Erin Coyne - Dirty Russian: Second Edition: Everyday Slang from Whats Up? to F*%# Off!

Dirty Russian Everyday Slang from Whats Up? to F*%# Off! ? ! Erin Coyne Igor Fisun 2nd Edition To Myroslava. Someday this book is gonna embarrass the hell out of you. Text copyright 2009 Erin Coyne and Igor Fisun. Design and concept 2009 Ulysses Press and its licensors. Illustrations 2009 Lindsay Mack. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Published by: Ulysses Press PO Box 3440 Berkeley, CA 94703 www.ulyssespress.com ISBN: 978-1-64604-258-6 ISBN: 978-1-64604-283-8(ebook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2021937738 Managing editor: Claire Chun Project manager: Kierra Sondereker Interior design: what!design @ whatweb.com Cover design: Double R Design Back cover illustration: Lindsay Mack Interior art: Lindsay Mack except cocktail glass Svitlana Medvedieva/shutterstock.com Cocktail recipes: Katy Chapman and Chrissy McIntyre, The Barlingual Chicks Ulysses Press holds a federally registered trademark for the Dirty series Reg. No. 3,928,097.

Russian is just about the coolest language in the world. But you already know that because youve been studying the language for a while now, right? At least I hope you have, because I didnt write this book with the novice in mind. I designed the book to bring your Russian to the next level, a level usually reserved for natives and longtime expats.

With that in mind, Ive tried to give you all the dirty words and insider terms that your college Russian professor would never teach you. So youre not gonna find any basic vocabulary or grammar lessons, or ways to ask somebody where the library is. Its assumed that you know all that crap already. But if youre looking to tell somebody to fuck off or that theyve got a nice ass, then youre in the right place, my friend. All of this is to say that I hope you already more or less know your way around the language before jumping into this book. It is a complex language to master even at a fairly basic level.

Learning the slang is even harder as it can be extremely difficult for the uninitiated to gauge when, where, and with whom slang is appropriate. As the old saying goes: when in doubt, leave it out. Using the wrong slang with the wrong person at the wrong timeespecially with a strong foreign accentwill make you sound ridiculous. It really will. So err on the side of caution. Also be aware that it is far less socially acceptable for women to use foul language, so know your audience before letting it rip.

That being said, I did try to make the book as reader friendly as possible. Each phrase in the book is accompanied by its English equivalent and its Russian pronunciation. Often youll find example sentences with key slang words bolded so you can break those words out and employ them on your own, whether youre just joking around with your friends at school or spending quality time on the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, or some remote backwater village. Once you start to know your way around and find yourself with a group of sailor-mouthed friends with three days worth of drinkin on their breath, you should jump right in and start throwing the slang around. Even clumsy attempts will likely earn their amused affection.

Now take your Dirty Russian and get dirty with it.

Russian, much like Russia itself, is not for the faint of heart. So here are a few notes to keep in mind as youre reading: Ty and Vy: Like many languages, Russian has two pronouns for you: ty and vy. Ty is the informal and singular way of saying you; vy is formal and plural. We have used ty as the default in this book as slang is something inherently linked to informal social situations. Vy, however, is also used for plurals, so this is the one you need when talking to more than one person. Cases: Russian has six grammatical cases, which means that the endings of words change depending on their function in the sentence (direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, etc.). Cases: Russian has six grammatical cases, which means that the endings of words change depending on their function in the sentence (direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, etc.).

When words are given in isolation, assume that they are in the nominative case. However, when they are given in phrases, they have whatever case ending is necessary for the grammatical context. As this is not a first-year Russian textbook, familiarity of basic Russian grammar is presumed. If none of this paragraph made sense to you, go look it up. Gender: All Russian nouns have a gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter). This is important because it will affect the declensional patterns as well as the endings you use on the adjectives to describe nouns.

In terms of people, gender means that both adjectives and the past tense of verbs take different endings depending on whether you are talking about a man or a woman. In most cases, we have used masculine endings as a sort of default gender. Feminine endings are used only when specified as such. If that seems sexist to anyone, well, what can I say? Thats Russiayou might as well get used to it now. Pronunciation: The most important thing when it comes to pronunciation in Russian is stress. Once you find the correct stressed syllable in a word, the rest of the pronunciation should fall into place.

In this book, stress is indicated in the transliteration line by capital letters. There are some finer points of pronunciation that arent as essential, such as voicing and devoicing. If you screw those up, youll sound totally foreign, but youll still be understood.

Here are some relevant terms before we begin: Jargon zhar-GON Another term that basically means slang, but most often used when talking about criminal slang. Cussing ru-GA-tyel-stvo Obscene language mat To curse using obscene language ma-tye-RIT-sya To cuss ru-GAT-sya MA-tom Curse words MA-tyer-ni-ye slo-VA Indecent language nye-nor-ma-TIV-na-ya LYEK-si-ka This is a phrase youll see, for example, on the warning label on CDs, etc. Heres the Russian alphabet.

Most of it isnt too tricky, but there are few sounds that differ from English. sounds like ah, as in open your mouth and say ah. sounds like b. At the end of a word, it sounds like p. sounds like v. sounds like g. sounds like g.

At the end of a word, it is pronounced k. sounds like yeh. If unstressed, it usually sounds more like ee. sounds like yo, as in Yo! This letter can only appear in stressed positions, so if a word changes stress when put into a different case, this letter falls out and becomes a regular ol . sounds like zh, like the g in massage. sounds like z. sounds like z.

At the end of a word, it is pronounced s. sounds like ee, as in Eeek! sounds like y, sort of like the y in day. sounds like k. sounds like l. sounds like m. sounds like o, as in folk. sounds like o, as in folk.

If unstressed, it is pronounced like an a. sounds like p. sounds like r. This is trilled. sounds like s. sounds like oo, as in boot. sounds like f. sounds like kh, sort of like the