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How do you say "borrow" or "lend" in Russian? My dictionary gives a number of different expressions, but I'm not sure if they are equivalent.

What is the difference between

  • одолжить
  • дать/брать взаймы
  • дать/брать в долг
  • дать/брать на время
  • занять
  • заимствовать

These are all words and expressions which my dictionary lists as translations of "borrow" or "lend".

I believe that "дать/брать в долг" specifically refers to lending/borrowing money; but what about the rest? What is the difference?

oz1cz
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    only keep in mind that the word занять meaning to borrow very often in vernacular is incorrectly used in the meaning of to lend, eg. Займи мне тыщу рублей with the consequence of using complement in Dative занять кому instead of the expected and correct Genitive занять у кого – Баян Купи-ка Oct 22 '16 at 17:24
  • Naturally, native speakers often misuse занять и одолжить and you can hear them used in both directions:taking-giving. – V.V. Oct 22 '16 at 18:57
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    Another question without context. Oh boy... Context is everything. Borrowing a boat for a weekend is completely different from borrowing a million bucks. Instead you get some absurd answers like below, which tells you that занять = borrow. Занять can be used as both lend or borrow depending on context. – ajeh Nov 03 '16 at 21:24
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    @БаянКупи-ка and V.V. If natives do it, why then should it be classified as "wrong" or "misuse"? That's prescriptivism. Seems common on this site. – Omar and Lorraine Mar 20 '19 at 16:45
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    @Wilson don't you think that use of language needs to adhere to some rules? even if only for the sake of convenience, yes this is prescriptivism, of the 2 x 2 = 4 sort... the use of the word is incorrect from the perspective of semantics of its stem, the stem means to take in, to recieve, which is inconsistent with the actual act ... – Баян Купи-ка Mar 20 '19 at 18:52
  • @Wilson standards do indeed change over time, but i personally don't think in this particular case the threshold for dismissal of the extant convention has been reached yet, as per my observation the natives who misuse the term are not particularly educated or correct in other aspects of their speech – Баян Купи-ка Mar 20 '19 at 18:52
  • @Wilson plus we have no stats on how widespread this misuse is, it it's only minority of the native speakers who's affected by it, so much weaker is the case for accepting it as a new norm – Баян Купи-ка Mar 20 '19 at 19:04

4 Answers4

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  • Одолжить means "to lend", can refer to money or to anything else.

    Можешь одолжить мне 1000 рублей до понедельника?

    Could you lend me 1000 roubles until Monday?

    Often this word is used incorrectly in the opposite meaning,"to borrow":

    Я одолжила у него 1000 рублей до понедельника.

    I borrowed 1000 roubles until Monday from him.

    This is considered wrong by dictionaries and other official sources (for example, http://ozhegov.info/slovar/?ex=Y&q=%D0%9E%D0%94%D0%9E%D0%9B%D0%96%D0%98%D0%A2%D0%AC), but is still commonly used in real life.

  • Занять is the opposite to одолжить, means "to borrow". It also can refer to money and any kind of things.

    Займи у кого-нибудь 5000 рублей до моей зарплаты, пожалуйста.

    Please borrow 5000 roubles from someone until I get my salary.

    This word is also often used incorrectly in the opposite meaning (the same situation as in case of "одолжить"):

    Займи мне 500 рублей, пожалуйста!

    Lend me 500 roubles, please!

  • Дать взаймы means "to lend", and взять взаймы - "to borrow". Both refer mostly either to money or to consumables, but usually not to things that are expected to be used for some time and then returned intact. These expressions seem to become a bit outdated nowadays, but are still in use.

    • Он дал мне взаймы 5000 рублей.

      He lended me 5000 roubles.

    • Я взяла у соседей взаймы мешок муки.

      I borrowed a sack of flour from my neighbours.

  • Дать/взять в долг is similar to дать/взять взаймы, but refers mostly to money and isn't outdated at all.

  • Дать/взять на время, and also дать/взять напрокат means "to lend/borrow" when talking about items that are supposed to be returned intact. Not used for money and consumables.

    • Можешь дать мне на время свою тетрадь?

      Could you lend me your notebook?

    • Я взяла у мамы напрокат швейную машинку.

      I borrowed a sewing-machine from my mother.

  • Заимствовать usually means "to borrow without return". It can refer not only to money and items, but also to non-material things, like cultural elements, technologies, words, and so on.

    • Римляне заимствовали свою мифологию у греков.

      Romans borrowed their mythology from Greeks.

    • В русском языке много слов, заимствованных из французского.

      There are many words borrowed from French in Russian language.

Lara
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  • These errors, with opposite meaning, are prevalent only in some areas. In the environment I grew up (I wouldn't say the whole region, but certainly the family and school), занять/одолжить were never confused, and I never heard them the wrong way until I was at the university (in another city - namely Moscow). I still don't understand how it is possible to confuse these words. And uderstandably, it pisses me off :) – Zeus Oct 24 '16 at 16:54
  • I would say that "прокат" were official equipment lending agencies in USSR. So perhaps "to rent something" is yet another proper translation here – Arioch May 14 '18 at 09:26
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одолжить – the most generic one, working both ways ("borrow" is одолжить у кого-либо, "lend" is одолжить кому-либо).

дать/брать взаймы – money only.

дать/брать в долг – money only; more likely to refer to borrowing/lending in the abstract than to a specific instance.

дать/брать на время – I wouldn't even call this a set expression, it just seems to spell out how borrowing/lending works for any who may be unfamiliar with the idea or not quite sure it's what is meant. Can't think of where it would be particularly useful outside of the dictionary.

занять – money only again, and properly "borrow" only. You will also hear it with the dative meaning "lend", but don't use it this way anywhere that style matters.

заимствовать is for metaphorical borrowing (of words, concepts, story plots, cultural customs, etc.) It can't be used in reverse to talk about metaphorical lending.

Nikolay Ershov
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    Comparing Nikolay's answer to Lara's is somewhat confusing. Nikolay says "одолжить" is both "borrow" and "lend", but Lara says that using it as "borrow" is an error. Nikolay says "занять" only refers to money, but Lara says it can be used about anything. – oz1cz Oct 22 '16 at 15:50
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    I would like @Lara to provide some proof to the statement that одолжить у кого-то is wrong. Where I'm from, this is a fairly common usage: "Откуда у тебя этот свитер? Одолжил у брата." Что касается "Займи мне 5 рублей до зарплаты" - для меня это звучит коряво, но в некоторых регионах бСССР это является нормой. – tum_ Oct 22 '16 at 16:03
  • @A.Toumantsev, "Большой толковый словарь" Кузнецова doesn't include "to lend" into the list of meanings of "одолжить" at all: http://www.gramota.ru/slovari/dic/?bts=x&word=%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B6%D0%B8%D1%82%D1%8C and "Толковый словарь русского языка" Ожегова states that this meaning is wrong: http://ozhegov.info/slovar/?ex=Y&q=%D0%9E%D0%94%D0%9E%D0%9B%D0%96%D0%98%D0%A2%D0%AC. – Lara Oct 22 '16 at 16:14
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    @oz1cz, usage of "занять" and "одолжить" in opposite meanings is considered wrong by dictionaries, school teachers and other "official" sources. But de facto these words are often used in "wrong" meanings. You can use them, and most people will understand you correctly, while some some of them will try to correct you. In cases when correct speech and good style are important, it's better to follow the "official" rules. – Lara Oct 22 '16 at 16:21
  • @Lara But note that "одолжиться у кого-либо" is still valid although quite uncommon nowadays. – Matt Oct 22 '16 at 16:28
  • @oz1cz, and about "занять", it can be used for different things, try to google, for example, "занять соли", "занять муки", "занять утюг", "занять машину", etc. Borrowing money is just the most common case, especially in modern times. – Lara Oct 22 '16 at 16:40
  • @Matt, good remark! – Lara Oct 22 '16 at 16:41
  • @Lara Note that I'm not arguing with you (or dictionaries) and, in fact, up-voted your detailed answer. I asked for the proof for the OP. However, you probably made a mistake in your comment as it now contradicts your answer: Одолжить means "to lend" vs "doesn't include "to lend" at all". This might further confuse the topic-starter, or am I missing something? – tum_ Oct 22 '16 at 18:04
  • @A.Toumantsev, yes, really, there is a mistake in the comment, thanks! It should be "to borrow" instead of "to lend", of course. Unfortunately, it's impossible to edit it anymore, but I'll add proof links into my answer. – Lara Oct 22 '16 at 18:38
  • @Lara, please stop confusing the askers. You are preaching a very orthodox version of Russian language, that no one really cares for. If they follow your version, they would speak very stiff and dry language. Is your purpose to make detection of the spies easier for FSB? Then carry on! – ajeh Nov 03 '16 at 21:26
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[Я]зык стремится к развитию, эволюции, и, активно вбирая в себя новое, со временем показывает тенденции к устойчивости или неустойчивости определенных явлений и единиц. Нельзя сказать, что язык только упрощается или только усложняется — оба процесса происходят одновременно на разных уровнях системы. Где-то происходит обобщение, где-то, напротив, проявляется дробность.

Упрощение [...] проявляется на примере глаголов одолжить и занять. Словари сообщают нам, что одолжить — это дать взаймы, а занять — взять взаймы. Однако в речевой практике слово занять успешно справляется «за себя и за того парня».

- Я могу занять у тебя денег?
— Да, я могу занять тебе немного.

Да, бывает и так, когда слово «тянет на себя одеяло», присваивая себе несколько лексических значений. Пример той же тенденции — слово одеть, которое в речевой практике работает за троих: одеть, надеть и обуть.

Мы все еще считаем ошибкой употребление слова занять в значении ‘дать взаймы’ [...], но язык явно пытается нам что-то сказать, продолжая настаивать на своем.

Есения Павлоцки, лингвист-морфолог, эксперт института филологии, массовой информации и психологии Новосибирского государственного педагогического университета.

Баян Купи-ка
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  • Как по мне, одолжить родственно сделать одолжение. То есть «ладно, не жалко, вот, бери по-дружески (и крайне желательно, чтобы ты это вернул)». Ну а раз одолжение можно сделать, то его можно и принять (оттуда и одолжить). Взаймы же более стилистически нейтральное слово (от «займ» — деньги в долг, которые надо вернуть по обязующему письменному соглашению). – Arhadthedev Apr 25 '19 at 11:11
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ОДОЛЖИТЬ, -жу, -жишь; -олженный; совершенный вид 1. что кому. Дать взаймы. Одолжить кому-нибудь деньги до зарплаты [неправильно употр. одолжить у кого-нибудь в значение “взять в долг”].

Занять - Взять на время, взаймы. Надо занять денег, потому что будет много расходов. Л. Толстой, Анна Каренина. [Дуся] с мелким жемчугом заколку У подруги заняла. Жаров, Варя Одинцова.

Матвей Дёмин
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