The human body is made up of many parts: bones, tissues, muscles, organs etc. Part of the organ family is the skin and it is the largest organ of the body. In Russian the word for skin is кожа.The word declines as such:

Here are a few sample sentences.

The skin protects us from diseases and germs that could get into our bloodstream. It has pores to help us to release heat in the summer and hair and layers to keep warm in the winter. There different tones of skins as well as different grades of how oily the skin is. Like any other part of the body it needs to be taken care of so it can look its best and do its job.

The Russian word шишка can be translated into English 'bigwig', 'big shot', 'head honcho', so on and so forth. It can also mean 'cone,' but we'll be focusing more on the 'big shot' context today:

Here are some example sentences:

The Russian word фасоль means 'bean,' as in the beans that are eaten by people. It declines as such:

Interestingly enough, the word фасоль is really only used in reference to beans that Russians eat. Боб is another word for beans, but it usually refers to beans that Americans eat, which it can also mean farm animal feed. It's theorized that the use of боб instead of фасоль was the result of a translation snafu way back when. Most Russians prefer фасоль in general though for the smaller beans that you eat, such as, kidney, pinto, and black. When Фасоль is used in the plural it refers to different types of beans, not individual bean seeds. The word is used only in the singular to refer to beans that are used as food.

Here are a few sample sentences:

Don comments: Thanks for the entry about beans, Natasha. I nearly decided to edit out your line about фасоль being used for the beans Russians eat and бобы more commonly for the beans that Americans and animals eat, but then I realized that I've heard the word фасоль used a lot in Russia, but I don't think I've ever discussed бобы there. So I've decided to leave the entry as it is, and hopefully some of our readers will chip in their two cents. I suppose I should note that technically there is a difference between фасоль and бобы. If you are in an anal-retentive mood, you can see a discussion of it here (mirror).

The Russian word белка means ‘squirrel’. It declines like so:

Here are some sample sentences.

There are quite a few species of squirrels that live in Russia. There is even the Siberian flying squirrel, which is the only species of flying squirrel found in Europe. Ironically, Белка was also the name of one of the dogs that were launched into space on board of Sputnik 5 on August 19th, 1960. They were the first dogs in space. After circling the Earth in a space craft, they safely made it back down as national cosmonaut heroes of the former USSR. This year, a new cartoon was released about the two dogs, originally called “Belka and Strelka: Moon Adventures”. However, since not too many people outside of Russia are familiar with who they are, the title was changed to “Space Dogs”.

Sometimes when you study a foreign language, especially one as difficult as Russian, you just want to show off your new-found skills and knowledge, and for Russian one of the great words you can use for that purpose is достопримеча́тельности. It means ‘sights.’ That's right, sights. In English it’s one syllable. In Russian it’s eight syllables. Here is how it is pronounced:

When you are trying to learn to pronounce a polysyllabic monstrosity like that, there is a little trick that will help you get it right. If you would like to learn the trick, play this bit of audio:

In terms of declension достопримечательность is a standard third declension noun:

Although we usually translate it as ‘sights,’ you could also translate it as ‘attractions’ or ‘places of interest.’