Motorists in Russia have an expression “день жестянщика” (“the day of the tinsmith”). This day is coming to Russia now. This expression refers to a late autumn day when it is snowing for the first time in the end of the year.
Read the full text »
The colloquial expression “дело десятое” means:
1) Something non-essential, insignificant. It may be said, for example, about some unimportant details.
2) The most simple thing, the most simple part of a bigger affair.
This expression is only used in informal speech. There is a synonym which can also be used both in informal and in polite speech: “не суть важно”.
There are other expressions with similar (but not absolutely the same) meaning: Read the full text »
This expression is used to emphasize a very low level of something. It may mean somebody’s bad mood or somebody’s disrespect of another person.
The literal meaning is “below the plinth”.
Some examples of what can be “ниже плинтуса”:
somebody’s mood;
somebody’s authority or status; Read the full text »
This is the continuation of the article on Russian slang expressions with the word “хрен”.
Here is another set of expressions.
“один хрен” — “it makes no difference”
Emample:
“Один хрен, мне там делать нечего”.
Translation: “anyway, I have nothing to do there”; polite analog: “всё равно мне там делать нечего”; another slang form: “один хрен, мне нехрен там делать” (tautology but understandable).
“хрен его знает” — “I don’t know”, “(I’ll be) damned if I know”
Very common.
Read the full text »
The word “хрен” literally means “horseradish” and it has its normal meaning as well as a huge number of colloquial and slang expressions. Let’s look how it is used in some informal phrases.
Negation, refusal and denial
“хрен поймёшь!” — “like hell you can understand it!”
“его хрен найдёшь!” — “like hell you can find him!”
“хрен тебе!” — “like hell I will!”, “nuts to you!”
“ни хрена” — 1) (to mean “nothing”) “not a bloody thing”; 2) (reinforcement of negation) “not bloody likely”
Read the full text »
When we mention a big young man in an informal talk, we can say “здоровый малый”. This is a kind of contradictive expression. Let’s examine it a little.
The word “здоровый” can mean “healthy” or “big”. The latter is assumed here.
The word “малый” can mean: Read the full text »
When you are talking to people of some professions connected with risk, avoid use of the word “последний” (“the last”). Use the word “крайний” instead of that.
This is because the word “последний” is associated with the end, and the end is associated with death, losses, fatal accidents, etc. That is why it is considered as an omen of misfortune, to say something like “когда мы последний раз …” (“when we … for the last time”, “during our last …”). Read the full text »
Give-take #1
In incentive statements, we sometimes use the verb “давай”/”давайте”. In such cases it means something like “come on”.
For example, we want to hurry, invite somebody, etc.
Examples:
“Давай, начнём уже наконец” (“Come on, let’s start after all”)
“Давай, приходи к нам” (“Come over to our place”)
If we want to urge somebody to give something to us, there is an interesting contradictive expression: “давай, бери” or “бери, давай” (the 2nd one may imply a little discontent).
That is the word “давай” may mean “give” (smth to me), the word “бери” means “take” (smth) and so we get something like “Hey, Vova, give take that stuff!”. 
This “give take” means “take” (“come on, take this”).
There is an interesting form of negation in informal Russian speech: “да нет”. That literally means “yes no”. This expression may be used:
* when а question admits positive or negative answer and the negative one is given:
Example:
- Он пойдёт с нами?
- Да нет, врядли он захочет.
* in a discussion:
Example:
- Здесь пройти проще.
- Да нет, вот здесь дорога короче!
Read the full text »
