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The origin of complex plural forms

What caused complex plural forms in Russian? Were they borrowed from another language, inherited from Old Russian, or is there another reason why they appeared? By "complex plural forms" I mean the special plural form of nouns when they follow…
nanofarad
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quadratic things

Does the phrase "quadratic formula" (the formula for the solutions of ax2 + bx + c = 0 [EDIT: I mean the famous formula with the square root of b2-4ac as part of the numerator]) not really get directly translated into Russian? It seems that this is…
KCd
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What's the difference between "проходит" and "переходит"

I know that проходит is for saying like when you pass by a place, like: я прошла мимо парка, and переходит is for saying when moving one place to the other, like: я перешла в другую аудиторию. But there are cases when these verbes seem to be the…
Ana Galois
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How is the ending "-ий" pronounced?

Someone told me they are pronounced like "и", but when I listen to sound files on wiktionary.com, they are pronounced like "ш/ч"? For example the word "горячий" is pronounced according to wiktionary something like "горячих"
SupEvan
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Why is there no з- prefix in Russian?

All the other prefixes ending in с I can think of off the top of my head have a counterpart ending with з. бес-/без- ис-/из- вос-/воз- The version with с is used before voiceless consonants, and the version with з is used before vowels and voiced…
Armen Tsirunyan
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Is the word "зелёный" a noun in this case?

Is the word "зелёный" a noun here?: Бриллиантовый зелёный
brilliant
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How would you translate "Log me out"?! (when asking someone to log yourself out of facebook account/ e-mail. etc)

I have difficulties to adequately translate this into Russian, so that translation is short and clear (not something clumsy like "Нажми на кнопку Выйти в моем профиле" or something unnatural like "Выйди меня (из почты/фейсбука)". What would be a…
peacefool
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Does Russian have a word meaning 'snarky'?

In American English we have the word 'snarky', meaning 'sharply critical; cutting; snide'. A Russian translator suggests the word элегантного, but this does not seem to have the same sense as the English word. How would this concept be expressed in…
Dan
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When did Красная Площадь begin to shift from Beautiful to Red?

I suppose this one will be tough, or actually impossible, to crack by looking at Russian in isolation — there is no way to know what writers at what point had which meaning in mind, short of going back in time and asking them all. However, it should…
RegDwight
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"Родина" vs. "отечество"

What is the difference between родина vs. отечество? (Apart from grammatical gender, of course.) Is either one older? Of a higher register? When should I use which? What is the reason for having two words where one will do? Before you bring it up, I…
RegDwight
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Mixing business with pleasure

Is it the same as "приятное с полезным"?
garik
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«stream cipher» — «потоковый шифр» или «поточный»?

I would probably translate «stream cipher» as «потоковый шифр», от слова «поток», но на wikipedia статья почему-то называется «поточный шифр», хотя в содержании часто встречается словосочетание «потоковые шифры». What's the deal here? As far as…
cnst
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What's so showy about this common Scottish surname?

I find it curious that (arguably) one of the easiest to pronounce English/Scottish surnames -- Shaw -- is consistently reappearing on the Russian soil as Шоу. This spelling/pronunciation applies to some of the best known figures in the literary…
dpodbori
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preposition "путем"

Which case should be used after the preposition "путем" which means "by means of" ? could you give couple of examples? What is the exact meaning? What is the difference between путем and через?
Mohammed Hashim
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Is there a Russian exclamation that would fit the scene below?

I'm writing Russian subtitles for an American film. In one scene, a character says to another: "How ya' doin'?" The second character replies, kind of half-jokingly, "Beats the hell outta me," then goes on to ask "What brings you here?" The first…
Chris Carr
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