Лоб
The Russian word for forehead is лоб. The о is a fleeting vowel, which means that any time you add a grammatical ending to the noun, the о drops out. Notice also that the word distinguishes a locative form «на лбу» “on the forehead” from the prepositional form «о лбе» “about the forehead.”
| Sg | Pl | |
| Nom | лоб | лбы |
| Acc | лоб | лбы |
| Gen | лба | лбов |
| Pre | о лбе, на лбу | лбах |
| Dat | лбу | лбам |
| Ins | лбом | лбами |
| Первоклассник забыл дома дневник, и честно заработанную четверку Светлана Владимировна нарисовала ему прямо на лбу. Учительницу уволили. (adapted from this source) | A first-grader left his gradebook at home, so [teacher] Svetlana Vladimirovna drew his hard-earned B on his forehead. The teacher was fired. |
| На лбу Ленина вандалы нарисовали свастику. (source) | Vandals drew a swastika on Lenin's forehead. |
Of course, in that last example they have in mind a statue of Lenin, not Lenin's embalmed body.
There is a phrase «как на лбу написано» “like it was written on the forehead” that the Russians use to catch the idea that something was obvious by the expression of a person's face.
| Зина согласилась на поездку, но у неё на лбу было написано, что ей очень не хотелось провести восемь часов в одном купе с Витей. | Zina agreed to the trip, but you could see in her face that she really didn't want to spend eight hours in the same train compartment with Viktor. |
| — Диме не нравится Лара. — Да, это у него на лбу написано. |
“Dima doesn't like Lara.” “Yes, that's clear from the expression on his face.” |
1 comment
When I was climbing a steep hill with Russian friends they liked to say that we were going “v lob” (sounds like vlop)because we were going up so steeply.
08/09/09 @ 10:31
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