Did you know it's the International Year of the Potato?

The formal Russian word for potato is картофель, a masculine first declension noun, which is identical to the German word for the same thing; that suggests that the Russians first learned about potatoes from the Germans. Картофель is a mass noun, which means it can only be used in the singular; you don't use it to say 'two potatoes.' A related word is картофeлина, which means 'a spud' and is a count noun, one that occurs in the singular and the plural, so that is the best way to say 'two potatoes' or 'five potatoes' «две картофелины» «пять картофелин».

But the word that is most often used in Russia to mean potato is картошка, which begins with the stem of the German word and then adds the dimunitive suffix -ошка. It's a count noun, so you can say две картошки two potatoes or пять картошек five potatoes. Although you can use картошка in the plural when specifying the number of potatoes, if you are talking about potatoes generically, you normally use the word in the singular. In other words, in English we say “Do you like potatoes?” (plural), but in Russian we normally say «Ты любишь картошку?» (accusative singular) to get the same idea across. Likewise when you are talking about potatoes by weight, you usually specify it in the singular «Я купил пять кило картошки» (genitive singular) not «Я купил пять кило картошек» (genitive plural). That's true for a lot of food words in Russian: they are used in the singular instead of the plural when discussing them generically.

Russians use potatoes fried, boiled, mashed, stuffed into Russian ravioli and calzones and crepes, and simmered in soups; oddly enough, I don't think I've ever seen a baked potato there. Although you can't imagine Russia nowadays without them, potatoes are not originally a European plant. Russian peasants mostly didn't eat or grow them much before the 18th century when Catherine the Great forced the peasantry to cultivate them. The peasants did not want to do it. They had survived on grains like buckwheat and rye and wheat that grew above ground and could be baked into bread. Who wanted to eat this grotesque misshapen tuber that grew inside the dirt instead of standing nobly above it like proper human food? Some Russian sects actually declared it a sin to eat the potato. In the 19th century Nicholas Ⅰ began to enforce Catherine's order more widely and potato cultivation finally began to spread significantly. The peasants eventually grew to love potatoes, particularly when they saw it took a lot less acreage of potatoes to feed a family as compared to acreage planted with buckwheat. The potatoes were also much more drought and disease resistant, grew more heartily than many plants in the cold Russian climate, and were much less susceptible to wind damage.¹

¹ “Indian givers: how the Indians of the Americas transformed the world,” by Jack Weatherford © 1988, pp. 64-66. Also see History Magazine for an interesting article on the history of the potato.

The Russian word for school is школа. If a little Russian girl wanted to complain in the morning in a very grammatical fashion, she might say to Mama «Но не хочу я сегодня в школу идти!» "But I don't want to go to school today!" But actually the little girl would usually leave the 'to go' verb out of the sentence and simply say, «Не хочу я сегодня в школу!» Russian children never win that battle. A boy who goes to school is a школьник schoolboy, and школьница is a schoolgirl. Some Russian schools require the kids to wear a school uniform школьная форма.

An American college student might say "I don't work. I'm going to school these days," but in Russian школа is never used to refer to college. Instead a Russian would say «Я хожу в университет» "I go to the university," or «Я учусь в университете» "I study at the university," or «Я студент» «Я студентка» "I'm a college student."

The common Russian word for Mexico is Мексика, while the official name is Мексиканские Соединённые Штаты ‘The Mexican United States.’ Russian Wikipedia defines Мексика as «государство в Северной Америке, граничащее на севере с США» “a state in North America that shares a border on the north with the USA.” A Mexican man is мексиканец and a Mexican woman is мексиканка. Notice that names of nationalities are not capitalized in Russian. The language of Mexico is not мексиканский язык but испанский язык. Gosh, I wonder if there are any other countries where the name of language does not match the name of the country…

The name of Mexico City in Russian is Мехико. Curious, eh? The country is a feminine noun and declines. The capitol city does not decline and, despite its ending in -о, is masculine in gender, as you can see in this sentence «Мехикo был основан в 1325 году индейцами-ацтеками» “Mexico was founded in 1325 by the Aztec Indians” (Russian Wikipedia).

One of the great things about living in Arizona is you can make quick trips to Mexico. «В субботу мы ездили в Ногалес» “On Saturday we went to Nogales.” «Смотри, какую крутую татуировку мне сделали в Ногалесе!» “Look at the cool tatoo I got in Nogales!”

The Russian word for cinnamon is корица.

What color is cinnamon? It's brown, right? And what is the Russian word for brown? It's коричневый. Wow, what a coincidence.

The Russian word for winter is зима. In Arizona, the winter is short and warm compared to the winter in Russia which is much longer and colder. Every time Americans ask me about the Russian winter, I say «Зима в России очень холодная и долгая» “The winter in Russian is very cold and long.” I also tell them that it is important to wear warm clothes to avoid getting ill. The Russian word for winter hat is зимняя шапка, the word for winter coat is зимняя куртка, and the word for boots is сапоги.

Many kids in Russia like to build snowmen. The Russian word for snowmen is снеговик. As a child, I would always ask my mom “Можно я построю снеговика?” which means, “Can I build a snowman?” If a male tells someone that he made a snowman, he would say, «Я построил снеговика», whereas a female would say «Я построила снеговика». Children in Russia also like to ride on sleds during the winter. The Russian word for sled is санки.