The Russian word for Moscow is Москва. It's а perfectly regular second declension noun:

Now if you are a foreigner and you want to prove how stupid an American is, simply ask “What is the name of the main river that runs through Moscow?” Sadly, most Americans will probably look at you like a deer caught in headlights and say “Idunno.” (I'm sitting in my favorite coffee shop as I type this entry, and I just tried that question on the barista. He was stumped.) It's funny. Sometimes American education produces profoundly well-rounded and insightful people, but when it comes to geography almost all Americans come up short.

So for my American readers I should point out that the main river that runs through Moscow is called… are you ready for this?… the Moscow River! (Москва-река in Russian, always hyphenated.)

If you want to say that you met someone for the first time in such-and-such a place, then the verb to use is знакомиться/познакомиться, which is conjugated like this:

The verb can express the idea that two people met in two different ways. Either a) one person is the subject of the verb and the other is the object of the preposition с + instrumental, or b) they can both be part of the subject of the verb. Thus if Lyudmila wants to say that she met Gleb last year, she may use either of these sentences:

Other examples:

This verb cannot be used to say “I met Tanya at the airport” in the sense of “I went to the aiport to pick her up.” For that meaning you have to use the verb встречать/встретить, which we will discuss in the weeks to come.

Note the вы imperative познакомьтесь: to see a discussion of it's usage, see this blog entry.

In Russian when we want to express how light (in weight) something is we compare it to «пух», “down” or “fluff” or a piece of fluff, «пушинка».

Пух is a noun of masculine gender that has no plural form. The diminutive is пушок. There can be various adjectives formed from the word пух: пуховый or пуховой and пушистый. The first two mean something made out of down. There can be пуховое одеяло or пуховик, which is essentially a comforter or a пуховка, “down jacket”. However, the third adjective means ‘fluffy’ and is used to describe fur, hair or fabrics. A cat can also be пушистый. In fact, a very popular cat name is Пушок, which is sort of like Fuzzball or Fluffball. Interestingly enough, Winnie the Pooh in Russian is translated as Винни Пух. The reason for it might be just similar sounding Pooh and Пух; however, it fits well – Winnie is a fluffy toy!

Also, there is пухлый that describes someone chubby, often unhealthy; while пухленький is usually used in a positive sense, as an attractive quality.

There are various expressions and idioms in Russian that use пух. For example, instead of saying “good luck”, we say, «Hи пуха, ни пера!» “neither down nor feather!” If you think this is weird, check this out! The standard response to this is «К чёрту!» “To devil!” Even though it doesn’t make much sense, I feel better, when someone says it to me before my exams.

Another good one is «в пух и прах». This idiom means “to the maximum”, “completely” or “utterly”.

Lastly, «рыльце в пушку» “snout in down/feathers” means that someone is not as innocent as they try to appear, just like “have a finger in a pie”. This idiom comes from a fable about a fox that wanted to appear innocent but its muzzle was covered with chicken feathers.

When I was little I really liked different riddles. I remember one time in class in elementary school our teacher decided to have a tricky question hour. Whoever would answer the most riddles would get a prize. It is funny that the question that got me my prize was very easy, “what is heavier: a kilogram of nails of a kilogram of down?” However, no one in my class seemed to know the answer right away. I remember I got up and said, «Они весят одинаково - один килограмм!», “they weigh the same – one kilogram!”… I couldn’t be prouder of myself that day!

¹ Don comments: Although “What a cute, chubby baby!” is an accurate translation of the Russian sentence, I should warn Russian readers never to call an American baby fat or chubby. The parents will be offended.

In English you might hear a sentence like “I introduced John to Mary a year ago, and last month they got married.” The equivalent sentence in Russian will not use “to introduce” but rather “to acquaint,” which is знакомить/познакомить, which is conjugated like this:

The verb takes two complements: a direct object and a prepositional phrase with the preposition с + instrumental:

I acquainted John with Mary.

Despite the fact that the verb literally means “to acquaint,” a good English translation will substitute the verb “to introduce”:

Every culture has a set of words and rules used in the social ritual of introducing people. For Russians the key word is «Познакомьтесь!», which is the вы imperative form of the verb познакомиться “to become acquainted;” познакомьтесь literally means “Acquaint yourselves!” The introduction ritual for Russians can be remarkably brief. Let's say Tanya and and her friend Olga are standing on the corner talking. Up to them walks Tanya's friend Vera, who doesn't know Olga. The following conversation could ensue:

In this context Tanya uses the вы form because she is thinking about both Vera and Olga, but if she is only thinking about Vera, she might use the ты form:

Both approaches are grammatical, but in the познакомьтесь version Tanya is addressing both of her friends, and in the познакомься version she is addressing only Vera. Notice also that each of the people being introduced simply states her name, nothing more is required. Of course, more complex sentences are also possible:

And of course the person doing the introduction can also give more information.

In English we would never say “Acquaint yourelves!”, so a professional translation will use the standard phrases of English that include the word ‘introduce’:

Russian does have the verbs представлять/представить “to introduce” and представляться/представиться “to introduce oneself,” but they are not used in most day-to-day introductions. Someone who has had a very formal upbringing might use them. You will hear them in formal meetings and official introductions during public events. For most of your interactions in Russia, though, познакомься and познакомьтесь will serve you well.

We mentioned that these words are imperative forms of the perfective verb познакомиться. We will explore the related words знакомиться, знакомить and познакомить over the next week or two.