Today's word is свет, a lovely small word which has a couple of meanings. Today we explore its meaning in the sense of light, that radiant energy that makes things visible. Its declension has all the regular forms that you would expect:

But in this meaning you will also occasionally find an alternative genitive singular свету and an alternative prepositional свету.

The word also means “a light,” that is a source of illumination. In this sense it is usually only used in the singular, not the plural:

The Russian word for glasses or spectacles is очки. Here are some example sentences:

When talking about sunglasses, you have to add the adjective солнечные (sun, solar) in front of glasses. So the word sunglasses is translated as солнечные очки. Once in a while someone might say солнцезащитные очки, meaning anti-sun or sun-protective glasses. Fortunately this tough word combination is not as popular as the simpler солнечные очки. Examples:

In English the word goggles is used to describe protective eyewear, e.g., swim goggles, lab goggles, ski goggles, etc. But in Russian, they are all simply очки. Examples:

The word очки can also mean points; очко is the singular form of the word. Example:

Don's additional comments: when очки means glasses or goggles, the word is only used in the plural. When it means points, it is used in both the singular and the plural.

Other phrases used for sunglasses are «тёмные очки» “dark glasses”, «очки от солнца» and occasionally «чёрные очки» “black glasses.” A Google search this morning found this distribution of hits:

With those numbers you can be pretty sure that all five forms are acceptable. It's possible that the distribution of numbers relects the marketing of sunglasses in Russian more than the conversational use of the phrases.

Комар is translated as mosquito; комары is the plural form of the word. Here are some example sentences:

The Moscow countryside is a fine place for freeing oneself from the constant stress and never-ending chaos of daily city life. It’s a place where people seek refuge on weekends and holidays to clear the mind and find some peace. Many Russians living in cities have country homes called dachas. But trying to reach a Zen-like state of relaxation can sometimes be quite difficult. I’m talking about the one loathsome neighbor that doesn’t mind his own business and wants to make your life just as miserable as his, the pointless calls from the residential council chairman asking for more money, occasional airplanes that happen to choose the one particular route that passes right above your dacha; but all that is nothing compared to the evil that a “комар” brings.

If your home is near the woods or a swampy lake of some sort, consider your evenings and nights ruined by these tiny vampires. Of course there are ways to keep the bloodsuckers away, but they are not too pleasant either. For instance you can stay in the house behind a closed window and enjoy the lovely evenings that way, but then what’s the point of even going out to the country? Then there is the mosquito repellent, but that chemical fusion can at times be so toxic that even humans will keep away. You could end up with an allergic reaction that is far worse than an itching “комар” bite.

Unfortunately, the only true, efficient way to stay unbothered is to have a certain natural quality that will keep them away. Don’t know what this quality is or how to acquire it. When my brother and I are out at night he rarely gets bitten, while I am basically eaten alive by the parasites—unless I'm wearing long sleeves. There also have been stories of people desperate enough to dig out deep ponds in their backyards and throw in fair-sized fish that can supposedly feed on the bloodsuckers.

Come to think of it, there actually is one plus for the weather being cold three quarters of the year.

Numbers... numbers are funny things, and human languages have all sorts of quirks in regards to them. For instance, the Ya̧nomamö tribe in South America has only three number words: one, two, and “more than two.” In Arabic grammar a feminine noun agrees with a masculine number and vice-versa, at least for the numbers three to ten. English has a word for a dozen dozens. Lusatian and Slovene have not only singular and plural noun endings, but also dual. And among the quirks of the Slavic languages is this little gem: Russian has a word that means “one and a half,” and that word is полтора/полторы. It declines like this:

Like the numbers два/две, три, and четыре, this number is followed by the genitive singular of the noun that it quantifies. Sample sentences:

Upon reflection one might wonder how the heck a language comes up with a single word for “one and a half.” After all, a caveman is not going to go out looking for one and a half yaks, and a prehistoric Slav never looked for one and a half wives. So why a number for “one and a half”? The reason is simple: it originally came from two words. The Old Russian word for half was полъ, where the final letter was a spoken vowel. The word for second was вторъ, which in the genitive case was втора. When speaking of quantities, ancient Russians talked about “half of the second” «полъ втора» item, and they assumed the listener knew that if they were talking about half of the second, they of course also meant all of the first item as well. Or if talking about a feminine thing they used вторы, which is the feminine genitive form of second. Eventually the vowels ъ and ь started vanishing from the language, which meant in terms of pronunciation they were left with полвтора and полвторы. Languages have the tendency to simplify consonant clusters, and the в eventually vanished (which is the same reason we pronounce здравствуй as [zdrastvuy] not [zdravstvuy].

¹ ГАЗ = Горьковский автомобильный завод = the Gorky Automobile Factory.

One of the meanings of the stem пол- in Russian is “one half.” The place we most commonly see it is in phrases like “It is half past one” (see details) or “I was there at half past one” (see details), but it can combine with other nouns as well that have nothing to do with clock time. The second noun shows up in the genitive singular form to make a single new word:

There is a quirk of spelling in regards to words that start with this stem. If the second part of the word starts with a vowel or with л, then you are supposed to write it with a hyphen:

Likewise you should use a hyphen if the second word is a proper name:

Otherwise the words are not hyphenated:

Words starting with пол- are most often found in the nominative and accusative cases, and in literary Russian the accusative of these words always copies the nominative. You usually don't have to worry about the other cases. Actually, a really good student of Russian will immediately ask, “But how would a Russian deal with those words in the other cases?” The answer is “inconsistently.” The rules of proper writing say one thing; conversational Russian often produces other forms. As a beginner it's best to stick with using them only in the nominative and accusative. If you have to talk about half of something in any other case, substitute the word половина instead.