Russian word of the Day

[mendeleyev]

The word for Monday, 23 March 2009


Oh god!  Well, that is how today's word is spelled, but other than spelling neither the definition nor the sound is the same.  So what does g-o-d mean in Russian?

год = year


It doesn't sound the same either. To practice:
- Pucker your lips and say "go."
- Now (because of consonant rules) speak the "deh" (д) as a "teh" (T) instead.

Hear it today only, spoken at this link by a native Russian speaker.

[mendeleyev]

The words for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 24-27 March 2009


Usually hitting in the 90 degress most days in Phoenix, nonetheless in some places around the world it's still not spring, but in most of the West the Spring season is here or at least well on the way.

So we'll introduce the seasons of the year.

весна, лето, осень, зима are the terms we'll practice this week.


время года = seasons of the year  (literally "time of the year")

время sounds like "VREHM-yah"

Yesterday we learned the word for year (год) which with the lips puckered sounds kind of like "goat."  We changed the "deh" at the end to a "teh."  Now because the word ends a vowel rather than a consonant, the "deh" stays as "deh" and thus the word sounds like "GO-dah."

So, время года is "VREHM-yah  GO-dah"


Весна = Spring    "vehs NAH"


Лето = Summer    "LEH tah"


Осень = Autumn    "OH  sehn"


Зима = Winter    "zee MAH"



For those working ahead on grammer:

Весной = "in Spring"

Летом = "in Summer"

Осенью = "in Autumn"

Зимой = "in Winter"



Footnote:
Some books, tapes, and internet resources will list время as seasons, omiting the second word года. время literally means "time" and so we've elected to use both words время года "(times)seasons of the year" which is less confusing.

[2tallbill]

http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal


If you copy the word of the day like into the program in the above link
it will say the word approximately you can select either Katerina or Olga
to say the word (they will both say it a little differently) this way if you get
a day or two behind you can catch up.

I will warn you however that neither Olga or Katerina say anytthing perfectly
but it's better than guessing which is what I would do left to my own devices.

One of the Russian speakers can tell you which gal speaks better Russian

Udachi !

Bill

[mendeleyev]

Most excellent idea and thanks Beeeel!

[mendeleyev]

Word for Thursday, 02 April 2009

There are 3 words for today, and they come from Dr. Don Jarvis, Chair of the Slavic Language division at Arizona State University and we thank him for the word and his guidance on plurals.

Word 1: If you spelled дог in English you'd have d-o-g. Well, sort of at least.

You see, the Russian word дог is a false cognate: it doesn't mean dog.

дог = Great Dane.

And what if you have more than one Great Dane? Well, although regular nominative plurals often end in -ы, here a spelling rule changes so that in this case the plural is доги.



Word 2: Well if "d-o-g" means "Great Dane," then what is the Russian word for dog?

The common word for dog that you've heard a native speaker use is собака and it sounds like "sa-BA-ka."

The a at the end tells you that the gender of the word is female.



Word 3: While собака is also a term for dogs of both genders, there is a word better suited for male dogs. That word is пёс, p-yo-s. To hear it spoken copy the word and plug it inot this handy tool from our friend 2TallBeeeeeel: http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php?sitepal


Review
дог = Great Dane

собака = dog/female dog

пёс = male dog

[mendeleyev]

Word(s) for Friday, 03 April 2009


2 words today bring our total to 5 for the week.


Word #1
уважать = to respect (a verb)  "ooh-vah-ZHAT"

To hear it spoken (today only) by a native speaker click here, or copy and paste to hear it anytime into the very nice tool from Beeeel2Tall which is here.




Word #2
художник = artist (applies really only to those who paint pictures, etc)  "hoo-DOZH-nik"

Use this tool from Beeel2Tall to copy and paste (I recommend Olga's voice as the best to hear and understand the way she says each syllable) and hear the word by native speakers.

[mendeleyev]

The words for Wednesday, 8 April 2009


Both words were triggered by reading posts by two of our new members.

топик = Topic.  So easy!  The first vowel (o) is accented so stress the TO (kind of like TOE) and follow with "pik" so that it sounds like TOE-pik.


городка = little town. This word is formed from the word for city, город. It takes on the meaning of "little town" by the addition of the ka to the end of the word.

To speak городка, remember that when dealing with the letter o that it's only spoken when stressed. When not stressed it's spoken as an "ah."  городка takes the stress at the end on the KA. So think of go-rod-ka. Pucker your upper and lower lips to get the Eastern European mafia sound.   8)  Finally, you literally need to race thru those first two syllables. This is a word which is spoken quickly.


To check how it sounds you can plug into this handy tool from 2TallBeeel.

[Olga_Mouse]

городка = little town. This word is formed from the word for city, город. It takes on the meaning of "little town" by the addition of the ka to the end of the word.

To speak городка, remember that when dealing with the letter o that it's only spoken when stressed. When not stressed it's spoken as an "ah."  городка takes the stress at the end on the KA. So think of go-rod-ka. Pucker your upper and lower lips to get the Eastern European mafia sound.   8)  Finally, you literally need to race thru those first two syllables. This is a word which is spoken quickly.

To check how it sounds you can plug into this handy tool from 2TallBeeel.

       

Mendy, you keep creating Russian words I wasn't even aware of!

Always thought that a "little town" is ГОРОДОК (belongs to male gender in Russian).

[mendeleyev]

Mendy, you keep creating Russian words I wasn't even aware of!

   Okay, we're going to split hairs I see. 

Make that a SMALL town. Another way of expressing маленький город?


Olga, I'm willing to learn. When reading Russian news stories like this one on the horrors of small town America, Ужасы маленького городка how should that read?

[Olga_Mouse]

Olga, I'm willing to learn.

Good for you, as you really need it!

When reading Russian news stories like this one on the horrors of small town America, Ужасы маленького городка how should that read?

You shall realise that ужасы (кого? чего?) городкА means the noun городок is in Genetivus (родительный падеж).

If you wish people to learn a new noun, it is at least logical to give this noun in именительный падеж.

http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%B6

[mendeleyev]

Ah, true, but yesterday you said it wasn't a word!     It is a word. 


Okay, I will comply because you are right that we should be teaching nouns in the nominative case (standard dictionary listing) rather than the genitive case.

For those interested here are the differences:

Nominative case: This case answers the questions "who?/what?". The Russian Nominative is the basic form found in dictionaries for nouns.



Genitive case: This case refers to things belonging to other people. Just like when you use (of) or (the possessive ‘s).


And Olga is right that we should be starting in the nominative case when learning new words.


I surrender!  

[mendeleyev]

The word (IN THE NOMINATIVE CASE) for Thursday, 09 April 2009:


мышь = mouse

And it sounds like "mysh"


To hear it spoken by a native click here and past the word.

[Olga_Mouse]

Ah, true, but yesterday you said it wasn't a word!     It is a word. 

Mendy, the word you described originally got "the meaning of "little town" by the addition of the ka to the end of the word".

Thus you claimed KA is a word-formative \ derivational suffix which attaches a meaning of small \ little.

In Russian language there is NO such word as ГОРОДКА in nominative case, fem., with a word-formative suffix -KA.

If even I, a native Russian speaker with a degree in applied linguistic, was not able to guess the word you were meaning before you typed the whole phrase - do you think any English speakers (for whom this thread is created, I presume?) could have guessed that in reality you meant the word ГОРОДОК (masc., with a word-formative suffix -OK)?

[mendeleyev]

the word you described originally got "the meaning of "little town" by the addition of the ka to the end of the word".

Which was understood when presenting the word.   

Hmm, I've stumped our resident linguist!   

[mendeleyev]

Word for the Day on Friday, 10 April 2009,


It's Friday. Good Friday for Western Christians (not yet for Eastern Christians) so here is something a little different as our word for the day. We'll learn some slang. It's slang or abbreviation for something with which you are already very familiar.


Мак-Дак = McDonalds 
(Remember that Mak is not "mac" as in macroni, but more towards "mock" with a Russian accent.) In fact, if you can always remember than the Russian letter A is always "ah" and never "a" then you'll fare well with both of these words.


To learn this word we'll briefly step inside a Russian langauge classroom at Arizona State University. Take a seat quietly as we listen to Dr. Don Jarvis, of the Slavic Language division:

One of the words that Americans tend to misuse is ресторан, restaurant.

Ресторан is a place where you go with friends to spend an evening together. Entertainment is often provided. The meal stretches out over many hours. МакДоналдс не ресторан. McDonald's is not a restaurant.

At the very kindest McDonald's is a кафе. Кафе is a place where you go to eat, but you don't intend on spending much time there.

There is another word that even better catches the idea of what MacDonald's is: забегаловка. The root of the word is бег- which means run, and the за- prefix adds the idea of dropping in briefly, so a забегаловка is a place where you drop in for a quick bite to eat. It's sort of what we would call a fast-food place in the US, but a забегаловка may serve alcohol as well.

Back in 1986 there wasn't a single McDonald's in all of Russia, but now every Russian knows them. Interestingly enough, even though the name of the restaurant is officially МакДоналдс, that's not how Russians usually pronounce it. Usually they pronounce it МакДональд, softening the ell and leaving out the ess, or they pronounce it МакДональдс, softening the ell and keeping the ess. And sometimes the thirty-something crowd of Russians is overshadowed by the muse of verbal efficiency and simply call it Мак-Дак.


Kudos to Dr Don's blog!


Before we leave this slang or abbreviated word lesson, here is a video on how some young Russians snort sugar at Мак-Дак in Moscow.

[Helen]

  I offer the following word:
штука (piece), штучка, штуковина, штукуёвина, штучечка
shtUka, shtU4ka, shtuk0vina, shtukuY0vina, shtU4e4ka. 

[mendeleyev]

Thank you Helen!

To help us, would you show us how to use штука in a very simple, short sentence?

[Helen]

Thank you Helen!
To help us, would you show us how to use штука in a very simple, short sentence?

I have written about this word in Russian, and you translate? 

I.
штука - 1 (одна штука). - вид числительного.
Можно сказать: "Один ананас." Но нельзя сказать: "Штука ананасов."

Это использование слова "штука" правильное:
- Сколько купить ананасов?
- Купи одну штуку. (смысл - купи один ананас)

в перечислении:
- У него много жилья! Квартир - несколько штук.

или:
- У него мерседесов полный гараж.
- сколько?
- не знаю сколько, знаю несколько штук.

Но о людях так говорят, если есть цель - унизить этих людей:
- У нее есть много мужчин поклонников.
- сколько?
- не знаю, несколько штук.


II.
Смысл второй.
Штука - как нечто неуловимое, необыкновенное, необъяснимое или заманчивое. Если хочется прибавить загадочности в описании события, заинтриговать слушателя, то говорят примерно так:
- Оооо, со мной вчера произошла ТАКАЯ ШТУКА!..

Как обозначение непонятного предмета:
- что там сломалось?
- какая-то штука отломилась, теперь не работает...

Как обозначение непонятного события:
- как дела у тебя на работе?
- с боссом произошла непонятная штука...

III.
Смысл третий. только для обозначения сумы денег. Штука – Тысяча денежных знаков (рублей, долларов и тд). Видимо, придумали новые русские, чтобы не писать много нулей!
Например:
Штука долларов (1000 $).
Или: три штуки долларов (3000 $). Десять штук рублей (10 000 рублей). Тысяча штук (произносят так: "тыща штук").
Но НЕ говорят:
Миллиард штук, Миллион штук, штука штук.  
 

Штучка.
1) Уменьшительно-ласкательно, по-доброму. Штучечка - ОЧЕНЬ ласково!

- У моей девочки есть одна маленькая штучка.

или:
- Дай, мне потрогать эту штучечку?


2) Заискивающе или уговаривая, когда звучит просьба:
- милый, сколько у нас денег? А то я хочу купить одну такую милую штучку...

или в магазине:
- подайте мне вооон ту штучку?

3) Уничижительно, но только об одушевленном, не о предметах:
- Вы с ней расстались?
- Ооoh, она оказалась та еще ШТУЧКА!

Нельзя сказать:
- ты выкинул свой телефон?
- оооо, он оказался той еще штучкой!

Штуковина.
По смыслу то же, что и штучка, но более солидная и брутальная.  8)

Штукуёвина.
То же, что и штучка, штуковина, но с оттенком иронии. Это слово - неологизм. Составлено из двух - штуковина и ху...вина. Это звучит грубо и неприлично, в приличном обществе не говорят: штукуёвина.

Вообще это разговорные выражения - сленг, не для светских раутов! Для общения между близкими друзьями.

[mendeleyev]

Given that Helen has offered us quite a word and grammar class, and some of it is more towards slang, I'm going to focus on the singular - plural approach with the first variants as our word for the day.

This will allow us to keep the "word for the day" as a word in mainly the nominative case (dictionary case).

[TwoBitBandit]

Is any participant in the forum allowed to propose a "word of the day"?

I'd like to propose one.

The word (IN THE NOMINATIVE CASE) for Monday, 13 April 2009:


бухать = To consume a large quanity of alchoholic beverage with the express purpose of getting really smashed.

It sounds like "boo-hawch"

Каждое воскресенье, Игорь с друзьями собирается, чтобы бухать.

Word to the wise: don't use this word around any Russian girls that you're dating.  They'll be wholly unimpressed with your new vocabulary.

[mendeleyev]

Of course members may do so. 


We do however usually shy away from slang, which this is, as we'd rather focus our time on words which can be used in any speaking/reading situation. One of the threads focus is to teach members to gain reading comprehension as well as speaking and slang isn't found as often on advertising signs, newspapers, street signs, etc.

We'll schedule Helen's words for Tuesday and Wednesday and be ahead of the game.

[mendeleyev]

Word for Tuesday, 14 April, 2009
(Using Helen's suggestion from Friday)


штука - 1 (одна штука). - вид числительного.  "Stu-ka"  The 'stu' is as in stew or stuart, but it's a hard U so you might wish to copy and past the word to hear it here on the very helpful listening tool from 2TallBeeel.

штука = one of something. It's a numercial designation, most often combined with a numerial, meaning thing/unit/item/piece.

Можно сказать: "Один ананас." Но нельзя сказать:
Item - 1 (one each). - a form of numeral. It is possible to say: "One pineapple." But it is impossible to say: "the each of pineapples."

This word can be used in a sense as a unit (numeral) of measurement. It can show that there is only one of something or more than one (many/kinds/units/pieces/items) of something.

How to use it:
In Helen's example she used "Один ананас" (one pineapple). If we start using Russian sentences quickly we'll be into explaining cases and suddenly this will not longer be a word for the day but a grammar lesson. So staying with English for a moment lets imagine you walk into a market and see a shelf with pineapples.

You can ask to clerk to sell you one pineapple, or you can ask her to sell you one item, one unit, etc. That is the flexibiltiy to using штука.

Where this becomes a grammar lesson is in Helen's illustration:

Это использование слова "штука" правильное:
- Сколько купить ананасов?
- Купи одну штуку. (смысл - купи один ананас)

Translation of above:
Here is how to use it correctly:
- How many pineapples to buy?
- buy one (item), one pineapple.

As you can see however quickly we must change штука so that it will agree with this simple sentence and it becomes "Купи одну штуку" (buy one item/thing/piece) and we change the штука to штуку in order to make it correct. This sounds like "koo-pi  odd-neu  stu-koo."

Therefore to keep it simple, we'll say with the nomative form of штука "STU-ka" and to say one thing, or one piece, or one item or one unit you can say одна штука, "Odd-nah  STU-ka."

[mendeleyev]

The Word for Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Continuing with Helen's suggestion from Friday we move forward. Tuesday the word of the day was штука which expresses numerical value: item/unit/piece/thing, etc. штука is singular and means one of something.


штук = (plural) pieces/items/units/things   

By dropping the 'ah' we create the plural.

How it sounds: Remembering the hard stress on the U sound yesterday, we keep it hard but it now becomes a quick one syllable word "STUK." To get the feel of how it should sound copy and paste it here to listen.

в перечислении:
- У него много жилья! Квартир - несколько штук.

Translation of above:
Another way to think of/view it:
- An apartment building has many apartments, more than one each, there are many apartment units.

или:
- У него мерседесов полный гараж.
- сколько?
- не знаю сколько, знаю несколько штук.

Translation of above:
Or:
- There are cars inside a Mercedes garage.
- How many?
- I don’t know how many, I know there are many (models/units/kinds/etc).


However Russian always has some surprises. Just as the way we say numbers or time/hours, things change. So too does the plural form of штук.

So here is a quick preview:
одна штука = One thing/piece/item/unit
две штук = Two things/items/pieces/units
три штуки = Three things/items/pieces/units
четыре штуки = Four things/items/pieces/units
пятб штук = Five things/items/pieces/units


For some, we've gotten far too advanced and for others just scratched the surface. That is the limitation, however as this is a word for the day thread at least we've learned a couple new words. Thanks Helen!

[Helen]

WOW!
My applause! 
Very useful translation! 

Thanks!

------------------
I have discovered for themselves that word again!
http://slovari.yandex.ru/dict/dal/article/dal/03230/59600.htm?text=%D1%88%D1%82%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B0&encid=dal
I read in the dictionary by Vladimir Dal:

Origin - from the German language.
The original meaning - units - part of the whole.

Also - artfully, intricately made thing.

Например:
Мудрая штука паровоз!
или
Вот штука-то, швейный стан, сам шьет!

Еще смысл:
Хитрость, лукавство, обман, притворство.
пример:
Не верь ему, все это штуки, хитрые проделки. Он на штуки горазд!

Как прилагательное, слово используется так:
Штучный, из частей составленный, с(на)борный, составной. Штучная модель корабля. Штучный пол, паркет.

[mendeleyev]

Как прилагательное, слово используется так:
Штучный, из частей составленный, с(на)борный, составной. Штучная модель корабля. Штучный пол, паркет.

Helen, that is correct about adjectives.