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3 answers
How to indicate "photograph by"
Typically, the authorship of a work of art is indicated with the genitive case: «роман Толстого». The subject of a photograph is also indicated with the genitive, however: «фотография Толстого». You can probably see where I'm going with this:
How do…
spoko
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What is the meaning of "от добра добра не ищут"?
От добра добра не ищут.
Is its meaning the same as in
Лучшее - враг хорошего?
If not, are there any similar idioms in Russian which might clarify the meaning of the former phrase?
Manjusri
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Why did the frequency of the word "черт" (devil) in books increase by a few times since the October Revolution?
I see in the Google Books statistics that the frequency of the word "черт" (devil) per unit of text length in books increased by ~3 times since the October revolution: Link. I used the case-insensitive option and included "черт," "чертъ," "чорт,"…
Mitsuko
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How is the idea of "girlfriend material" naturally expressed in Russian?
Elle n'est pas de l'étoffe dont on fait les copines...
{literally}: She's not of the material from which we make girlfriends.
То express the idea of "she's not (X)girlfriend material", "she's not cut out to be anyone's (X)girlfriend", in French…
Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
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What people are called boars ("кабан") and why?
I discovered yesterday that the Russians often use the word "кабан" ("wild boar") or its Old Russian analogue "вепрь" to talk about people:
(1) Что ещё раз доказывает, что здоровья у Уайта предостаточно, чтобы ронять любого. Он вообще кабан ещё…
Mitsuko
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10
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1 answer
Why does ы have a soft sign in it?
It's the only letter with two disconnected parts. How did this letter ы come about?
luser droog
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3 answers
Etymology of "переборщить"
What is the origin of "переборщить"?
I really do doubt it has something in common with Russian soup борщ. Another hypothesis was that it is somehow related to "перебор" in this meaning:
Derived from the verb перебрать:
Взять, набрать лишку. Вы…
petajamaja
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Does preposition "c" change pronunciation of following to unvoiced?
Example sentence:
Я встал с дивана. I got up from the couch.
Does the "с" change the pronunciation of the following "д" to "т"? Or, does it go the other way, with the "с" changing to sound like "з"?
Я встал [з] дивана.
Я встал с [т]ивана.
Rob N
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What are the rules of the locative case?
I understood the first time I heard about the locative that it was usually reserved for monosyllabic masculine nouns (ex. чай, дом, сок) with exceptions (кровь, дверь). However, I recently saw that на дому is the correct usage for describing…
Judicaël
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Meaning of "кагбе пыщъ"?
What does this mean?
"короче кагбе пыщъ"
As I asked a remote developer about delivery of my app project. Never heard anything more from him. Hope it is not a deadly decease.
J. Doe
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2, 3 and 4 with feminine nouns denoting animals
I was explaining to a friend how to use nouns with numerals 2, 3 and 4 and figured out that I don't know which of the following two possibilities is correct:
1a. Я вижу две вороны.
1b. Я вижу двух ворон.
In other words, should I use feminine…
Olga
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Rules for attaching gender to foreign company names
If we use name of a foreign company as a single word f.e. Samsung, Ford, Microsoft, IBM, Shell, and even StackOverflow, what gender form the following verb should take?
Should it be Samsung предложил or Samsung предложила?
Should the gender be…
farfareast
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Construction—Как бы не...—Why is "не" used?
In Constructions of the type КАК БЫ НЕ..., what exactly does the "не" add to the phrase. I'm looking for a literal interpretation from those of you that know both English and Russian at a very high level.
For example—
Я боюсь, как бы он не забыл…
VCH250
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2 answers
Often 2 variants of feminine instrumental...?
maybe my title needs some work... but I use Wiktionary a lot for declensions, etc and I often see two forms for feminine instrumental adjectives, but my textbook only ever uses, typically, the 'first' one...
For example,…
nate
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Difference between "девушка", "девочка" and "подруга"
So, if I remember correctly, "девушка" can refer to both "girl" (of any age) or "girlfriend" (I'm not entirely sure of this, so feel free to call me out). But what about 'подруга'? Can I safely replace 'девушка' with 'подруга'? Which of these should…
Trey
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