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1500 questions
7
votes
2 answers
What is the etymology of phrase "морского извозчика"
In China, the Netherlands has a very popular nickname: 海上马车夫 (literally: carriage drivers on the sea or sea coachman), it's so popular that it's printed in Chinese high school textbooks. It's also claimed that this was what the Netherlands was…
user2249675
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7
votes
1 answer
What does в сложн. сл. mean in Russian dictionary?
What does в сложн. сл. mean in below screenshot (highlighted with red rectangle)? Source
Jack Chung
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7
votes
4 answers
"его ничем не удивишь": why 2nd person?
I'm reading Гарри Поттер и философский камень and came across a sentence I'm curious about:
Ему вообще казалось, что теперь его ничем не удивишь.
Why is удивишь in the second person? I've googled around a bit and it seems like this is a common…
Alan O'Donnell
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7
votes
1 answer
Express optative/hortative other than "Давай" or "Может быть"
Not sure if I'm looking for the optative or hortative. I'm trying to translate a religious text, expressing wish and the hope that the listener and speaker will follow through on those wishes.
May the weather be seasonable, may the harvest be…
MatthewMartin
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7
votes
3 answers
How to assume the syntactic role of indeclinable nouns?
Russian has free word order. So the the syntactic role of a noun is usually determined by morphology. Yet there are some indeclinable nouns and nouns for which say Accusative and Nominative forms do not differ.
Let's consider a sentence about two…
Anixx
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7
votes
4 answers
Why are cows (коровы) called "крупный рогатый скот" so frequently?
Why cows/bulls rarely called so, especially in official documents, but the term КРС (Крупный рогатый скот, lit. "large horned cattle") is used instead? Other farming animals are called simpler.
Почему коров/быков так часто называют КРС (Крупный…
Vi.
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7
votes
3 answers
What does тока позже mean?
I was kidding with friends about them sending me something irrealistic. The written answer I got was:
тока позже!))
with "))" being what I think are the Russian emoticons for lol (without eyes - just the smile). позже is after but in lingvo I…
c.p.
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7
votes
4 answers
"хорош" и "хватит"
Очень часто в последнее время встречаю слово "хорош" как синоним на "хватит".
Употребляют его даже в книгах, действие которых развивается в прошлом. Но мне кажется, что в старых книгах я никогда не встречал такое употребление.
А как давно это слово…
johnfound
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7
votes
2 answers
When to use the genitive or the accusative in negative sentences
In my Russian course we have learnt that in negative sentences the object
is often in the genitive. On the other hand there are situations in which
it is correct to use an accusative, and there is also a difference in meaning.
Here are some examples…
Giorgio
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7
votes
3 answers
What does expression "тогда я в повидле" mean?
This is the 2nd year I'm taking Russian at my university and we've a couple of russian students. I was talking to a girl and told her I learned to write Russian letters on my own. She said "тогда я в повидле" (I asked her to write down what she…
bodacydo
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7
votes
1 answer
Why do some Russian words look similar to English ones?
When studying Russian, I often encounter words that seem like they are coming from English. However, that is purely a superficial impression because the words are Latin or Greek.
практиковать - practice
рекомендовать - recommend
периодически -…
Sam
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7
votes
1 answer
Inconsistencies books pronunciation
I am dealing with books explaining different ways to pronounce letters in Russias. Below are examples of some of the cases and pronunciations for those cases that vary. How do I make sense of all this and find out what is the correct way?
Small…
Chris Okyen
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7
votes
5 answers
What is the best Russian equivalent for "savory"?
One of the words English uses to describe food is this word called "savory":
From dictionary to dictionary, the definitions found are something like this:
pleasing to the taste or smell; appetizing
pleasant, agreeable, attractive, etc.
morally…
Lisa Beck
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7
votes
2 answers
Is во времена, instead of во время, used only when it refers to people?
I don't understand when to use "во времена" instead of "во время", but feel like it is used when it refers to a person, not an incident. For example,
Гоголь начал писать ещё во времена Пушкинa.
Во времена Александра Второго в России прошла…
Blaszard
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7
votes
2 answers
Why is лицо in the prepositional case, and why does свой not match its case?
I was reading the Bible and came across Isaiah 53 verse 3.
"Он был презрен и умалён пред людьми, муж скорбей и изведавший болезни, и мы отвращали от Него лице своё; Он был презираем, и мы ни во что ставили Его."
Why does it say "мы отвращали от Него…
Colossians
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