The verb pair звонить/позвонить has several meanings, the most important of which is “to call” in the sense of “to call on the phone.” It is a completely regular end-stressed second conjugation verb:

The person you call shows up in the dative case:

Now here's the tricky part for us English speakers: when you specify the place you call, it does NOT appear in the dative. Instead it shows up in the accusative case after the preposition в if the place is a в word, and in the accusative after на if the place is a на word:

If you say both the person and the place, the person still shows up in the dative, and the place still shows up in the accusative after в/на:

The place you call can be one of several adverbs as well: сюда, туда, домой.

Last but not least, if you want to specify the number you are calling, include it in the nominative case after the phrase по телефону:

Cultural detail: although in Russia one can call the police at 02, a new number, 112, is being introduced specifically for auto accidents. The new number was first implemented in Курск and should be implemented throughout the rest of the country by 2012. (article | mirror)

The verbs значить and означать both mean “to mean.” In the following sentences they can be used interchangeably. For instance:

Although these words often completely overlap in meaning, there are times when they don't mean quite the same thing. Означать can also mean “to indicate,” whereas значить does not:

Last but not least, значить can mean “to be emotionally significant,” but означать does not bear that meaning:

How do Russians name languages? How do we discuss in Russian the fact that we speak or read or write a particular language? It probably seems like a simple question for a beginning Russian student because the first language names we learn are for the European languages with which Russian has been in contact for some time, and all those language names are pretty well the same; that is, they are referred to by an adjective followed by the word язык which means both language and tongue. Thus we get:

Now the first curious thing is this: you can't use those types of adjective-noun phrases to say “I speak Russian” or “I read Russian” or “I write Russian.” To express those ideas we have to use special adverbs beginning with по- followed by one of those language adjectival stems without the й at the end:

With the verb понимать you can use both forms: «Я понимаю по-английски» and «Я понимаю английский язык.» And you'll definitely here it in sentences like «А ты понимаешь русский язык?» “Don't you understand plain Russian?” when you want to imply the person you are talking to is a blockhead.

The next curious thing is that there are quite a few languages that you can't really discuss using the adjective-noun combinations that we mentioned above. For instance, in Arizona there is a Native American language called Navajo навахо. In Russian there is no phrase like навахоский язык or навашский язык. For such languages the only way you can get those ideas across is to use the name of the language in the prepositional case after the preposition на:

Although theoretically those sentences are perfect, some Russians are a bit uncomfortable with them and want to include the word языке in front of the indeclinable language:

Of course the straight accusative option is still available for понимать: «Он понимает навахо» “He understands Navajo.”

Other languages that work like this are тви Twi (language of Ghana), апаче Apache, чероки Cherokee, эсперанто Esperanto, and суахили Swahili (language of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda) , пушту Pushtu (language of Afghanistan and Pakistan), бенгали Bengali and урду Urdu and хинди Hindi (languages of the eastern Indian subcontinent). When languages are indeclinable, you don't really notice that after на they are in the prepositional case until you encounter one of the non-European languages that declines, like тагалог Tagalog (language of the Phillipines): «Говорим на тагалоге» “We speak Tagalog.” Tagalog is interesting because nowadays there is an adjective (and thence an adverb) тагальский по-тагальски that have been derived from the noun, so for this one you can say it the other way as well: «Говорим по-тагальски» “We speak Tagalog.”

If you mention a text written in the language, then the на form almost always works:

But what about languages that aren't spoken? What about languages that communicate using the hands? With them we can still use the verb говорить, but only the на complement is possible: «Я говорю на языке русских глухонемых» “I speak Russian sign language” (lit. “I speak in the language of Russian deaf-mutes”).

The Russian word for perfume is духи while the word for cologne is одеколон. The variety of different perfume and cologne scents are endless and each person chooses the scent that is individual to them.

25 years ago, when my father dated my mom, he bought her a small bottle of very expensive perfume called Magie noire. This was a very popular perfume in Russia and many women gave it a nickname of Чёрная Магия Black Magic. My mother loved this perfume and every time she put it on, she said «Это мои самые любимые духи! Я их просто обожаю!» “This is my favorite perfume! I just adore it!” As a child I remember that she constantly wore the crisp scent. Today she still has the perfume, and it smells just as crisp as it did 25 years ago. For the purposes of preserving the perfume as long as possible, my mom wears it only on very special occasions. Occasionally I will ask my mom if I can wear it. «Мама, можно я намажусь Черной Магией сегодня?» “Mama, can I wear Black Magic today?”, and she always answered «Только если это необходимо» “Оnly if it is a necessity.” To me, my mother’s perfume is a bottle of treasure because it carries so much family history with it. Of course, I could buy another bottle of the same perfume, but the contents of the bottle would not carry the same meaning anymore so I plan to preserve this family treasure for as long as possible.

Don's additional notes: the word духи belongs to a class of words we call pluralia tantum, which means words that only have plural forms and not singular forms. English has such words as well, like the word “jeans.” If a plurale tantum is the subject of a sentence, then the verb must appear in the plural: “My jeans are on the ironing board,” not “My jeans is on the ironing board.” The same is true in Russian, though of course you can see it in the adjectives as well, as in «Мои джинсы новые» “My jeans are new,” where новые is in the plural. Likewise in both languages pronouns that refer to pluralia tantum occur in the plural: “They are on the ironing board,” where “they” is plural, and «Они новые» “They are new,” where они is plural. That's why when Olga's mother said that she adored her perfume, she put said not “it” but “them”: «Я их просто обожаю!»

When you deal with pluralia tantum, you can't guess the gender from the singular since there is never a singular. Instead you have to look up the gender (and the genitive plural) in the dictionary. Here is the complete declinsion of духи perfume:

Finally, there is potentially confusion when reading this word because the word for spirit (supernatural being) is дух, which declines like this:

Notice that the word духи perfume is end-stressed, whereas the word дух spirit is stem-stressed. In speech, theoretically, one should never confuse them since the stress patterns are different, but in writing you will have to use context to distinguish them.

The Russian phrase for the American Holiday Thanksgiving is День благодарения, literally the day of thanking. When wishing someone a Happy Thanksgiving, the Russians use the verb поздравлять/поздравить, which is often translated “to congratulate.” The person to whom the wish is directed is put in the accusative case, and the name of the holiday is put in the instrumental case, preceded by the preposition c. Thus the complete phrase is

The Russians often skip the first part of the sentence, leaving only the prepositional phrase «С Днём благодарения!»