The Russian word for grapefruit is грейпфрут. Grapefruits are a delicious fruit and commonly used to treat obesity, respiratory problems, and flu symptoms. In my backyard, grow two grapefruit trees and I make very good use of them. Once a year, when the grapefruits are at their ripest point, I pick all the fruit off the tree and use it to make grapefruit juice грепфрутовый сок. Everyone in my family loves this healthy drink especially in the mornings. Because our grapefruit trees are very large, they produce many grapefruits each year and we always invite our neighbors over to help pick the grapefruits off the trees. We always end up giving a few dozen grapefruits away to our neighbors each year.

I remember when my mother first started introducing my little sister to grapefruits. Victoria was approximately one year old when my mother handed her a slice of grapefruit. We expected that she would make a funny face so my parents stood around taking pictures when she put the grapefruit in her mouth and squinted. Laughing, my parents said «Mоя дорогая! Ты выглядишь так смешно, когда ты кушаешь этот грейпфрут!» “Мy dear! You look so funny when you eat this grapefruit!”

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 garlic is чеснок. Garlic is not only delicious in certain dishes, but also a very good remedy средство for colds because of its antibacterial properties. My aunt found garlic to be very useful in treating her own flu symptoms. She took a few cloves of garlic and diced them finely with a knife. Afterwards, she placed the diced garlic between two thin pieces of cloth and tied it around her nose and mouth. She walked around with this mask for fifteen minute intervals three times a day and by the following day her flu symptoms were completely gone. Usually when I had a cold, my aunt tried to persuade me to try her garlic remedy but I always refused and told her that she was crazy for tying a handkerchief full of garlic around her nose. «Оля! Пожалуйста попробуй мое чесночное средство и твой грипп сразу пройдет» “Olga! Please try my garlic remedy and your flu will immediately go away”. Even though I could see that her remedy always worked, I refused to try it and preferred suffering until my immune system took care of the flu.

It is important to note that the word гриб refers to the word mushroom while the word грипп refers to flu. These two words sound very similar, but they obviously have different meanings.

The Russian word for fish is рыба. In general fish is a good source of omega 3 fatty acids and a variety of minerals and vitamins. Many delicious Russian dishes can me made out of fish. In particular, many fishermen like to make a traditional fish soup called уха. The only ingredients needed to make уха are water вода, fish рыба, potatoes картошка, carrots морковь, salt соль, black pepper чёрный перец, and sometimes other spices специи. It has become a tradition in my family to make уха every time we go fishing. Usually my family goes fishing in the winter because the fish are especially hungry during this season. Early in the morning рано утром and late in the evening поздно вечером are the best times to catch fish, and I enjoy having a hot cup of уха after sitting for many hours in the cold weather.

Fish is also a popular alternative during a religious fast пост because meat is a prohibited food. Each year two weeks before Christmas, my mother says «Завтра мы начинаем религиозный пост и будем есть рыбу вместо мяса» “Tomorrow we start the religious fast and will be eating fish instead of meat.” The switch from meat to fish has never been a problem for me because I find fish to be absolutely delicious!

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.