9

What is the idiom for "enjoy it!" in Russian?

Contexts for example:

  • "I'm going to travel with my friends."
  • "I'm traveling with my friends."
  • "We are in the camp now."
  • "We are walking in the city center now."

I've tried dictionaries and googling but it's not clear.

Sergey Slepov
  • 16,234
  • 27
  • 48
Influx
  • 2,035
  • 12
  • 22
  • 3
    Наслаждайтесь! is the closest equivalent. – Yellow Sky Apr 30 '17 at 16:44
  • 3
    Наслаждайтесь! is usually malevolent or sarcastic. – Manjusri Apr 30 '17 at 19:07
  • 1
    Depends on context. 'Here's your lobster. Enjoy it!' The proper Russian version here would be: "... приятного аппетита!". Situations suitable for the Russian imperative "наслаждайтесь!" are super rare, despite you can often find that word in poor translations from English. – Alex_ander May 02 '17 at 08:49
  • 2
    Context is definitely needed. – alamar May 02 '17 at 11:20

4 Answers4

8

Take the action they are about to enjoy and add "отли́чного/прия́тного":

  • "I'm going to travel with my friends." - Enjoy! = Я собира́юсь в путеше́ствие с друзья́ми - Отли́чного путеше́ствия!
  • "I'm traveling with my friends." - Enjoy! = Я путеше́ствую с друзья́ми - Отли́чного/прия́тного путеше́ствия!
  • "We are in camp now." - Enjoy! = Мы в ла́гере. - Прия́тного о́тдыха!
  • "We are walking in the city center now." - Enjoy! = Мы гуля́ем по це́нтру го́рода. - Прия́тной прогу́лки!

This will test your ability to take a verb and form a noun. Not always trivial. Or sometimes the action is implied, e.g. what are they doing in the camp? - Having a rest, отдыха́ют.

The way to say "Enjoy your meal" is "Прия́тного аппети́та!". I miss being able to say that because it's not used as frequently in English.

"Have a good time" would be:

  • "Отли́чно провести́ вре́мя!" (neutral).
  • "Оторви́сь там, оттопы́рься" (slang).

"Наслажда́йся / наслажда́йтесь" is a calque of the English "Enjoy!" and definitely not the idiomatic way to say it. Although some people do use it, usually in a sarcastic way.

Sergey Slepov
  • 16,234
  • 27
  • 48
8

There's no generic way to "enjoy" something in Russian. The construction is action-dependent. Namely: is the enjoyable thing being eaten, smoked, worn, spent (as in time or money), etc? The closest I can give to a recipe is to take the action verb and modify it with some "positive" adverb such as приятно/полезно. Alternatively, you can take the construction suggested above (say, "Отлично провести время!") and indicate where you wish this enjoyment to take place: за едой, на уроках, etc.

Aryeh
  • 341
  • 1
  • 8
8

Наслаждайся, - (literal) the closest generic equivalent.
Получи удовольствие, - (literal) not exact equivalent (verbose), but depends on the context
Удовлетворись, - (literal)sounds more sarcastic, but, depends on the context.
Подавись - (not literal) angry. literally: Сhoke on it!

shabunc
  • 37,983
  • 5
  • 90
  • 152
igoryonya
  • 257
  • 1
  • 6
2

Oh, the problem of enjoyment in a language lacking verbs to enjoy, to like and to need...

The equivalent depends on a context. If you want to be sarcastic, you just say Удачи! in an appropriate tone.

If you want to wish something pleasant, you just use a structure like 'have a nice / enjoyable + smth!''. In other words, you have to specify what is 'it' you wish an addressee to enjoy. The structure is not so simple to a native English speaker, e. g.:

Приятных уроков!

nice-GEN.PL.MASC. lesson-GEN.PL.MASC.

Приятной зарплаты!

good-GEN.SG.FEM. salary-GEN.SG.MASC.

Приятного воскресенья!

enjoyable-GEN.SG.NEUT. Sunday-GEN.SG.NEUT.

With words referring to it as a time unit or as an event, the adjective приятный is interchangable with счастливый.

Счастливого воскресения!

enjoyable-GEN.SG.NEUT. resurrection-GEN.SG.NEUT.

Manjusri
  • 4,502
  • 16
  • 24