The word жаль has several meanings, and today we will discuss its use in the sense of “to feel sorry for” a person. We English speakers have to do a grammatical backflip when dealing with the construction. In English the person who experiences the emotion is the subject of the verb, and the person pitied is the object of the preposition ‘for.’ In Russian the person who experiences the emotion appears in the dative case, and the person pitied appears in the accusative case:

Жаль sentences can be translated into English several ways:

You will notice there is no verb in the sentences. To put them into the past tense, you add было; for the future, add будет:

Here you can see the phrase in more complicated sentences:

The busiest place the house I grew up in was always the kitchen. My mother is an amazing cook and I always spent a lot of time trying to learn and help. Today's word is кухня, kitchen.

Whenever we had gatherings,

Мама звала меня на кухню помочь.
Mom would call me into the kitchen to help.

My father also liked to take his turn at cooking.

Где папа? Он на кухне.
Where is dad? He is in the kitchen.

And now that I have my own house,

Самая большая комната в моём доме — кухня.
The biggest room in my house is the kitchen.

Which is exciting because I get to design it any way I want.
However, it is also overwhelming.

Существует огромное количество вариантов оформления кухонь!
There are a huge number of options for designing kitchens!

The verb pair приезжать/приехать is usually translated as “to arrive, come,” and it implies movement by vehicle. It conjugates like this:

In English we often use the preposition “at” with the verb “arrive,” so we have to bear in mind that for Russians arrival is a motion; that is, you complement the verb with either в/на + accusative or with к + dative:

One point of translation: in English if you see a vehicle approaching, you may say “Here comes the bus/train/taxi.” In Russian you will never use приезжать/приехать in that context. Instead you most commonly use the verb идти.

M.C. Escher-one of my favorites

Today's word of the day is the verb рисовать. This means to draw. As in a picture, not а lottery. I grew up loving to draw and doodle. So much, that I was often in trouble for drawing during all my classes.

Here are some examples using our word:

Он рисует красивый цветок.
He is drawing a beautiful flower.

Я учусь рисовать.
I am learning to draw.

Я собираюсь наказать всех моих детей. Они рисовали на стене!
I am getting ready to punish all my kids. They drew all over the wall!

Катя, пожалуйста, нарисуй мне что-нибудь.
Katya, please draw me something.

Sometimes in life you're just bummed out about something, and one of the words that expresses that idea in Russian is жаль. Жаль expresses an idea of sadness or regret or irritation; it can form an entire sentence unto itself:

If want to add the “what a” idea to it, you use как:

Very often жаль is followed by a clause beginning with что:

Жаль, что она не пришла.

It's a shame that she didn't come. or

It's a pity that she didn't come.

Жаль, что ты так мало зарабатываешь.

It's a pity that you earn so little. or

It's a shame that you earn so little.

If you want to incorporate the idea of who is experiencing the pity, then the person goes into the dative case. Once the person is added, though, it flows best if you don't use the words pity and shame in Engish translation. Instead other versions sound better:

Мне жаль, что она не пришла.

I'm disappointed that she didn't come. or
I'm sad that she didn't come. or

I'm bummed that she didn't come. or

I feel bad that she didn't come.

Лене жаль, что ты так мало зарабатываешь.

Lena's sad that you earn so little. or
Lena's disappointed that you earn so little. or

Lena's bummed that you earn so little. or

Lena feels bad that you earn so little.

To put the жаль phrase into the past or future tense, use было and будет respectively: