Two words that I continually confuse in Russian are пыль dust and пыл heat/passion. Time to blog about them so I can get them straight! Пыль is a third declension feminine noun used only in the singular:

¹ The phrase “you are really strange” literally means “you have cockroaches in your head.”

The Russian word for border is граница. It can be used of national borders or of borders between concepts:

The Russians very often use the phrase “beyond the border” in the sense of “out of the country” or “abroad.” The idea can be expressed as a location phrase, using за followed by the instrumental case:

The idea can also be expressed as a motion phrase, using за followed by the accusative case:

If somone or something comes from outside of the country, you can use the preposition из-за followed by the genitive case:

The phrase «за границей» has become such a standard part of the language that an adjective has even been made of it, заграничный, which is usually translated as “foreign” or “external.”

Over the last week we noted that the verb болеть can mean “to ache” or “to be sick.” Curiously enough, the verb can also mean “to root for, cheer for.” In this meaning it conjugates like this:

The person or team for whom one cheers appears in the accusative case after the preposition за:

¹ Спартак Москва “Spartacus, Moscow” is a popular Russian soccer team.

The Russian word картина has more than one meaning and consequently can get a bit confusing in certain situations. The most popular definition of the word is the noun painting. And the painting has to be a true piece of art of considerable size or reasonable value to be called a картина, otherwise it’s a картинка (something I and kindergarteners would draw).

Kартина can sometimes stand for image, picture or scenery— depending on the subject matter of the conversation. For example you can use the scene/scenery translation to describe nature or anything else that you see live; like some swimmer being attacked by a a Great White, and etc… Also, just like a lot of English-speaking filmmakers refer to their films as “pictures," many Russian directors describe them as картины.

A картина can be нарисована (drawn), написана (written/painted), снята (filmed), описана (described) and создана (created).

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Вот картина Ивана Шишкина «Утро в сосновом лесу». Here is Ivan Shishkin's painting "Morning in a Pine Forest." It is one of the most recognizable paintings in Russia, partly because it is depicted on the wrappers of the popular candy «Мишка Kосолапый» "Clumsy Bear."

In addition to the verb болеть “to hurt, ache,” Russian has another verb болеть which means “to be ill.” Here's how it conjugates:

The imperfective verb can be used both to mean that someone is ill at the moment or that someone is often ill.

The suffix за- of the perfective adds the idea of “start to be ill” or “become ill.”

The illness that one comes down with appears in the instrumental case with no preposition.