Langbr - Blog Posts
Some cat vocabulary ^^
Another funny moment from Evening Urgant! This is an old interview with Milla Jovovich. What is Milla talking about? There are tons of Russian fairy tales about baby goats and wolves. One of the most popular ones is “The wolf and the seven baby goats” (Волк и семеро козлят). However, the one Milla is talking about must be a fairy tale called “Grandmother once had a grey baby goat...” (Жил-был у бабушки серенький козлик...). Here’s the link. It doesn’t have an English translation, but I can try and translate it if you’re interested. https://stihi.ru/2012/08/15/7403 Useful words from this video: Страшный (m.), страшная (f.), страшное (n.), страшные (plur.) - scary; Сказка, сказки (f.) - fairy tale, fairy tales; Лес, леса (m.) - forest, forests; Конец, концы (m.) - end, ends; Сильный (m.), сильная (f.), сильное (n.), сильные (plur.) - strong Interesting fact: Last month, Milla made a video of her reading one of the most well-known Russian fairy tales “Fly Tsokotuha” (Муха-Цокотуха). And again, unfortunately, I could not find the English version of this fairy tale. I can try and translate it, but I cannot guarantee my version won’t be cringeworthy. Here’s the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a69FMum_nnM&t=249s
I was watching Evening Urgant as usual and I just couldn’t resist translating this funny bit for you. What is Ivan talking about? Беляш, беляши — bel’ash (sing.), bel’ashi (plur.) Bel’ash is a dish of Kazakh, Bashkir and Tatar cuisine. It’s practically the same as a regular pirozhok with meat. Except the recipes and the forms of the dishes are a bit different.
P. S. Please let me know if you want me to keep tranlsating fun parts from Russian TV shows and wether or not the Russian subtitles above the screen are comfortable for you to watch/are necessary. Thanks for reading my little blog :)
An ancient Russian dish
Here’s a piece of information about the Russian cuisine!
Пирог, пироги — pirog (sing.), pirogi (plur.)
Pirog is a baked case of dough with a sweet or savoury filling. It’s pretty much a regular pie. Pirog is one of the oldest dishes in Russia that our grandmothers bake to this day.
In ancient Russia, there were a lot of traditions regarding the consumption of a pirog. For example, the first bite of a pirog was always taken by the oldest man in the family. After him were younger men, then women and children. People started noticing how inconvenient these traditions were, so Russian women started baking small pirogs. They were more convenient to eat and to even pack for the road. This is how pirozhki (пирожки) were created.
Пирожок, пирожки — pirozhok (sing.), pirozhki (plur.)
There is no known date of when pirozhki were created, but some sources say that they were already around when Ivan the Terrible was ruling Russia (1533).
The most popular flavours of pirozhki are: apple jam, meat, smashed potatoes, eggs and fish.
Just wanted to let you know that English speaking people aren’t the only people who have problems with the word ‘pregnant’. This is Milla Jovovich trying to say the word ‘забеременела’ on a local Russian TV show. The original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AATwZGHgn24&t=229s
“I want to invite you to the skating rink*” *Каток (katok) - a word that means both “skating rink” and “road-roller”
Know the difference!
“За здоровье!” (roughly translates as “to health!”) — one of the ways of saying “cheers!”. People in Russia like to toast a lot: to friendship, to love, to family etc. “За здоровье!” is just one of those basic toasts.
“На здоровье!” (roughly translates as “for health!”) — one of the ways of saying “you’re welcome”. “На здоровье” basically means something like “what I just did (or said) was done for your hapiness (or health, in this case)”.
Example: Russian version of Detroit: Become Human
M: Breakfast is ready. Bacon and eggs, just the way you like them.
C: Thank you, Marcus.
M: You're welcome.
Носóк (nosok) - sock
"Внимание!
Мокрый пол"
=
"Attention!
Wet floor"
The magic of the language...
"trying to pronounce мягкий знак (ь)
(didn't succeed)"
Just a fun fact #6
Some more slang!
"Mi mi mi" (Ми-ми-ми) is used to describe something incredibly cute.
Example:
Этот котенок просто ми-ми-ми! - This kitten is just so mi mi mi!
Fun facts:
A Russian late night talk show 'Evening Urgant' has a rubric called 'mi mi mi', where the host of the show 'interviews' cute animals.
'Mi Mi Mi' is a song by the Russian band Serebro. You must have heard it. The thing is, sometimes online lyrics sites write 'mi' as 'me', which is obviously incorrect. But now you know :)
Just a fun fact #5
There are very, VERY few words that begin with "Й". The only ones that exist (or the ones that are at least used commonly) are:
Йод - iodine
Йогурт - yogurt
Йога - yoga
Йоркшир - yorkshire
Maybe there are more words, but those are the only ones that I know and use on a daily basis.
Just a fun fact #4
It's time for some slang!
Sometimes, when we want to say "___ is not the same now" ("___ уже не тот"), we say "___ is not a cake now" ("___ уже не торт"), because I guess "тот" and "торт" sound similar. Plus, by comparing the object with cake we express our disappointment that it is not as sweet and good as it used to be.
Examples:
"Шерлок" уже не торт - "Sherlock" is not a cake now
Мне раньше нравилась эта группа, но сейчас она уже не торт - I used to like this band, but it's not a cake now
Я подписалась на этот канал ради обзоров мемов, но сейчас он уже не торт - I subscribed to this channel for meme reviews, but it's not a cake now
Hey guys! Here's a quick tip on how to start to write in Russian cursive right away! I hope it was useful! Have a nice day! 💜
"In my language, we don't say 'I love you'. We just tag each other in memes and I think that's beautiful."
Guys, don't worry. Sometimes we're not sure either.
Just a fun fact #3
The phrase “peace to the world” in Russian may sound funny at first, as it translates to “миру — мир”. But this is because the word “мир” in Russian means both “peace” and “world”. I’m personally really amazed by this fact.
However, this may lead to confusion sometimes. For example, the name of the famous Leo Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace” can be misunderstood by Russians for this reason. And I’m not embarassed to admit that I used to be one of those poeple.
But regardless, миру — мир! <3
Just a fun fact #2
In old Russian times, people used to say "спаси тебя бог" (spasi teb'a bokh), which literally means "God save you". But then, someone took the first and the last word from that sentence and put them together. This is how "спасибо" (spasibo) was created back in 17th century, and Russians use it as "thank you" nowadays.
Just a fun fact
The word 'очевидец' is a combination of an old Russian noun 'очи' (eyes) and verb 'видеть' (to see). Just like that, the word itself means 'eyewitness'.
— Why do you always put parentheses in messages? — I feel more comfortable with them)) — What do you mean? — Parentheses look like they are hugging words and they become kinder))