов. More third-class passengers died on the Titanic than first- and second-class passengers.

Although the noun form of класс can be used in this meaning, you probably find it more often in adectival forms like первоклассный:

В Женеве мы жили в первоклассной гостинице. In Geneva we stayed in a first-class hotel.
Анна Борисовна — первоклассная дама, она на улице никогда не плюёт. Anna Borisovna is a fist-class lady. She never spits when she's outside.

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