Завтра будет Международный женский день. | Tomorrow will be International Women's Day. |
Что вы делали на Международный женский день? | What did you do for International Women's day? |
У нас нет Международного женского дня. | We do not have International Women's day. |
В Америке не празднуют Международный женский день. | In America they don't celebrate International Women's Day. |
to prepare | ||
Imperfective | Perfective | |
Infinitive | готовить | приготовить |
Past |
готовил готовила готовило готовили |
приготовил приготовила приготовило приготовили |
Present |
готовлю готовишь готовит готовим готовите готовят |
No such thing as perfective present in Russian. |
Future |
буду готовить будешь готовить будет готовить будем готовить будете готовить будут готовить |
приготовлю приготовишь приготовит приготовим приготовите приготовят |
Imperative | готовь(те) | приготовь(те) |
First off, it can be used in the sense of ‘to know to cook’ in general.
— Твой папа готовит? — Нет, папа вообще не готовит. Всегда готовит мама или я. |
“Does your dad cook?” “No, dad doesn't cook at all. It's always either me or mom.” |
Of course, you can also use it with the verb уметь ‘to know how’ in the same meaning, but then you'll have to use an infinitive:
— Твой папа умеет готовить? — Нет, папа вообще не готовит. Всегда готовит мама или я. |
“Does your dad know how to cook?” “No, dad doesn't cook at all. It's always either me or mom.” |
You can also use the verb if you want to specify a specific dish or cuisine.
На ужин я приготовила бефстроганов. | For dinner I made Beef Stroganoff. |
Мой брат всегда готовит итальянские блюда. | My brother always makes Italian food. |
— Все говорят, что вы отличный повар. Из тех блюд, которые вы когда-либо готовили, какое самое интересное? — В пустыне Калахари я приготовил ужин из пятнадцатикилограммового дикобраза. Они намного вкуснее обыкновенных американских дикобразов. |
“Everyone says you are an amazing chef. What's the most interesting thing you have ever cooked?” “In the Kalahari desert I made dinner from a 30-pound porcupine. They are a lot tastier than ordinary American porcupines.” |
Sg | Pl | |
Nom | за́йка | за́йки |
Acc | за́йку | за́ек |
Gen | за́йки | |
Pre | за́йке | за́йках |
Dat | за́йкам | |
Ins | за́йкой | за́йками |
Actually, I was completely ignorant of this word until last December. A Russian friend of mine had sent me a picture of her boyfriend. I responded:
Красавец он у тебя! | You've got a good looking guy there! |
And she responded:
Он зайка! | He's a sweetie! |
Of course, guys can use this, too, when talking to their girlfriends:
Зайка моя! Как я скучал по тебе! | Oh, baby, I missed you so much! |
In English affection terms are often associated with sweet-tasting foods: sweetie, honey, sugar, sugar plum, sweet cakes, sweet cheeks, honey bunch... Okay, some of those are old-fashioned, but you get the idea. Russians often use diminutive animal words to mean these things: рыбка ‘little fish,’ котик/киска ‘kitten.’ They have to be cute little animals; you'd never say «слоник ты мой» “your are my little elephant” or «верблюжонок ты мой» “my little camel.” And you definitely never want to call your girlfriend a сучка, which means... um... er... a little female dog, if you catch my meaning.
Рыбка, дом выглядит прекрасно! | Sweetie, the house looks great! |
Киска, ты прекрасно выглядишь! | Baby, you look amazing! |
Котик, ты такой красивый! Все мои подруги завидуют мне. | Honey, you are so handsome! All my friends are jealous. |
Этой ночью кошка в надцатый раз нагадила под диван. | Last night the cat pooped for the umpteenth time under the couch. |
I had never encountered the word на́дцатый before, but instinct immediately told me it meant ‘umpteenth.’ Instincts always have to be double checked when you are dealing with a language not native to you, so I consulted a dictionary and found confirmation; and to my shock I also found out that there is a number ‘umpteen,’ which is на́дцать. That is very cool. These words are jocular, of course, not something you would write in a professional document or presentation, but everyone understands them. The noun form declines like this:
Sg | |
Nom | на́дцать |
Acc | |
Gen | на́дцати |
Pre | |
Dat | |
Ins | на́дцатью |
and the adjective form declines like a standard adjective:
Masc | Neut | Fem | Pl | |
Nom | на́дцатый | на́дцатое | на́дцатая | на́дцатые |
Acc | * | на́дцатую | * | |
Gen | на́дцатого | на́дцатой | на́дцатых | |
Pre | на́дцатом | |||
Dat | на́дцатому | на́дцатым | ||
Ins | на́дцатым | на́дцатыми |
Remember that these words are slightly humorous, so you will see them in informal contexts. Here are some theoretically possible sample sentences.
Тань, не поверишь, но вчера Серёга в надцатый раз пристал ко мне. Я больше терпеть не могла, так что пришлось просто отшить его. | Tanya, you won't believe it, but yesterday Sergei hit on me for the umpteenth time. I couldn't take it any more so I ended up having to get rid of him. |
Ванька, я уже тебе надцать раз сказала, чтобы ты не забывал опускать сиденье унитаза! Если ещё раз забудешь, тебе будет плохо. | Johnny, I've already told you umpteen times not to forget to put the toilet seat down! If you forget again, you'll be in big trouble. |
Here's the whole story I mentioned before (source). Enjoy!
Этой ночью кошка в надцатый раз нагадила под диван. | Last night the cat pooped for the umpteenth time under the couch. |
Пришлось вставать и убирать. | I had to get up and clean it. |
Естественно, я не выспался: на завтрак пожарил себе йогурт; | Of course, I didn't get enough sleep: at breakfast I ended up frying my yogurt. |
на работе в сердцах разбил ксерокс, который отказывался работать — оказалось, это был сканер; | At work in a fit of anger I broke a copy machine that didn't want to work; turned out it was a scanner. |
вместо любовницы позвонил шефу и пять минут уговаривал его на интимную ночь с шампанским при свечах. | I tried to call my girlfriend but accidentally called my boss and spent five minutes sweet-talking him into an intimate evening with champagne and candles. |
Когда я сообразил, кому звоню, он уже почти согласился. | By the time I had realized who I had called, he had practically agreed to come. |
Пришел вечером домой и запер кошку в стиральной машине — | I got home in the evening and shut the cat in the washing machine: |
пусть сидит и думает над своим поведением. | he needs to sit there a while and think about what he did. |
Imperfective | Perfective | |
Infinitive | мочь | смочь |
Past | мог могла могло могли |
смог смогла смогло смогли |
Present | могу можешь может можем можете могут |
No such thing as perfective present in Russian. |
Future | No imperfective future for this particular verb. |
смогу сможешь сможет сможем сможете смогут |
Notice one quirk: it has no imperfective future form.
This verb is usually complemented by an infinitive phrase:
Ты можешь прочитать эту статью до завтра? | Can you read this article by tomorrow? |
Я не смогу прочитьать эту статью до завтра. | I won't be able to read this article by tomorrow. |
Когда она училась в Институте, она смогла поразить людей своим удивительным голосом. (source) | When she was in college, she could amaze people with her astonishing voice. |
— Я не могу избавиться от этих гнусных головных вшей. Я смазал свою голову речной грязью, как посоветовала бабушка, но никак не помогает. — Речная грязь? Что за чушь? Купи себе шампунь «Педилин», он очень эффективен. |
“I can't get rid of these nasty head lice. I smeared my head with river mud like Grandma told me, but it doesn't help.” “River mud? That's ridiculous. Buy Pedilin shampoo. It works great.” |
Sg | Pl | |
Nom | рыло | рыла |
Acc | рыло | рыла |
Gen | рыла | рыл |
Pre | рыле | рылах |
Dat | рылу | рылам |
Ins | рылом | рылами |
The word 'рыло' comes from the word 'рыть', which means 'to dig'. Since pigs always dig around in mud with their snout, it is called 'рыло'. However, the word is more often used when talking about ugly people's faces rather than pigs' snouts.
Here are a few sample sentences:
Его лицо было похоже на рыло. | His face looked like a snout. |
Свинья рыла землю рылом. | The pig was digging the ground with its snout. |
У свиньи на рыле была грязь. | The pig had mud on its snout. |
Кирка прокляла моряка, и его лицо превратилось в рыло свиньи. | Circe cursed the sailor, and his face turned into a pig's snout. |
Sg | Pl | |
Nom | ништяк | ништяки |
Acc | ништяк | ништяки |
Gen | ништяка | ништяков |
Pre | ништяке | ништяках |
Dat | ништяку | ништякам |
Ins | ништяком | ништяками |
Here are a few sample sentences:
Настроение у Сергея стало улучшаться, он начинал верить, что все будет ништяк. | Sergey's mood began to improve, he was starting to think that everything will be alright. |
Эти семечки — ништяк! | These sunflower seeds are awesome!. |
— Как дела? — Всё ништяк! |
“How are you?” “Everything is awesome!” |
Ништяки остались? | Are there any left-overs? |
I found a great little internet meme that uses the word. It's probably confusing at first because a student might think that ваще is a misspelling of ваше, but that's not the case here. Here ваще is geek spelling for вообще ‘totally, completely,’ so in this picture the words mean “totally awesome!”
]]>Sg | Pl | |
Nom | сон | сны |
Acc | сон | |
Gen | сна | снов |
Pre | сне | снах |
Dat | сну | снам |
Ins | сном | снами |
Я видел тебя вчера во сне. | I saw you last night in my dreams. |
Мне не снятся сны. | I don’t have dreams. |
Я летала во сне. | I flew in my dream. |
Он рассказал о своих снах. | He talked about his dreams. |
Russians are great believers in the predictive power of dreams. Almost every woman has a со́нник ‘dream interpretation book’ by her bedside so that she can consult it first thing when she wakes up. Sometimes my friend Евгений's mother dreams about cats, which she always takes as a sign that something bad is going to happen him, especially that some friend might stab him in the back, and she warns him to be careful and think twice about anything he does that day.
Dreams played a huge role in the prophecies of Ванга, a Bulgarian woman who predicted the future. She is kind of like a Slavic Nostradamus, and every Russian knows about her. You can read about her here.
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