Чай (часть первая)
The Russian word for tea is чай. It declines like this:
| Sg | Pl | |
| Nom | чай | чаи |
| Acc | ||
| Gen | чая | чаёв |
| Pre | чае | чаях |
| Dat | чаю | чаям |
| Ins | чаем | чаями |
Чай first of all means the leaves of the tea plant and the drink made from those leaves. Sample sentences:
| Ты будешь чай? | Would you like some tea? |
| Мама пила чай с молоком и сахаром. | Mom used to drink tea with milk and sugar. |
| Маша никогда не пьёт чай с лимоном, так как у неё аллергия на лимоны. | Masha never drank tea with lemon since she was allergic to lemons. |
| Мой брат предпочитает чай без сахара. | My brother prefers tea without sugar. |
Just as in English, infusions and tisanes of other leaves are also called чай even when they contain no tea leaves:
| Пей мятный чай перед сном, и у тебя будут хорошие сны. | Drink mint tea before bed and you have sweet dreams. |
| Ромашковый чай помогает лучше спать. | Chamomile tea helps you sleep well. |
The plural of the word can mean “varieties of tea,” although it's an uncommon use of the word:
| В китайском квартале Сан-Франциско продаютя всякие чаи. | All sorts of tea are sold in San Francisco's Chinatown. |
Every once in a while you will encounter an old-fashioned u-stem genitive form of this word. Even though it looks like a dative, it's a genitive in meaning, which adds the idea of “some” to the sentence:
| Ты хочешь чаю? | Do you want some tea? |
You may also encounter an old-fashioned u-stem locative form of the word as well. Again, although it looks like a dative, the meaning is locational:
| Тьфу! В моём чаю муха. Я чуть не проглотил её. | Ugh! There's a fly in my tea. I almost swallowed it. |
4 comments
In fact, you CAN say “аллергия от лимонов", but only when referring to a nearby person which already has some allergy reaction, for example:
- Что это тебя сегодня так посыпало?
- Да это у меня аллергия от лимонов.
Маша никогда не пьёт с лимоном, так как у неё аллергия от лимонов.
Аллергия может быть только НА лимоны, а не ОТ лимонов. Или я ошибаюсь?
Don responds: Нет, вы правы, намного чаще говорят «на лимоны». Текст поправлен. Спасибо!
We don’t usually say “аллергия от", if you refer to a condition. It is better to say “аллергия на лимоны". Plus, “мятовый чай” sounds weird. I guess it’s grammatically correct but we never say so. We say “мятный чай” or “чай с мятой".
The other interesting чай is чай с малиновым вареньем (raspberry jam tea). Not sure about now but back when I was a child it was a cold medication, I just hated it :)
It is way more common to say “аллергия на лимоны” than “аллергия от лимонов". However with the words like “изжога” (heartburn) or “несварение” (indigestion) it’s “изжога от лимонов” etc.
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