There are quite a few words in Russian that express the idea of needing something or needing to do something. One of the most common is a short form adjective: нужен, нужна, нужно, нужны. From the English point of view the construction associated with the word has a few quirks. First off, the word is a predicate adjective, which means it has to agree with it's subject. So if a book is needed, you say «Книга нужна». If milk is needed you say «Молоко нужно». The person who needs the item shows up in the dative case. Thus «Машина нужна Борису» “A car is necessary to Boris.” Despite the fact that the car is grammatically the subject of the sentence, in conversation it usually ends up at the end of the sentence, and the person usually ends up at the beginning. Thus the last example sentence usually comes out «Борису нужна машина». Here are some sample sentences:

To put the sentences in the past or future, you add forms of the verb “to be.” Since the thing you need is the subject, it determines the ending on the verb.

In English we say “to take an exam.” In Russian we say «(на)писать экзамен». If you try to say in Russian «Я взял экзамен» that means “I took the exam [and it's no longer where it originally was].” «Я хорошо написал экзамен» means “I did well on the exam.” «Я плохо написал экзамен» means “I did poorly on the exam.”

Sample sentences:

¹ Of course инглиш is not the Russian word for English. English students in Russia often play with English and Russian simultaneously for humorous effect.

In Soviet Union лёгкая про­мышленность “light industry,” including парфюмерная про­мышленность “perfume industry,” were not developed at all, as many might know. But every woman wants to be beautiful, in any country or place. So, how did the Soviet women go about it? Well, the lucky ones could get Polish make-up, which is of highest quality (at least, was ). Polish make-up and skin care was easy to get in Moscow or Saint-Peterburg, not in the rest of Russia. So a lot of times ladies relied on nature's gifts. For example, beets were used for rouge and lipstick sometimes! Raw or boiled beats, and their color looked natural and pretty, like the color of your own cheeks. For eyeliner sometimes mashed coal was applied with a sharpened end of a match, and boiled onion skins (отвар из шелухи лука) were used to dye hair. Also skin creams were made at home often, with herbs, flowers, honey, berries, fruits, etc. Календула marigold was used to clean the face, then tonic из ромашки “made from chamomile” was applied, and then home made creams, from ромашка chamomile, жень-шень ginseng, rose petals or petals of other flowers, etc. Маски из тёртого огурца и клубники “masks made of ground cucumber and strawberries” were very popular; they made the skin bright and translucent. Faces looked pretty, but very natural, as if no make-up was applied at all.

The only thing that was hard to get from nature was тушь mascara. The most popular one in Soviet Union (maybe, even the only one made within the country) was from Saint-Petersburg's perfume factory. It was a little brick, of very hard consistency, which needed water to make it soft and applicable to eyelashes. Ресницы выглядели слипшимися от такой туши! But of all Soviet women's dreams, French mascara was beyond the wildest imagination of average Soviet woman; only privileged wives of government officials, and some artists who traveled abroad, could get this luxury, as well as French parfum (французские духи), which is considered the best in the world in Russia, even to this day.

In my wildest dreams I could not imagine, growing up in Soviet Union, that one day I'd have all these unimaginable things among my possessions, French mascara, French perfume, all the good make-up! But something else I understood also. Some places women have all these wonderful make-up things, but still… something's missing. What is it? I understood that amount of beauty does not equal to quantities of make-up available… what is it then, the secret behind being beautiful? Genes? Good taste? The ability to make make-up “play” on your face? Or is it only inner beauty that shines through and beautifies the outside? Any opinions?

One of the most beautiful words in the Russian language is ненаглядный. If you look it up in the dictionary, you'll probably find something like dear or beloved. That's probably adequate for a fast and dirty written translation, but it entirely misses the image of the word. Let's break it down by first considering how the verb it comes from is made up.

When you add the prefix на- to a verb and also make it reflexive, then it adds the idea of "to do to the point of satiation." Thus начитаться means “to read until you can't read any more,” and наесться means “to eat until you can't eat any more.” Very often these verbs are used in sentences with the negative particle не to catch the idea of “I couldn't get enough of” something. Examples:

The verb глядеть means “to look at,” so наглядеться means “to look at someone to the point of satiation.” It's mostly used with the negative particle не:

Thus the adjective ненаглядный comes from the verb phrase «не наглядеться», i.e. it means “the one you can't stop looking at.” In translation, we have to find some other English phrase that captures the emotion of the comment to really get it right:

Can you picture it? To be so wrapped up in one person, to have that beloved face constantly before you when you wake and sleep... ’tis a madness devoutly to be wished.

The word for a tear is слеза. Notice the stress pattern:

A few sample sentences:

The word teardrop is big news this month in the US due to a viral e-mail going around that contains, among other things, this picture and these words:

When I saw that note, I had no idea whether it was real or not, so I headed right away to snopes.com to see if it had been debunked. Go figure: it's legitimate, and the monument even has an official website where you can see a picture of Putin at the dedication.