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Russian everyday words | ||
Tags: Filler Words | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes  Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 1 of 17 03 March 2011 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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Привет
I'm currently studying russian, and I was wondering something about "natural speech." In all languages, there are "filling words/expressions" that people use in various occasions. Some examples in English would be "so," "hum," "okay," "eh," "like, hum." I'm sure you get the idea. What would be equivalent russian expressions? I only know of давай which can be used in almost any occasion where something has to "get a move on." My aim in learning those words is really to make my speech more natural, closer to what native speakers would say. Obviously, I won't start using them right away, without have a better idea of their background and intricate meanings according to various situations, but knowing them and being able to listen out for them will definitely be a start. I'm even open to "familiar web-speak" expressions, used only online, such as "lol" "wtf" or *anything* at all. If at all possible, I'd like a brief description of their context and meaning. Спасибо! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| clang Groupie United States Joined 5131 days ago 54 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 2 of 17 04 March 2011 at 10:03am | IP Logged | ||
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So, these are all from examples of living in Moldova, and uh, I'm not sure if these are like, you know, used
everywhere in the same sort of way. Так, как бы, это самый, значит, то есть, знаешь/знаете?
Как бы is probably the equivalent of "like" or "sorta" in English as a filler. It is also part of a bunch of constructions with various meanings, including "how would.." Это самый is meaningless in the way you hear people use it as a filler. Это самый literally means "This is the very" best, worst, etc. When you are just hearing native Russian for the first time, it can be hard to sort out the real use vs. the meaningless uses! Значит means "it means" and то есть means "that is". It is the equivalent of "that is" or "I mean" in English. This one isn't just filler, but people can tend to use it as a filler-type crutch sometimes. Знаешь/знаете "you know?" Please tell me anything I did wrong/fix all of my mistakes. Edited by clang on 04 March 2011 at 10:06am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 3 of 17 04 March 2011 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Even considering you're not 100% sure about what you said, I still do recognize words among those. It's a start, thx!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bradley326 Groupie Joined 5968 days ago 78 posts - 104 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Kazakh, Spanish | Message 4 of 17 04 March 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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One of the most common ones I've heard while living in Russia and Kazakhstan is "ну", which would equate to our "well..." Kind of a word you can use to give yourself time to think.
It's a very useful word and I've found myself using it so much that it's been leaking into my English. Not too long ago I was giving a presentation (in English) and someone asked me a question. I responded "ну...that depends on...", mixing the Russian filler word and the English sentence. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FrostBlast Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4891 days ago 168 posts - 254 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Icelandic | Message 5 of 17 05 March 2011 at 3:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Ну. Хорошо!
Срасибо! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Delaunay Pentaglot Newbie Hungary Joined 4781 days ago 16 posts - 27 votes Speaks: German, Hungarian*, English, Japanese, Dutch Studies: Russian | Message 6 of 17 31 March 2011 at 12:26am | IP Logged | ||
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What you are looking for are the so called fillers, or as the Russians says: слова-паразиты or parasite words.
If you search them, you will probably find a lot, but the ones I came across the most in my relatively short stint in Moscow were Э-э ('eh'), это ('this'), ну ('well'), Как бы(the closest English equvivalent I know would be 'like', but I would look up a few examples for this, as it's a very versatile word!), Типа(slang form of Как бы), Короче('to cut a long story short'), В принципе('probably', 'theoretically') and В общем('generally speaking'). Good luck with them! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zonius Triglot Newbie Israel Joined 4854 days ago 12 posts - 15 votes Speaks: Russian*, English, Modern Hebrew Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 7 of 17 31 March 2011 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | ||
Side note - the word is so addictive that it was adopted in Modern Hebrew and is used very frequently (although the speakers often have no idea of it's origin :) ) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1qaz2wsx Diglot Groupie Greece Joined 5165 days ago 98 posts - 124 votes Speaks: Greek*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Albanian | Message 8 of 17 02 April 2011 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would definitely choose 'ну'.It's a very common word which basically means 'well,...' but sometimes it also means 'да','yes'.
-Ты будешь пить? -Ну! -Will you have a drink? -By all means,yes! Edited by 1qaz2wsx on 02 April 2011 at 9:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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