Two Meanings of the Russian Preposition из-под

July 14, 2018 | Tags: Russian prepositions

Did you know that the Russian preposition из-под has two meanings? The main meaning is “from under”, but the second one is quite interesting, it means something like “recipient (box, jar, basket) where you could find something before, but now we can use it differently”.

For example,

Нельзя пить воду из-под крана. You cannot drink tap water. (Literally: You cannot drink water from under the tap).
Это банка из-под варенья, но там сейчас солёные огурцы. It used to be a pot of jam, but now there are pickles there.

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