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How did 'ликвиди́ровать' semantically shift to mean 'abolish' and 'destroy, kill'?
I was reading the etymology of the English 'liquidate', when I read on Wiktionary that
The sense "to kill, do away with" is a semantic loan from Russian ликвиди́ровать (likvidírovatʹ), ultimately from Latin liquidus.
This sense wasn't in the…
user9822
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"Позвоню тебе" vs "Буду звонить тебе"
According to my teacher, the former means that "I will most definitely call you", while the latter means that "I'll maybe call you, but it's not likely"; something you would say after a bad date. But somehow I'm still skeptical. Is my teacher right?…
chubbycantorset
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8
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What is the grammatical rationale for using the imperfective "рассыпа́ться" or the perfective "рассы́паться"?
Это все хорошо. Но ни к чему рассыпаться из-за таких пустяков в благодарностях.
Тhis comes from one of the grammar-related questions in the most advanced level of the national Russian proficiency test that I've recently took in my country. The…
Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
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8
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The origin of "заморить червячка"
"Заморить червячка" is an idiom which can be loosely translated as "to get a bite to eat", or "to have a snack / to have something to eat".
Which worm does the expression refer to? What is its origin?
Enguroo
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8
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Почему как стартовую команду применяют фразу «три-четыре»?
Почему когда русскоязычный человек начинает физическую нагрузку, он иногда говорит фразу «Три, четыре»? Почему пропускают «раз два»?
Daniel B
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Auxiliary verbs
When learning Russian grammar, the only auxiliary verb that is explained is быть, which is used for forming the imperfective future tense.
However, occasionally I have seen sentences where идти is used as an auxiliary verb. For example, I once saw…
Uberfatty
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Антоним для слова «гость»?
Как назвать принимающую сторону — человека, организацию — по отношению к её гостю? Слово «хозяин», мне кажется, здесь не подходит. Например, английский язык в этом случае чётко различает два перевода слова «хозяин»: owner (владелец чего-то) и host…
krokoziabla
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How to ask someone to be less polite and not use white lies?
Note: Please let me know if this question is off-topic, so it can be closed or deleted. I am afraid that it either focuses too much on Russian culture, or alternatively is asking for a translation.
Background/Context: I often find that, at least…
Chill2Macht
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(по)вредить with accusative and/or dative
According to my dictionary (Kenneth Katzner, link):
вреди́ть v.impfv. [pfv. повреди́ть; pres. врежу́, вреди́шь] (with dat.) to harm; damage; be injurious to.
I think I should use the dative case after this verb. BTW, the повредить entry basically…
nate
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How is "огурец" used here?
Каждый коротышка был ростом с небольшой
огурец.
I am translating it as every small person was of the size of small cucumber?
I am confused about the case, why is cucumber in accusative or nominative and why use с небольшой?
Дмитри
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8
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Gender of decimal numbers
I know that decimal numbers containing a whole number plus one or more fractional numbers are referred to as целая (whole number) plus десятая (a tenth) or сотая (a hundredth), etc.
"целая" is feminine because it stands for the noun…
swrutra
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8
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Does Russian have the concept of "sentence fragments" (as English does)?
Question: Does Russian have the concept of "sentence fragments" (as English does), and is it also clearly considered a grammatical mistake?
For an optional bonus part of this question, not required though, could you provide a link to a webpage…
Sam
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What kind of day does "денек выдался" refer to, exactly?
Ну и денек выдался в минувшую субботу!
I'm assuming it literally means "my/our little day stood out from others. It was special somehow", but its precise meaning eludes me.
It's been an eventful day. [in a positive sense]
or: It's been a rough …
Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
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8
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Дать кому денег до среды (From Двенадцать стульев). What does that mean?
What does the expression in bold mean?
Человек, лишенный матраца, — жалок. Он не существует. Он не платит налогов, не имеет жены, знакомые не занимают ему денег до среды, ...(From Ch. 19 Двенадцать стульев)
I can see it means his acquaintences…
c.p.
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8
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дверями vs дверьми
What's the difference between дверями and дверьми? My textbook states that «дверьми» is bookish, however upon searching more into this I found some articles claiming that they are completely interchangeable. So does it matter which one I choose?
Trey
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