Russian

A Chinese chess player once told me, in old era, Russians say "Do you want to know which is better, bishop or knight? Then go to the zoo", to prove bishop is better than knight in chess. This looks strange. Do Russians really say so? What is the original text? Also I am happy to hear more Russian...

I read the following sentence from иноСМИ. The sentence is a translation from a news article from NZZ, a German language newspaper. «Вместе с доходом жены-учительницы, которая зарабатывает примерно столько же, денег как раз хватает.» The expression „жена-учительница“ is used as substitution for a...

I would like to know how to pronounce -с, like in да-с, нет-с, etc. Do I use a glottal stop or something alike? Note that I on purpose picked one example ending in a vowel before -с and one ending in a consonant, as I assume they might differ.

Here: Как времени коснулась порча it seems that the verb коснуться requires genitive and here: По вечерам висячие часы Анализом докучных тем касались, it seems that the verb касаться requires instrumental. How can we know which case should be used?

I am interested in a suffix for people/ethnicities and similar that turns the noun modified into a noun that describes the intrinsic quality of the latter. For more clarity: In English one might use to such purpose „-ness“ (Russians = the Russian people, Russianness = the soul of the Russian peop...

In contemporary Russian, the plural is gender-neutral. However, pre-1918, Russian distinguished "feminine plural", as Polish, Spanish, some other languages do. For example: Не пой, красавица, при мне Ты песен Грузии печальной: Напоминают мне оне... "Оне", rather than "они", because "песня" is f...

I'm learning Russian using DuoLingo and in the lesson for Unit 2, something was left a bit unexplained for me. First I was told that verbs change based on the gender of the subject, which I was fine with and was told is as follows: Masculine: ОН УПАЛ Feminine: ЧАШКА УПАЛА Neuter: ДЕРЕВО УПАЛО The...

From РОССІЯ И ЕВРЕИ (1924): Вы и въ разговорѣ услышите, и въ письмѣ прочитаете, что не въ Россіи же теперь жить еврею, а потому какъ разъ время ѣхать «домой» What is the precise nuance of these dative impersonal constructions? A Jew CANNOT live in Russia now? or a Jew SHOULD NOT live in Russia ...

If I used поилка in the context of a conversation about bars … would it be understood, that I am using this word to refer to a bar? Especially, would it be understood such, that I deem the so described bar as one that is shabby and serves low quality drinks? or would it just sound wrong/weird? ...

The parts of it seem kinda unrelated to the actual meaning, no?

I learned that the pronoun 'мы' matches with verb ending '-ем' Днём мы работаем, а вечером изучаем испанский. Then, can I omit the subject 'мы' in the above sentence? Днём работаем, а вечером изучаем испанский. Is it grammatically correct and natural?

Why does город become города when it's plural? Isn't it supposed to be городы? Thank you.

I‘ve read the following sentence: Я не кровный родственник этой семье, но, наверное, именно поэтому я могу смотреть на всё со стороны. Here, семья stands in the dative, instead of the genitive. Is this usage of the dative case dated/archaic or regular modern usage? Generalising from this, can I...

In a language app, I encountered a translation of "2 apples" as Два яблоко I would have thought it to be Два яблоки (or Две яблоки) Is that just my English bias showing? Thanks.

In the following verse of this poem by Anna Akhmatova: А здесь уж белая дома крестами метит is белая a noun? If it is an adjective, I do not see the noun it describes. If it is a noun, what does it mean? I saw this question, but there the nouns are masculine and not feminine.

My understanding is that when describing the absence of the subject of a verb, the dative form некому is used along with the verb infinitive. For example, Некому о ней заботиться means There is no one to take care of her, where the subject of заботиться (the one who offers to take care) is absent...

In Подросток by Dostoevsky we have: Сам давал по десяти и по двадцати пяти просителям. На крючок! I don't understand the expression "На крючок!". My guess (with the context) is that the narrator emphasizes that he is giving much money, but I don't relate it with the word крючок. What does it me...

I saw some text in Russian recently which talked about phishing attacks. It described one as designed for "mammoths" (мамонтов). I am interested to learn more about this term. I can guess it means something like "big/desirable target" but I am not sure if that is correct or if there is any nuance...

In Детство Люверс by Boris Pasternak I read: Ходили на блоках двери чайных If I am not wrong, here "чайный" is a субстантивированное прилагательное. I could not find in any dictionary the use of "чайный" as a субстантивированное прилагательное with this meaning. What is the meaning exactly? Her...

In this sentence - 'какой это цвет' the demonstrative pronoun is neuter nominative singular - I would have expected 'этот' to agree with masculine 'какой' and 'цвет' Thanks

Also from Iosif Bikerman's РОССІЯ И ЕВРЕИ 1924: Правый тѣмъ и есть правый, что онъ не склоненъ къ прыжкамъ, не склоненъ отрываться отъ своего прошлаго, прошлаго родной страны и родного народа тем и есть ... что is my focus here. This is really a syntactical thing. Does it mean "the very reason ...

I've just noted on Wiktionary that отметить can mean to "sign out, register out". What is the full phrase? I signed out of the hotel? отметил из отеля? I registered out when leaving the conference? я отметил с совещания? I don't think this is right. The Russian version of Wiktionary, викисловарь,...

According to the OpenRussian database, ~72% of non-reflexive first-person singular verbs get the "-ю" suffix. The overwhelming majority of the remaining first-person singular verbs in the database get the "-у" suffix. Furthermore, some words even get a "-ую" suffix, eg. "чувствовать" -> "чувствую"...

Both "боля" and "болея" are listed in wiktionary as present adverbial imperfective participle of "болеть". Is there any reason you would use one of these instead of the other, or are they always interchangeable?

Reading a newspaper article published today I was confused by the following sentence: Об этом 20 мая заявила депутат парламента, исполнительный секретарь исполкома оппозиционного блока «Победа» Марина Таубер. Since we have "заявила" the subject is feminine. What is the subject from a grammatica...

In Братья Карамазовы by Dostoevsky I read: Это она от страху уверена, что выздоровеет. Why not "от страха" instead of "от страху"? I thought that "от" was followed by the genitive case and not the dative. When should we use the dative case after "от"?

In Мой Пушкин by Marina Tsvetaeva, we have сидела под роялем, затылком в уровень кадке с филодендроном If we had "затылком в уровень с филодендроном", I would understand as "the neck at the level of the philodendron" but I don't know what to do with "кадке". I saw that there exists the word кад...

In these verses by Marina Tsvetaeva: Та, что без видения спала — Вздрогнула и встала. I don't quite understand why we have "что" and not "кто". I thought that only "кто" could be used as a subject, while "что" was used as a complement.

The Russian for "I play guitar" is "Я играю на гитаре". However, this more directly translates to "I play on guitar", and if I use translation tools to translate "Я играю гитаре", that also becomes, "I play guitar" even though "I play on guitar" is a common expression as well in English. So how c...

For example 'два пельменя', where 'пельменя' is masculine, so when referring to them, should it be 'два штуки'?

In the following verses by Boris Pasternak: Таким я вижу облик ваш и взгляд. Он мне внушен не тем столбом из соли, from the poem Анне Ахматовой, I don't understand why we have "Он мне внушен" and not "Они мне внушены". Indeed, if "Он" refers to "облик ваш и взгляд", it should be a plural, right...

The phrase “this much” was explained here : https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/272326/what-does-i-know-this-much-is-true-mean The Russian translation of this book title is: "Я знаю что это правда". The meaning of "This much" was lost in translation — as if the title was "I know this is true"...

The Russian for "I want to go home" is "Я хочу домой", which obviously uses хочу (want) but not идти (to go). However, the Russian for "I want home" is also "я хочу домой". Why is that? Is it just a quirk of the language or can хочу serve as shorthand for other words as well?

In Цицерон by Fyodor Tyutchev, we have these verses: «Я поздно встал — и на дороге Застигнут ночью Рима был!» My guess is that it means more or less the same as: «Я поздно встал — и на дороге застигнули ночью Рима!». My questions are: Am I right about this meaning? Is there any difference of m...

In Смерть Ивана Ильича by Leo Tolstoy, we have the expression буфетный мужик. I have several related questions: I remember that, in some lesson, I said "мужик" to mean "a farmer (of 19th century)" (or a "peasant" without any pejorative connotation - my English is too bad to have a clear distinct...

It is indeed true that distinguishing between Russian adjectives and participles can be very hard. E.g. "жареный картофель" — an adjective; "жаренный с грибами картофель" — a participle. My question is: is it true that adjectives denote something constant, and participles, something temporary? Le...

In the Russian sentence Маленькие дети ходят медленнее взрослых why is взрослых in the genitive case? Is the genitive case always used in comparatives for the thing that is forming the basis of comparison?

I think this is a very interesting linguistic problem. A teacher once proposed the following to her class: "Children, let's imagine for a minute that the Russian word "кречет" is a verb. What would its infinitive be?" (Однажды учительница предложила классу задание: «Дети, давайте пофантазируем и ...

I'm writing Russian subtitles for an American film. In one scene, a character says to another: "How ya' doin'?" The second character replies, kind of half-jokingly, "Beats the hell outta me," then goes on to ask "What brings you here?" The first character replies back, "Beats the hell outta me." ...

In the sentence 'в какой стране ты живёшь', I don't understand why 'какой' is in the nominative rather than the prepositional case (like стране). Is this a special use of the interrogative pronouns here?

I'll respect each and every opinion. Today, I saw professionals opting for the following variant: В комнату вошла женщина и мальчик. They say it's totally correct because женщина is a feminine singular noun. But is this in fact true (and if so, why)?

I recently came across this line: [Father to son upon seeing how messy his room is] —Так, пылесос в зубы, и чтоб через час здесь был порядок как в казарме! Then, researching this idiom online further, the only other example I found was this one: Дать им лопаты в зубы, и пусть весь огород вскоп...

In a poem by Anna Akhmatova, we read: В таком году произошло бы то-то, А в этом — это: ездить, видеть, думать, И вспоминать, и в новую любовь Входить, как в зеркало, с тупым сознаньем Измены и еще вчера не бывшей Морщинкой… It was translated by Judith Hemschemeyer as follows: In this year, suc...

In Трава и камни by Boris Pasternak we read: С действительностью иллюзию, С растительностью гранит Так сблизили Польша и Грузия, Что это обеих роднит. I'm surprised by "обеих". I would have expected "обе". Indeed, I believe that "обеих" refers to "Польша и Грузия" and that "обеих" is for the an...

In China, Netherlands has a very popular nickname called 海上马车夫 (literally: carriage drivers on the sea, or sea coachman), so popular that it is written in Chinese high school textbooks. It is also claimed that this was how Netherlands was called in the 17th century. However, this nickname is almo...

Grammars and various other linguistic publications generally state that the second locative is used only with в and на (e.g. в лесу, в аэропорту). However, it seems to me that I have come across examples with при as well.

I came across with the word "грамота" in the following sentence: Он открыл школы для обучения детей грамоте. I am trying to understand structures in the sentence and analyze it but I could not understand the case of "грамота" here, even though I understood the full meaning. But, I would express...

These adjective endings are from a pre-revolutionary text: сознанія, хромыя, слѣпыя, безрукія. How would they be spelled nowadays? (I know that ѣ is now е and і is now и.)

I recently came across the verb прозябать in a book. Its meaning is one of eking out an existence in the sense of enduring hardship and suffering instead of truly living. This, to me, is an ongoing state, which I interpret as purely imperfective in any imaginable context. However, Wiktionary offe...

I'm watching the 1987 James Bond movie, The Living Daylights, with Russian subtitles. In the scene where Bond first spots the main female character, he says, in English: "Sniper. Two floors up, center window." In the Russian subtitles, this has been translated as: "Снайпер. Двумя этажами выше,...