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6 answers

Use of не стану [делать]

I came across the following construction: «Ерунда! – воскликнул принц. – Я не стану есть свою собаку! The context is an Indian prince, who is told he may have to eat his dog if the food runs out. This prompts two questions: What is the meaning…
CocoPop
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10
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2 answers

How do Russians translate "breaking news" caption on TV?

How do Russians translate "breaking news" caption on TV?
brilliant
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10
votes
5 answers

Swearing: "пошёл на ..." vs. "иди на ..."

Has anyone ever thought why in swearing people use not only the imperative "иди", but also (and even more frequently) the form "пошёл"?
Olga
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10
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determine the aspect of verbs of motion

Apparently one thing which makes it difficult to deal with verbs of motion is the additional distinction into two groups, beside the given division into verbs of imperfective and perfective aspect. направленного действия …
user3538
10
votes
3 answers

What are some expressions that starts with "курица - не птица"?

I've heard of: Курица - не птица, баба - не человек! Курица - не птица, Украина (Монголия, и т.д.) - не заграница! any other interesting ones?
Young
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10
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Why in the russian often used "все точки над И" but not "все точки над Ё"?

Why is this in use: "все точки над И"? There is no dots - И, there is dot in English version i. Why instead there is no usage for such construction: все точки над Ё or все бреве над И краткое ?
user2496
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2 answers

Difference between 'падать' and 'упасть'

I am a new student of the russian language. I came across 'падать/упасть' to fall. Could someone explain this to me because they look like entirely different words to my untrained eyes. Even just a link to an article that explain the grammar behind…
Fred James
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10
votes
4 answers

Pronunciation exercises

Does anybody know good exercises to learn to pronounce /ы/, /ч/, /щ/ and palatalized consonants?
Olga
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10
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2 answers

Homographs that differ only with respect to a stress

A friend of mine is working on a software that places stress in Russian words. In the process, he got himself wondering about words that differ only with respect to stress, like “за́мок” and “замо́к”. So far, we have only found pairs of words with…
Olga
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10
votes
5 answers

Established translation for "Application crash"?

What is established translation for "Application crash"? I routinely use simple transliteration Крэш or 'падение программы' but that does not sound correct. What is the commonly used translation for that phrase?
Vladimir
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10
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2 answers

What's the origin of the phrase, "на обиженных воду возят"?

I've always wondered what the origins of this expression are? I looked it up online and found a few discussions on the subject: Link 1: http://lingvoforum.net/index.php?topic=4111.0 Link 2:…
Eugene S
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2 answers

Is there a single word to mean съедобный for drinks?

What съедобный is to food, __________ is to drinks. Of course, one can say которую можно пить, and there's the word питьевой, but both are not quite equivalent in meaning and usage to the aforementioned съедобный. Any ideas?
Philip Seyfi
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10
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4 answers

How would you translate "Bluetooth" (as in wireless technology) into proper Russian?

For example, "Bluetooth devices have become commonplace in recent years..." The Russian Wikipedia offers Блютус. I am not 100% certain this is the case; for example Bulgarian and (I believe) some other Slavic language pages seem to lean towards…
dpodbori
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10
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3 answers

What function does the soft sign ь have in a word like учишься?

I was taught that certain consonants such as ш are always 'hard'. What function does the soft sign ь have when placed after these 'always hard' consonants? For example, in words such as учишься? Does ш + ь change the pronunciation of the ш? Or does…
joshualotz
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10
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5 answers

What distinguishes the "hushers" (ч, ш, щ, ж) linguistically from other consonants?

I've seen the word "hushers" used to describe the Russian consonants ч, ш, щ, ж (especially in the context of spelling rules). Is this an accepted linguistic concept or is it just a convenient name coined to help language learners? I understand that…
joshualotz
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