The Russian word “рынок” is the equivalent of the English word “market.” Just like the word “market” it is used to describe economic structures in which people trade, exchange, buy and sell, whether goods, specific services or valuable information.

Here are some examples of this discordant word:

But most of the time when Russians, especially the elderly, refer to a “рынок” they are speaking of the food market where they buy meat, vegetables and etc.

Example:

There used to be a large food market near the street where my grandparents lived in Moscow. This “рынок” had almost anything— from black caviar to bananas to rabbits. But nothing too foreign for the Russian stomach like avocadoes, mango, or—God forbid—peanut butter. The “рынок” was split into an indoor and an outdoor section. All the meat, poultry, fish and dairy products were sold inside at bargain prices and all the produce, sweets and drinks outside.

Sanitary conditions were not superb, especially in the murky, foul-smelling meat department where butchers displayed expressionless pig heads on counters, often surrounded by flies. Nevertheless I don’t think I’ve ever got food poisoning, and for thousands of people it was the place for food shopping. Outside, old grandmothers stood at corners with sheaves of cilantro, parsley and lettuce, next to them all kinds of sweets were set out on tables. If it was the right season you could buy tasty strawberries real cheap, or pull out a few more rubles and get an Uzbek watermelon.

As time passed the “рынок” became smaller while the prices doubled. The old building was demolished, most of the vendors kicked out, and everything rebuilt in a strange kind of way. The new structure has a fresh look to it now, and you will certainly find peanut butter and limes. Мangos are still rare. Overall the change was for the better, but I miss the old place.

The Russian word for a letter, in the sense of letters you send in the mail, is письмо. Notice there is a stress shift in the plural, and note also that the soft sign is replaced by е in the genitive plural:

Sample sentences:

The word is sometimes also in the phrase «на письме», which means “in writing” as opposed to “in conversation”:

Most qualitative adjectives that end in -ый can be turned into adverbs by dropping the last two letters of the nominative singular and then adding -о. The adjective интересный ‘interesting’ is no exception, thus интересно means ‘interestingly.’ Of course no one says ‘interestingly’ in English, but the Russians use интересно all the time:

What is really interesting is that Russians use this word where Americans use the phrase “I wonder?”

The word юбилей means anniversary, an entirely fitting word since today is the first anniversary of the existence of Russian Word of the Day. The word applies to birthdays, wedding anniversaries, the commemoration of revolutions, and the observance of pretty well any other notable event. It can also mean the party held on those days, and thus it may be translated as birthday party, anniversary party, or celebration. Here are some sample sentences:

For Russian Word of the Day this anniversary is a joy. Over the last year we have provided over two hundred fifty posts discussing Russian vocabulary. For us generally monolingual Americans, the success of such a blog suggests hope for the future. People who are willing to learn each others' languages and consider each others' points of view are the key to deepening our understanding of each other. With that goal in mind, let us all consciously adopt attitudes of lightness and humor toward ourselves at the same time as we adopt attitudes of curiosity and patience toward those we don't know.

Warmest wishes to all the children of Earth,

Donald E. Livingston, Jr.

The verb “to look for” is искать. The verb doesn't have a proper perfective. If you want to say "to succesfully search out/to find” then you want находить/найти or отыскивать/отыскать.

The thing you look for appears in the accusative case:

Occasionally you will encounter sentences where the thing that is being looked for appears in the genitive case. That is okay if the thing is abstract like justice or beauty, but don't use that construction for a concrete object like a pen or a banana: