These two loanwords (“девайс” and “гаджет”) appeared in the Russian language in the beginning of 2000s. Possibly, the word “девайс” appeared as early as in 1990s. Their meaning is the same or almost the same as in English.
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Modern Russian language has a number of loanwords from English. Many of them appeared in 1990s, some of them appeared later. Some of them are unnecessary, they are the product of post-Soviet fashion. There was no need for them because they have direct analogs Russian.
The most stupid examples of adoption are: “дистрибьютор” (distributor, that is “распространитель”), “мерчандайзер” (merchandiser, that is “торговец”), “меседж” or “мессадж” (message, that is “сообщение”, “послание”).
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If you visit Russia for a long term or want to invest in Russian realty you need to know what words we use here when discussing or negotiating on realty.
Residential property in Russia
The most people in Russia, Ukraine and many parts of ex-USSR live in an accommodation that can be called a “condominium apartment” or a “flat”. Soviet and Russian standards are different from the Western standards (Russian standards are worse, unfortunately). Therefore I think there are no exact English word for this kind of buildings and accommodation. I will use the word “condominium” for all houses with multiple flats.
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This word is interesting because it has more than one meaning and one of them even may seem contradictive.
1) get well, recover, be well again
About a person getting well after a disease.
Synonyms: выздоравливать, идти на поправку
2) gain weight, put on weight
This meaning may carry positive or negative sense.
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Now I want to tell about one colloquial Russian word used in Ukraine: “западэнцы”. Notice the root “запад” (“west”).
This word is used in informal speech by Russian population of Ukraine. There are many Russians there and also many Ukrainians in Russia.
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There is a short word for “couldn’t-care-less attitude”, “indifference to risk”: “пофигизм”.
The origin of this word is the informal expression “по фигу” (another form – “по хрену”). It’s easier to translate within a context:
“Мне всё по фигу” – “Everything is indifferent for me”
“Мне по фигу, что она скажет” – “I don’t care what she will say”
Somebody may say this when he/she is indifferent, angry (ignoring all arguments), reckless (ignoring all dangers).
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If we mention something related to fish we use two different adjectives: “рыбный” and “рыбий”. Here is the difference.
“рыбный” – about something related to fish: dishes, smell, department (in a shop, a market, a factory), restaurant, trade.
“рыбий” – about something belonging to fish: fins, air bladder, fish scales, tail, head, fish oil.
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In Russian language, there are some words related to housing that emerged in the later Soviet time. Here is the explanation of those words and some country-specific information.
Some types of Soviet houses and flats
“хрущёвка”
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In Soviet and Russian schools, we always have been using 5-mark system. The highest mark is 5 and the lowest mark is 2. The mark 1 is, in theory, the lowest school mark, but it is almost never actually given.
Here are some informal words that we use sometimes for the marks: Read the full text »
The word “service” has several meanings. If you translate it into Russian, you must use different words in different contexts.
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