Some words in Russian are formed in a very simple way, almost as if someone just looked at an object and made an observation. Take, for example, подушка, “pillow”. Под means “under” and ушко is “little ear”. So, what do you put under your ear – a pillow!

Подушка is a noun of feminine gender. The plural form is подушки, diminutive is подушечка.

Airbag in Russian is called подушка безопасности, ‘safety pillow’.

Fingertips are called подушечки пальцев, which literally means ‘little finger pillows’.

My mom sometimes uses a phrase that my great grandfather would always say, "спите скорее, подушка нужна!", "sleep faster, we need the pillow!". I would hear it when I took too long to fall asleep. I'm not sure where he got it from, but this saying has been in my family for a long time!

Don adds: Although it is true that some people connect подушка with the root ух- ‘ear,’ there is an alternative hypothesis that connects it with an ancient word for feather based on the stem дух- ‘breath/puff.’ See Fasmer for discussion.

Every culture has a set of words and rules used in the social ritual of introducing people. For Russians the key word is «Познакомьтесь!», which is the вы imperative form of the verb познакомиться “to become acquainted;” познакомьтесь literally means “Acquaint yourselves!” The introduction ritual for Russians can be remarkably brief. Let's say Tanya and and her friend Olga are standing on the corner talking. Up to them walks Tanya's friend Vera, who doesn't know Olga. The following conversation could ensue:

In this context Tanya uses the вы form because she is thinking about both Vera and Olga, but if she is only thinking about Vera, she might use the ты form:

Both approaches are grammatical, but in the познакомьтесь version Tanya is addressing both of her friends, and in the познакомься version she is addressing only Vera. Notice also that each of the people being introduced simply states her name, nothing more is required. Of course, more complex sentences are also possible:

And of course the person doing the introduction can also give more information.

In English we would never say “Acquaint yourelves!”, so a professional translation will use the standard phrases of English that include the word ‘introduce’:

Russian does have the verbs представлять/представить “to introduce” and представляться/представиться “to introduce oneself,” but they are not used in most day-to-day introductions. Someone who has had a very formal upbringing might use them. You will hear them in formal meetings and official introductions during public events. For most of your interactions in Russia, though, познакомься and познакомьтесь will serve you well.

We mentioned that these words are imperative forms of the perfective verb познакомиться. We will explore the related words знакомиться, знакомить and познакомить over the next week or two.

The Russian word for apple is яблоко. Note that it has an unexpected nominative/accusative plural:

Sample sentences:

The word for church in Russian is церковь. It is a third-declension feminine noun with a complication: the о drops out in every case except the nominative/accusative singular and the instrumental singular:

You will notice that there are alternative forms for the prepositional, dative and instrumental plurals: they can be soft or hard. The справка division at gramota.ru suggests both forms are acceptable, but I didn't really believe them because the soft versions should be much more natural by analogy with other feminine nouns in -ь, so I did a quick Google hit count (6 Feb 2010) and came up with these results:

So much for my theory. It seems like the hard forms are dominating.³ (Take that conclusion with a grain of salt. Such Google searches do not tell you how many times a particularly source is simply copied, so you can't tell how many unique instances there are of the word.) Despite the ambiguity, we can still produce some sample sentences:

¹ «Ни за что» means “not for anything” in the sense of “I wouldn't do it for anything in the world.” The ни and за are unstressed, and the что is stressed. Notice that there is a slight spelling difference (and a major stress difference) between that phrase and the phrase «не за что». In the latter the не is stressed the за and что are unstressed; it literally means “there is nothing for which” in the sense of “There is nothing for which to thank me”; we usually translate it as “don't mention it”: «Спасибо». «Не за что». “Thanks.” “Don't mention it.”

² This is an old stock phrase I encountered in Даль. People used it even though there were fewer than 1,600 churches in Moscow, so in effect it really means “There are a great many churches in Moscow.” Human languages often use large numbers to mean a non-specific “great many.” It is a common literary trope which we call “numerical hyperbole.” This use of language seems quite unnatural to those of us who were taught arithmetic from an early age and who were penalized if a number was off by even one. We tend to think “A number is precisely what a number says, nothing more and nothing less.” Alas, that is a common error in thought produced by otherwise good education.

³ Ah, it looks like my original guess that the soft forms are dominating is correct. See the discussion in the comment section. Thanks to the readers who gave such great feedback!

I’ll have to admit that I can’t take credit for today’s word of the day: my kitty helped me come up with it. She woke me up this morning by tickling my nose with her tail as she lay comfortably on my pillow. Still sleepy, I tried to move the little bugger without having to get up and inevitably being forced to start my day. After a few unsuccessful attempts to redirect that fuzzy fur piece, I gave up. (It was time to get up anyway ).) Meanwhile, I thought that the word “tail” was worth writing about.

In Russian tail is «хвост». It is a noun of masculine gender. The plural form is «хвосты» and diminutive is «хвостик».

In Russian this word has a few meanings, just like in English. The main one is an animal's body part.

Another meaning is ‘ponytail’ (the hairstyle). For example:

Also, it could mean a tail of something very long, such as a ship or an airplane.

Just like in English, this word can mean to chase or to follow someone.

Also, the word «хвост» has a very interesting meaning in student life. It describes an assignment that a student has not turned in in time, and because of which his grade is pending.

The latter sounds funny and provokes lots of jokes about students literally turning in their tails...

Here is an episode from the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh, where the donkey loses his tail!