One of the Russian words for dog is собака. It can be used for either a male or female dog:

There is a curious phrase that uses the word собака to mean “a whole lot of”:

«Как собак нерезанных» literally means “like unslit dogs.” How could such a phrase come to mean “a whole lot of”? In years agone the stray dogs around Russian villages would slowly grow in numbers until they became dangerous. Every once in a while the villagers would get together and round up all the strays and slit their throats to bring them back to manageable levels. You can imagine that the phrase nowadays is mostly used in a negative sense. For a recent interesting blog entry about stray dogs in Russia, see Josefina's entry on the Russian blog at transparent.com.

My favorite recent quote involving собака is in a rant about the lousy job some Russian translators did in putting subtitles to an episode of House:

There are quite a few other words related to dogs in Russian, and we'll discuss some of those over the next few days.

The Russian word for blog is блог. What exactly is a blog? Ru.wikipedia.org describes it like this:

Юлия Третьякова, a blogger apparently from Томск, recently discussed the most popular blogs in Russia. Here's her list along with the reasons that people read them:

drugoi.livejournal.com

e_grishkovets.livejournal.com

temа.livejournal.com

dolboeb.livejournal.com

katechkina.livejournal.com

tanyant.livejournal.com

mi3ch.livejournal.com

kitya.livejournal.com

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.

Ещё means still:

When ещё combines with the negative particle не, we translate it into English as “not yet.”

Sometimes ещё has the meaning of “also, another, additionally, some more.”

Most students of Russian first encounter the word кататься in the phrases кататься на лыжах “to ski” and кататься на коньках “to skate.” A single skate is a конёк or “little horse.” If you use your imagination, you can see how an ice skate might look a little like a horse. Roller skates are called роликовые коньки, more commonly known as ролики, so you can also кататься на роликах.

Кататься is a handy verb that refers to any kind of motion for fun. It often translates the English “ride” or “take a ride.” The perfective is покататься.

For all of the above, use ездить instead of кататься if you are traveling for transportation rather than for fun:

More riding for fun:

Amusement park rides are called аттракционы:

Some English words ending in –ing turn into this rather peculiar set of coinages:

Sometimes this verb is used for things you don’t ordinarily ride on for fun: