Russian vocabulary
Vocabulary questions: разбирать стол, да да, болтаться за бортом
Question from Q&A
I have three vocabulary questions about a story I'm reading: 1. If the story says that some party guests had started to "разбирать стол," which sense of разбирать is it? For...
Russian Tip of the Day
Did you know that we use the Accusative case with the days of the week ("On Monday, on Tuesday", etc) and the Dative case when we mean regular actions ("On...
Names of Nationalities in Russian
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Did you know that we use special nouns when speaking about nationalities? The only exception in the adjective "Russian", also meaning a nationality. For example, Он француз. He is French (Nationality). Это французское...
How to Say "How Much Does It Cost" in Russian
Russian Tip of the Day
Did you know that in Russian there are different expressions that mean "how much does it cost?" or "how much is that?" Сколько это стоит? How much does it cost? Сколько стоят...
Berries in Russian, Always Singular
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Did you know that the names of the berries in Russian are only used in singular number? Some names of vegetables and fruit are only used in singular, too. For example, Клубника...
Russian Expressions that Mean "What's happened?"
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Did you know we have several expressions that mean "What's happened?". Что случилось? is the most common expression. It is used with the Instrumental case, Что с тобой случилось? What's happened...
Russian Verbs мечтать and сниться
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Did you know that in Russian we have two different verbs to say "to dream"? Мечтать means "to dream when you do not sleep" and сниться means "to dream about something...
Russian Expressions когда-нибудь and когда-то
Russian Tip of the Day
Did you know that these two expressions have completely different meanings? Когда-нибудь means "sometime in the future", "somewhen", "some day or other". Как-нибудь is a synonym of когда-нибудь, normallyused in colloquial...
Three Meanings of the Word пожалуйста
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Did you know that the word пожалуйста can have three different meanings? For example, 1. Извини, пожалуйста! Excuse me, please! 2. - Мне, пожалуйста, яблочный сок. - Пожалуйста. Could I, please, have an apple...
Declension of Russian Patronymics
Russian Tip of the Day
Did you know that Russian patronymics are declined as feminine and masculine animated nouns? For example, N. Алексей Петрович G. Алексея Петровича D. Алексею Петровичу A. Алексея Петровича I. Алексеем Петровичем P. Алексее Петровиче N. Ирина Викторовна G. Ирины...
Difference between Russian Expressions ни разу and не раз
Russian Tip of the Day
Did you know that the Russian expressions ни разу and не раз have opposite meanings, although they seem very similar? Ни разу means "never, not once", it is a synonym of никогда...
The Difference between что and чтобы
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Did you know that что and чтобы are used in different situations? When referring to actual facts, we use что. The tense of the verb in the clause introduced by что...
The Difference between то же and тоже
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Did you know that spelling is extremely important in the Russian language? For example, тоже means "also, too" and то же means "the same". Я тоже хочу купить платье. I also...
Russian Tip of the Day
Did you know that, in colloquial speech, the expression Что за + noun in Nominative case is widely used? It means "what sort of", "what kind of", "what type of". For...
Paronyms in the Russian Language
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Did you know that in the Russian language there are many paronyms, words that are pronounced or written in a similar way but which have different lexical meanings? They are...
The Difference between нужно and надо
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Did you know that нужно and надо, used with a verb, are synonyms? They both mean "it is necessary to do somehting", and they are used with infinitives. However, надо...
The Difference Between а, и and но
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Did you know that sometimes he word а can be translated as "and" and as "but", depending on the context? И is "and" in English, and но is "but". Вчера была хорошая...
Mobile phone vocabulary in Russian
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The words below are part of our everyday life. It is interesting that while some words are clearly borrowed from English, others are completely different from the English version and...
Russian verbs related to the Internet (part 1)
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Below you will find some verbs which we use to describe activities online. скачивать – скачать (+Acc.) = to download Я скачиваю файл из облака. = I am downloading a file...
Russian verbs related to the Internet (part 2)
Russian Tip of the Day
Here are some more verbs from our everyday online routine. Some of them strongly resemble english verbs, you can even try to guess its meaning. Notice that the verbs are...
