Today we will talk about the word женат, which is a short form adjective that means ‘married.’ The word is used to refer to a man being married or to a couple being married; today we address the former situation. For instance, let's say you've just run into an old friend, Владимир, whom you haven't seen for quite some time. As you catch up, you might say:

In response to the question, you might hear very compact answers:

If the man you are talking to is one whom you address in вы form, then женат must go in the plural:

Of course, once you know the person is married, you will want to know to whom he is married, for which purpose you will use the preposition на followed by the prepositional case:

With that in mind, theoretically one could have the following conversation:

Although that conversation is perfectly grammatical, it is also a bit odd. Instead of using the на ком construction, most Russians will make it simpler:

If you want to talk about a television program, one word you can use is передача. The word literally means transmission, so it can apply to a radio transmission or a satellite transmission, but in the context of TV it can be simply translated as program. It declines like this:

Russian television broadcasts an amazing mix of things. They show American shows and cartoons, old soap operas like ‘Santa Barbara’ and ‘Dynasty.’ They show Soviet era movies and music videos. Mexican soap operas like «Богатые тоже плачут» “The rich cry, too.” You can find pretty well anything you want.

You ever get so busy that you forget what day of the week it is? I do. With work and school to take up most of my attention, I find myself suddenly realizing that I have no idea what day of the week it is! It's a good thing my phone has a Календарь on it. Yep, in Russian the word for calendar sounds almost identical to its English counterpart. They both originate from the Latin word "kalendae" which means "first day of the month."

Some examples:

Я часто пользуюсь календарём.
I often use a calendar.

Моя мама не может обойтись без календаря под рукой.
My mom is lost without a calendar handy.

У каждого студента должен быть календарь.
Every student must have a calendar.

Андрей, по твоему календарю, когда будет следующий праздник?
Andrew, according to your calendar, when is the next holiday?

Many American students visiting Russia for the first time also eat foods that they have never eaten before, and among those foods are свёкла beets. That is not to say that no one eats beets in the US, but you mostly find them eaten by families whose ancestors came from Eastern Europe or by families in farming communities. You will find them in salad bars, of course, but if you watch carefully you will notice that people eat them in very small quantities. Here's how the word declines:

You will note that there is a plural form of the word, but in fact the Russians mostly use the word in the singular where English speakers would use it in the plural.

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

Why do Russians eat so many beets? Probably because it's a hardy plant that grows well in cold regions. Among the most popular Russian beet dishes are винегрет, a salad made of boiled beets and other vegetables, and борщ, the world-famous beet soup. Sugar is also extracted from the sugar beet.

Today's word is one that I personally haven't come across that often, but I like how it is formed. Words and their roots fascinate me, so it's nice to see a word that makes such sense. Рукопись means manuscript. It refers to text written by hand. In fact, it is the combination of: рука(hand) and писать(to write). It can’t be any more straightforward than that! It can also mean a draft one would send to a publisher.

Я отправила рукопись редактору.
I sent the manuscript to the editor.

Он не интерестуется рукописями о президентах.
He is not interested in manuscripts about presidents.

Профессор yслышал о древних рукописях.
The professor heard about the ancient manuscripts.

Я занимаюсь переводом арабской рукописи.
I am busy with the translation of the Arabic manuscript.