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What are Russian equivalents of the English idiom "It's a work in progress"?

To make this question self-sufficient, the definition of "work in progress" is "an unfinished project that is still being added to or developed". Usually it is supposed that it is developed slower than expected.

shabunc
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rapt
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  • I would not say there is a coined fixed idiom. Rather a number of expressions. For example like "эта задача (всё ещё) в работе" or "Работа не закончена/продолжается" – Arioch Sep 05 '17 at 07:39
  • When asking about translation of an idiom it could be very helpful to say what this idiom means in English. – Abakan Sep 05 '17 at 07:40
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    Perhaps most close to verbatim would be "мы работаем над этим" but this cliche is typically used not for it literal sense but as an office-polite soulless way to say "shut up and get lost" without giving formal standing to complain. – Arioch Sep 05 '17 at 07:47
  • @Abakan I added a link to the meaning of the idiom. – rapt Sep 05 '17 at 08:50
  • @Arioch +1, sounds humorous, but suits a lot of situations. – V.V. Sep 05 '17 at 10:12
  • @V.V. still I would avoid that phrase, unless I indeed intend to hint at "get lost" interpretation. – Arioch Sep 05 '17 at 10:15
  • Actually, there's no unique phrase, to be serious. – V.V. Sep 05 '17 at 10:19
  • I wonder if 'work in progress' has negative connotations that it is going slower than planned or expected. In my experience, it is used as a rather neutral expression. – Olga Sep 06 '17 at 15:44
  • I'm using english abbreviation WIP in russian tech (programming themed) texts, I don't think there is exact equivalent for expressing state of work, which has observable properties, but doesn't have quality of finshed product. – Odomontois Sep 19 '17 at 07:04
  • One big problem is that that link is 100% wrong 50% of the time. "It's a work in progress" even in a business context often means exactly the opposite: it's a disaster, one's ever going to finish it, and definitely don't expect it to work any time in the near future. Interestingly, the acronym WIP to me would almost always mean something that is in fact something people are actively working on. WIP is not just shorthand for "work in progress," unfortunately - it probably is less likely to be used sarcastically. – James Moore Sep 26 '17 at 00:11

6 Answers6

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"Работа в процессе выполнения", "работа ведется", "я работаю над этим".

For example:

  • How is work? - Как работа?
  • In progress. - В процессе.
notChosen
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    Thank you. I was wondering, is Работа the right word to use in this context? I was thinking to use it but, it sounded to me "too literal" a translation, since so far in Russian I only remember seeing it referring to "work" in the sense of labor... but I think in this English expression it is more in the sense of anything that may take a long time to reach stability, such as learning a language, waiting for wine to mature, or even building a strong relationship; however these are not always seen as labor. – rapt Sep 05 '17 at 07:55
  • Well, it's the same for russian "работа". "Learning a language" - "работать над языком", "building a strong relationship" - "работать над отношениями", "improving yourself" - "работать над собой", "housework" - "работа по дому". – notChosen Sep 05 '17 at 08:15
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    A living, breathing person would never say "работа в процессе выполнения". – Nikolay Ershov Sep 05 '17 at 08:42
  • @rapt Exactly. I don't think the answerers so far are fully aware of how "It's a work in progress" is used in English. – Nikolay Ershov Sep 05 '17 at 08:44
  • Okay, i'm not a living person, thanks for the news. But there's no word about situation, so you can't say that you understand question better than me, if you're not mind reader. – notChosen Sep 05 '17 at 09:24
  • @notChosen I'm a word reader. I don't doubt it's something you could've said in a work email maybe. This is not that kind of a phrase. It's not about work. – Nikolay Ershov Sep 05 '17 at 19:48
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Тут ещё ничего не готово

Тут пока ничего не окончательно

Тут всё ещё очень сырое

Each of those fits in some contexts, and doesn't fit in others; none would work if you're talking about, say, learning a language. I don't think there's an expression that's as one-size-fits-all as "It's a work in progress" (which I feel other answerers have been interpreting too literally).

Community
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Nikolay Ershov
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    I definitely agree that it's a bad idea to interpret it literally. More often, "it's a work in progress" means "it's never going to happen," not "we're working on it." скоро будет isn't a great equivalent, but they're not so far apart. – James Moore Sep 26 '17 at 00:05
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There is no exact synonym. There are many ways to indicate work in progress "ведётся работа" (work is being done), "мы работаем над этим" (we are working on this), "проблему уже изучают наши специалисты" (our specialists are already investigating the problem) are all likely the thing you need, but there is no set expressions not implying something else.

R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy
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1

There's a word which is specifically about building construction in progress - "долгострой".

When finishing some building project - building, bridge or road takes more and more time and still far from being finished - it's exactly долгострой.

Quite often it's used not only about building. It can be used for describing state of software development (like here - "Долгострой в разработке ПО: о проблемах управления требованиями") or some political reforms - than it's "политический долгострой".

Still, this term is not universal. The closest you can get is затянувшаяся работа or незапланированно долго затянувшаяся работа.

shabunc
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    -1: "Долгострой" is not "work in progress". The latter does not imply length of the work, the former does. The latter does imply that the work is not finished yet, the former does not. "Долгострой" is just anything taking long to finish. – R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy Sep 06 '17 at 15:06
  • @Baskakov_Dmitriy I'm not sure I got it right - can you clarify which one does not imply that work is not finished? – shabunc Sep 06 '17 at 15:14
  • "Долгострой" can be used for work being finished already. "Work in progress" cannot. – R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy Sep 06 '17 at 15:19
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    @Baskakov_Dmitriy good point, it also can be used for something that is already finished (like in "это был политический долгострой"), but de-facto in the majority of cases it's more likely about something that is not finished up to the moment. – shabunc Sep 06 '17 at 15:34
  • "Долгострой" is masculine, so "это был" долгострой" 2) Even if it is used in such a narrow way most of the time (not sure if it is so), the wider meaning means that it is not a synonym
    • – R.I.P.30.12.21Baskakov_Dmitriy Sep 06 '17 at 15:40
  • @Baskakov_Dmitriy thanks for fixing typo! - you can think of synonyms like sort of intersections - the bigger the area of intersection is, the closer are synonyms. The very fact that they are not exact synonyms - thus, not interchangeable in 100% of cases - should not be confusing. – shabunc Sep 06 '17 at 15:59