The other day we mentioned that the words два/две ‘two’ are followed by a noun in a form that resembles the genitive singular. What's really freaky, though, is that if you put an adjective between the number and the noun, you don't use the genitive singular. So what for do you use? Well, that depends...

If you are dealing with masculine or neuter nouns, then you have to use an adjectival form that copies the genitive plural:

If you are dealing with feminine nouns, it is usually best to use an adjectival form that copies the nominative plural:

Here are some sample sentences:

¹ You will sometimes also encounter две новых машины, аlthough новые is better style these days.

If you want to talk about your brother, the most likely word you will use in Russian is брат. It has an irregular plural form:

Very often брат is used with the words старший older/oldest and младший younger/youngest. Since those words are ambiguous, I like to fudge in non-professional work and translate them as big and little. In professional translation, of course, you should determine whether the superlative meaning (oldest/youngest) or comparative meaning (older/younger) is the correct one:

About the most convenient way these days to move files from one laptop to another is to use a USB flash drive. There are several phrases associated with that concept in Russian, among which are флеш-накопитель "flash storage" and флеш-память "flash memory", but in common usage you will mostly hear флешка or флэшка. It looks odd to Russians to see the letter э anywhere aside from the first letter of a word, so I'm guessing in the long run the флешка spelling will win out. In either case, be sure to pronounce the л hard, not soft, no matter which spelling you use.

Probably the most common question about flash drives is how much data they can hold. The way to ask the question properly is:

It's also possible to say things like:

I was amused to find out that sometimes geekoids will substitute the word гектар hectare for гигабайт gigabyte:

Last but not least, you might also hear something like:

Those versions look awful in print. Don't ever write them in an official document or course paper, but don't surprised if you hear them when friends are talking among themselves.

The word она is a personal pronoun that declines like this:

The «н» versions of the pronoun occur when the pronoun is the object of a preposition.

Она refers to feminine singular nouns, which can be either people or things, so sometimes it is translated as she/her, and sometimes it is translated as it. In other words, if you are refering to an учительница "school teacher," then the sentence must be translated with she/her, and if you are refering to a машина car, the same sentence must be translated with it:

In casual conversation it's common in America to say things like “Me and Sally went to the store,” especially when we are children. Schoolteachers then try to beat us out of that habit and make us say “She and I went to the store.” Because of that influence, English speakers may be tempted to say things like «Она и я ездили в магазин» in Russian. While theoretically one can say that in Russian, no one ever does. Instead it gets rephrased as “we with her” «мы с ней». Of course, it would be ridiculous to translate that as “we with her” in English; you still want “she and I” or just plain old ‘we.’

When I was a kid, my favorite Sunday breakfast was cherry vareniky. My dad was great at making them, and I was great at helping and supervising. Almost every Sunday I would beg my dad, «Пожалуйста, сделай мне вареники с вишней!» "Please, make me cherry vareniki!"

A couple of weeks ago I decided to learn how to make this treat for myself. «Бэлла, вареники легко сделать» "Bella, vareniki are easy to make," my mom declared, so together we made a big batch. I invited some friends over, and by the end of the night there were no vareniki left - не было больше вареников!

The word вареники roughly translates to "little boiled things." Basically they are crescent-shaped stuffed dumpling. The fillings range from berries to meat to cheese. Often they are topped with sour cream. It is an easy and convenient food to make and freeze, therefore it is very popular in Russia and Ukraine. In fact, the city of Cherkasy, Ukraine, put up a big monument featuring the folk hero Cossak Mamay in front of a giant varenik!