Posts tagged w/ Russian grammar

Russian Word of the Week: «Домашний» [Homey, Domestic; Indoor]

Posted by Josefina
Oct
17
2009

Have you ever wondered what the difference between the noun «дом» and the adverb «дома» is? Read and compare the use of the words in the following sentence: «Для большинства людей это просто достаточно старый, деревянный дом» [To most people this is just a rather old, wooden house], «а для некоторых он же - дома» [but for some people it is home]. Get it?

This week’s Russian word is very simple yet at the same time of great importance in the broad context of Russian culture. Since Russians have a tendency to take their personal relationships more serious than anything else in life, it makes sense that they also care much more about what’s going on within their own family and thus also in their own home than, for an example, «в Кремле» [in the Kremlin]. The fact that Russians put their home life and loved ones before anything else can not only be seen in society, but also in Russian language. Russian has many different words one can use when talking of the people closest to one’s heart: not just the obvious «семья» [family]. When talking about your loved ones in Russian you can also make use of adjectives like «близкие» [folks, one's family (informal)], «родные» [relatives; people who are so close to you that they feel like members of your family even though you're not really related at all], «свои» [literally a pronoun meaning ‘their, belonging to them', but should in this context be translated as family members, relatives; good friends; people living with you] or the word of the week: «домашние» [lit. ‘people sharing one home', not necessarily relatives, could be roommates too].

The word of the week is «прилагательное» [an adjective] - «домашний» [homey, domestic; indoor; domiciliary; pet] - made both from «существительное» [the noun] «дом» [house, home; establishment; dwelling, residence] and the «наречие» [the adverb] «дома» [at home, at one's residence; within the home; home; in]. Basically speaking, you should be able to use the adjective together with any Russian noun when you want to point out that this noun has something to do with your home. Or someone else’s home, for that matter! Here are a few examples of the most common ways in which this adjective is used in Russian:

«домашний телефон» - [home phone].

«Можно позвонить вам по домашнему телефону?» - [May I call you on your home phone?]

«домашнее задание» - [homework].

«Почему всегда дают так много домашних заданий?» - [Why do they always give so much homework?].

«домашние дела» - [house work (and not just literally!)].

«Дома меня ждёт куча домашних дел…» - [At home pile of house work is waiting for me...].

«домашнее хозяйство» - [housekeeping].

«Это не муж, а мечта - так прекрасно он занимается домашним хозяйством!» - [He's not a husband, but a dream - that's how wonderfully he takes care of the housekeeping!].

«домашняя хозяйка» - [housewife].

«В детстве я мечтала стать домашней хозяйкой» - [As a child (lit. in childhood) I dreamed of becoming a housewife].

«домашний арест» - [house arrest].

«Его на самом деле брали под домашний арест?» - [Did they really place him under house arrest?].

«домашнее животное» - [house pet].

«У тебя есть домашнее животное?» - [Do you have a (house) pet?].

«мои домашние» - [my family].

«Передай привет твоим домашним!» - [Say hello to your family!].

The last sentence is without a doubt the most important to know in Russian language. Always a good way of saying good-bye and end a nice conversation!

 
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How to Make Russians Do as You Say, or Mastering «повелительное наклонение» [imperative]

Posted by Josefina
Sep
22
2009

This peculiar note I came upon on the wall of the restroom at the university today and couldn’t help but to share it with you, first and foremost because it is packed with information necessary for today’s grammatical note: «повелительное наклонение единственного числа» [imperative in singular]. «Если не сможешь сделать это аккуратно - лучше не начинай!!! Оглянись, возьми щётку и убери за собой!!! Спасибо!!!» [If you can't do this carefully - it's better not to start!!! Turn around, take the brush and clean up after yourself!!! Thank you!!!]

Sometimes you’re faced with the challenging task of having to ask a Russian to do something. How do you make a Russian do as you say? Luckily for us the Russian language has thought about this long before we realized it would be a problem for us and thus it has invented the practical «повелительное наклонение» [imperative, imperative mood] for this purpose. The adjective «повелительный» comes from the verb «велеть» meaning ‘order; say; will’ and the noun «наклонение» means ‘inclination; declination; nutation; mood’, which makes this «словосочетание» [collocation; combination of words] translate into English literally as ‘the ordering declination’. Knowing this we can easily figure out that this form of the Russian verb is used for a special purpose - to give orders to Russians (and other «русскоговорящие» [Russian speakers] for that matter). Knowing that doesn’t, however, make it any easier to give an order to a Russian. In order to do that (ha! word play!) we must learn what exactly happens to the Russian verb in imperative. And that’s what we’re going to do today!

Before giving an order to a Russian there are TWO (2) important things you must first find out about the situation in which you are about to do this:

1) Are you «на ты» with this particular Russian, i.e. you’re close friends, or close in age, or just enjoy an informal relationship with each other? Or are you two «на Вы», i.e. the other person is much older than you, or a stranger, or someone with whom you have a formal relationship?

a) If you’re «на ты» with this person, then you should use the «единственное число» [singular] form of the verb in imperative, meaning that the verb form you use should end on «й» or «и» (most likely, though there are verbs that end on «ь» [the soft sign] in imperative, like, for example «режь!» [cut!]). For example:

«слушай!» [listen!], «смотри!» [look!], «читай!» [read!], and «подожди!» [pf. wait!]

б) But if you’re «на Вы» with this person, you must use the «множественное число» [plural] form of the verb in imperative, which means that the verb form you use ends on «ТЕ». Here are some examples to illustrate this - a little more formal - way of ordering people around in Russian (note: this form is also used when you’re asking MORE THAN ONE Russian to do something):

«слушайТЕ!» [listen!], «смотриТЕ!» [look!], «читайТЕ!»  [read!], and «подождиТЕ!» [pf. wait!]

(Did you see how the verb forms in plural are different from the ones in singular in Russian, while the verb remains the same in English translation no matter if it’s plural or singular? Good! Now noticing this might be easy, remembering it is the tricky part!)

2) As always when faced with Russian verbs, one must pick one out of the two possible «вида глагола» [verb aspects]. Also when using imperative we must make the hard choice between «несовершенный вид» [imperfective aspect] and «совершенный вид» [perfective aspect]. Deciding between the two is much harder than deciding whether or not you’re close friends with someone, and that’s why I’m not going to get into this on a detailed level today. Let’s start out «потихоньку, помаленьку» [silently, little by little], as the Russians themselves would say!

a) «Несовершенный вид» [imperfective aspect] is the neutral way to command someone to do something. You should use this aspect when it is the action itself, and not its result, that you’re after:

«Сидите тихо!» - [sit quietly! (plural)]

The imperfective aspect also the aspect used when you’re not commanding through imperative, but actually expressing a polite invitation:

«Заходи!» (sing.), or «Заходите!» (plural) - [Come in!]

«Бери печенье, наливай сам (сама) кофе!» (sing.), or «Берите печенье, наливайте сами кофе!» (plural) - [Take some cookies, pour yourself some coffee!]

When you DON’T want someone to do something, imperfective aspect is also the one used:

«Не закрывай/не закрывайте окно!» - [Don't close the window!]

«Не говори/не говорите плохо про людей, которых не знаешь/не знаете!» - [Don't talk bad about people you don't know!]

«Сиди/сидите, не вставай/вставайте!» - [Sit, don't stand up!]

«Не звони/звоните мне больше!» - [Don't call me anymore!]

б) «Совершенный вид» [perfective aspect] is the most frequent form used when hoping for a positive reply as you’re commanding someone to do something in Russian language. When using the perfective aspect you’re most concerned with the result of the action, and the action as a whole:

«Пожалуйста, открой/откройте дверь!» - [Please open the door!]

«Скажи/скажите как проехать на улицу Маяковского!» - [Tell me how to get to Mayakovsky street!]

«Прочитайте/прочитай дома первую и вторую главы!» - [Read (through) the first and the second chapters at home!]

The perfective aspect is also used when you’re asking to be brought something in a restaurant or in a shop:

«Передайте/передай мне, пожалуйста, соль» - [Please pass me the salt!]

«Принесите/принеси мне, пожалуйста, воды» - [Please give me (a glass of) water!]

«Покажите/покажи мне, пожалуйста, янтарные изделия» - [Please show me the amber products!]

And so it is time to sum up today’s lesson and try our best to apply what we’ve learnt to make Russians do what we want. Let’s say you have a Russian pen pal that hasn’t written to you in a while and you really want them to write you a letter. Which form of imperative should you use? Well, let’s have a look!

«Пиши мне!» - [Write me!]: using this kind of phrase means you consider yourself a) a close friend of your pen pal, and б) that you just want them to ‘write’, i.e. you’re not really being that specific, not after any particular ‘result’.

«Напиши мне!» - [Write me!]: with this command you’re still a) close with your pen pal, but б) you want to see a result, and this result that you’re asking them is - most likely - a real letter and not just a simple «привет, как делишки?» ["hey, how you doing?"].

I hope this was «полезно» for everyone, and that you understand that just because you’re using the right imperative form doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll actually get Russians to do as you say! But it is always worth a try…

 
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Word of the Week: «Время» [Time]

Posted by Josefina
Sep
4
2009

Sometimes Russian Blog’s Word of the Week is solely grammatically interesting, sometimes purely culturally or historically fascinating. Seldom can our Russian word of the week be both. But this week’s word is actually both! The Russian word «время» [time] is grammatically interesting because it is a neuter noun despite ending on «я» [ya] (which is usually the marker for feminine nouns) and has a highly intriguing declension in the six cases (just wait for it!) that might confuse you the first time but is well worth learning by heart. The Russian concept «время» [time] is culturally and historically fascinating since Russia is an enormous country with a total of eleven time zones. And that’s even though the entire «европейская часть России» [European part of Russia (that's all of Russia in front of the Ural Mountains)] has one and the same time - colloquially as well as officially known as «московское время» [Moscow time]. Historically the time in Moscow has been more important than the time in the rest of the ten Russian time zones; for example, all train times are according to «московское время». Though on your train tickets you’ll see that this is written as «время московское» [the change would make it correct to translate as ‘the time is Moscow time']. On plane tickets, however, the time marked for take-off and landing is always «время местное» [local time]. In Russia one often meets Moscow time on TV (news are often broadcast according to the capital), and also on the radio - yet after a while you will have learned to ignore it and apprehend that the popular provincial saying from the Soviet times: «Что Москва? Москва далеко» [What about Moscow? Moscow's far away], is very true indeed.

If you don’t live in Moscow and listen to the radio «в провинции» [in the province] you might hear the following: «Сейчас два часа дня по Москве». Probably you understand the part about ‘now it is two o’clock [p.m.]‘ but what does «по Москве» mean? Clearly not “on Moscow”. It is actually short for «по московскому времени» [according to Moscow time].

When talking about «время» [time] in Russian language and culture we could also bring up the Russian approach to time. What makes the Russian approach different from our own (now I mean to compare mostly with European or Western approach to time, since that’s closest to home for me)? Is it simply prejudice to say that «русские всегда опаздывают» [Russians are always late] or is there some truth to it? Speaking from my own personal experience I have to admit that it’s more than just a little bit true; even though one should always keep in mind that «все русские разные» [all Russians are different]. During five years in Russia I’ve learned that it is best to tell Russians to be somewhere at 11.30, for example, if you want to be sure that they’ll have arrived in time for 12.00. I don’t know why a majority of Russians can never be on time - is it because their lives are so full of stress? That they have too much to do? Or is it due to those «бесконечные пробки на улицах» [endless trafficjams on the streets] which we cannot even imagine before we’ve seen them (not to speak of getting stuck in one of them!)? When I discussed this with one of my professors in Yekaterinburg she said that before, «в советские времена» [in Soviet times], people weren’t at all late as often as they are now. She said it’s mostly «молодёжь» [young people; youth] that is never on time in Russia today. I couldn’t argue with her, obviously, since I’ve never lived in the Soviet Union due to being born in the beginning of «перестройка» ['perestroika' - or, more correctly translated as reconstruction; conversion; realignment; alteration]. That’s why I don’t know what kind of approach the average «гражданин Советского союза» [citizen of the Soviet Union] had. Maybe someone of you readers know more about this? Maybe someone has seen ‘time’ in both the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation?

Okay, enough with the cultural ponderings - let’s decline this noun!

A good way of showing what happens to «время» [time] in the six cases depending on whether it’s SINGULAR or PLURAL («времена» [times] - did you see how the stress just jumped from being on the first vowel in singular to the last in plural? Now that’s confusing to me!) is to give twelve sentences in which this word is portrayed in all of its twelve forms. Okay? Let’s do it then!

«ЕДИНСТВЕННОЕ ЧИСЛО» [SINGULAR]:

Nominative: «Время - деньги» - [Time is money].

Genitive: «У меня нет времени» - [I don't have the time].

Dative: «Поезд придёт в Иркутск в пять часов утра по местному времени» - [The train arrives in Irkutsk at five in the morning according to local time].

Accusative: «Какое время года ты любишь?» - [What time of the year do you love?]

Locative: «Он не ориентируется во времени и пространстве» - [He doesn't orientate himself in time and space].

Instrumental: «Со временем ты меня поймёшь» - [With time you'll understand me].

«МНОЖЕСТВЕННОЕ ЧИСЛО» [PLURAL]:

Nominative: «Что за новые времена!» - [What kind of new times are these!]

Genitive: «Кто сейчас помнит нравы старых времён?» - [Who remembers the manners of old times now?]

Dative: «А ты скучаешь по старым временам?» - [(But) do you miss the old times?]

Accusative: «Я-то стараюсь забыть старые времена!» - [I for one try to forget the old times!]

Locative: «Не будем говорить о старых временах тогда» - [Let's not talk about the old times then].

Instrumental: «Всё изменится с новыми временами» - [Everything will change with the new times].

I hope that you found these twelve sentences to be helpful and that you’ll be able to forgive me for only using the word combinations «новые времена» [new times] and «старые времена» [old times] in plural. Suddenly, while writing this post, I came to suffer from instant brain freeze and couldn’t come up with any other combinations in which you use the word ‘time’ in plural in Russian. If anyone else out there has a clue, please leave it in a comment! I love to read your comments; they help me make this blog better. And I really want this blog to be the best - the best for learning Russian and keeping one’s affectionate feelings for Russian culture in the best of shapes.

 
Posted under Culture, Soviet Union, Traditions, language
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«Что когда? или: дни недели» [What when? or: Days of the Week]

Posted by Josefina
Aug
31
2009

When meeting someone at this fall’s new schedule in a Russian university/firm/organization (really, anywhere Russian is spoken) you could ask them courteously: «Что нового приносит эта осень вашему расписанию?» [What new does this fall bring to your schedule?]. But that’s a really ambitious question and could sound a bit formal. A less strict way of asking the same thing would be: «Что на вашем расписании этой осенью?» [What's on your schedule this fall?] Or why not skip all kinds of formalities and be both «на ты» and a little bit rude at the same time: «Есть ли вообще у тебя какое-нибудь расписание?» [Do you have any kind of schedule at all?]

Tomorrow is 1st of September, known in Russia as «день знаний» [The Day of Knowledge] and the day when both school children and university students begin studying «после летних каникул» [after the summer holiday (note that «каникулы» is always in plural in Russian, even if it's just ONE holiday/break!)]. Summer is over, even though it might still be warm outside and seem like fall is far away. The 1st of September is my favorite day of the year; there’s something special about going back to school/university that makes me feel all happy inside. It’s very hard to explain (but maybe I’m not the only one who feels this way?) - I’m nervous and excited every time, despite the fact that I’ve studied for so long that I shouldn’t be the least excited, nevertheless nervous about it. September means the beginning of a new season - «осень» [fall]. «Осень» is a feminine noun, thus it should be paired with adjectives in the following way: «золотая осень» [golden fall], «красивая осень» [beautiful fall] or «холодная осень» [cold fall]. Fall means for many of us a stricter «расписание» [schedule], where every day has its very own timetable. That’s why I think we should discuss «дни недели» [days of the week] in Russian today! The names of weekdays in Russian differ a great deal from names in other languages (now I’m mostly comparing with Romanian and Germanic languages) and that’s why they deserve some extra attention. And as always I’m at my best when allowed to mix in «немножко этимологии» [a little etymology] in my posts… Oh, and in Russian language the days of the week are always written with a lowercase letter!

«Понедельник» [Monday]:

«В славянских языках ПОНЕДЕЛЬНИК имеет значение первого дня или, согласно одной версии, дня “после недели”, поскольку “Неделя” является старым
русским словом, обозначающим современное воскресенье» [In Slavic languages MONDAY has the meaning of the first day or, according to one version, the day "after Nedelya" (week) since "Nedelya" is an old Russian word that marked the modern Sunday].

«Вторник» [Tuesday]:

«В славянских языках ВТОРНИК однозначно читается как “второй″ день недели» [In Slavic languages TUESDAY simply reads as the "second" day of the week].

«Среда» [Wednesday]:

«В таких славянских словах, как СРЕДА, СЕРЕДА, а также в немецком Mittwoch, финском Keskeviikko, название дня отмечает наступление середины недели. В древнерусском, оказывается, было ещё одно название среды - “третийник”» [In such Slavic words, as 'SREDA' (Wednesday), 'SEREDA', and also in the German Mittwoch, the Finnish Keskeviikko, the name of the day marks the advance of the middle of the week. In Old Russian language, it turns out, there was yet another name for Wednesday - ‘tretiynik' (lit. ‘the third one')].

«Четверг» [Thursday]:

«В славянских языках значение ЧЕТВЕРГА, очевидно, носит сугубо числовое значение четвёртого дня» [In Slavic languages the meaning of THURSDAY, obviously bears the principally numerical connotation of the fourth day].

«Пятница» [Friday]:

«В славянских языках, как вы уже догадались, этот день по смыслу “пятый″» [In Slavic languages, like you've already guessed, this day is according to meaning "the fifth"].

«Суббота» [Saturday]:

«Оказывается, русское название СУББОТА, испанское el Sabado, итальянское Sabato, французское Samedi восходят к ивритскому Шаббат, означающему “покой, отдых“» [It turns out that the Russian name for SATURDAY, the Spanish el Sabado, the Italian Sabato, the French Samedi ascend to the Hebrew word Shabbat, meaning "repose, rest"].

«Воскресенье» [Sunday]:

«День недели ВОСКРЕСЕНЬЕ пишется почти так же, как воскресение - слово, обозначающее то, что Иисус Христос сделал именно в этот день недели. В испанском же Domingo, французском Dimanche, итальянском Domenica, как и в русском ВОСКРЕСЕНЬЕ проявились христианские мотивы» [The weekday SUNDAY is in Russian written almost exactly (but not really!) as the word for resurrection - the word that means that which Jesus Christ did just on this day of the week. In the Spanish word Domingo, the French Dimanche, the Italian Domenica, just like in the Russian ‘RESURRECTION' showed Christian motives].

Out of the seven Russian week days the last one is the hardest to remember correctly, and learn how to write properly. Try to remember that Sunday has the old neuter noun ending spelling «ье» [soft sign + e], whereas Jesus’ awesome accomplishment is spelled with the more modern ending of «ие» [ji + e]. When pronouncing the word you don’t have to make any difference between the words; they’re pronounced exactly the same. And usually people will know what you mean depending on what context you put the word in. While we’re on the subject it should be added that scholars are still fighting over how to properly translate the title of the famous 19th century novel «Воскресенье» by «Лев Николаевич Толстой» [Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy]. Most translate it as “Resurrection”, but there a few researchers out there fighting to have it called “Sunday”… And some say Tolstoy saw the two as one and the same thing. Whatever the title is meant to mean - it is a wonderful piece of fiction either way.

Good luck with your new fall schedule!

 
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Word of the Week: «Съездить»

Posted by Josefina
Aug
14
2009

The week might almost be over (it is after all «пятница» [Friday] already as I’m posting this) but it is not too late to learn a new Russian word before «воскресенье» [Sunday] is upon us, inevitably followed by yet another «понедельник» [Monday]. The word of the week this time is a verb and a rather interesting one as such: «съездить» [go; run over; take a trip; visit; skip]. Maybe many of you are already familiar with «глагол движения» [the verb of motion] «ездить» [go; travel; drive; ride] and if you are, then making today’s new acquaintance won’t be too difficult a task. The Russian verbs of motion can be hard to tackle in English translation since most of them can be translated into this language simply as ‘to go’, but when you translate back into Russian there are many more questions that need to be asked. When it comes to the verb «ездить» what we need to know is that it is a) an imperfect verb; and b) a movement in many different directions and many times (as opposed to «ехать» which is a verb of motion only in one particular direction and only once). Here’s a quick illustration of the difference between the two: 

«Я люблю ездить в гости к моим родственникам в соседний город» - [I love to go (by some kind of transport) visit my relatives in the neighboring city].

«Когда мы ехали к нашим родственникам в соседний город, мы увидели лося» - [When we were going to our relatives in the neighboring city, we saw a moose].

Now I hope that’s more or less clear, because now it is high time to deal with our real word (verb, that is) of the week: «съездить». This verb is «совершенный вид» [perfect aspect] and has two meanings (today we’ll mainly discuss the first meaning): 1) «поехать куда-нибудь и возвратиться назад» [to go somewhere and come back]; and 2) «сильно ударить» [to severely strike; hit; knock out]. The second meaning is colloquial, of course, and could be used in a sentence like this: «съездить кому-нибудь в челюсть» [to give someone a smack on the jaw]. Let’s hope that’ll be a phrase you won’t use on a daily basis, and move ahead to what I really wanted to talk about - how to use the verb «съездить»!

«Съездить удобно всего на машине, или, как на этой фотографии, на машине, которая на пароме…» [To go somewhere (and come back) is most comfortably done by car, or like on this picture, on a car that's on a ferry]. This picture was taken on the ferry between «Дания» [Denmark] and «Швеция» [Sweden] yesterday morning.

The thing about this verb is that it makes it so much easier to say that you have been somewhere and come back from there (if this is not obvious already because you’re standing right in front of the person you’re saying this to). Russian grammar deserves to be loved and respected because it can save you a lot of time. Much meaning can be expressed using a minimum of words. Don’t think so? Not quite convinced? Let’s have a look at a few examples!

«Вчера я съездила в Данию» - [Yesterday I went to Denmark (and came back)]. (In this sentence because I’m using just this very verb what’s important is that a) I was in Denmark; and b) I have come back).

«Вы уже съездили к бабушке?» - [Have you already visited grandmother (and returned home)?]. (Here the question by help from this verb is asked in such a way that the important thing to find out is if you have already been there and returned back. The main point is that it’s been done - i.e. you’ve paid your respects by paying a visit to the older generation).

«Давай съездим зимой на Кавказ!» - [Let's go to the Caucasus (this) winter!]. (This way of using the verb is not really imperative, but more of a way of expressing that you’re really planning on doing this - «выражение намерения» [an expression of intent]).

And «да», I really did go to Denmark and came back from there yesterday! It was lovely!

 
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