A Book of Russian Idioms Illustrated (Gnv64)

PREFACE

The Russian language is highly idiomatic. The idioms, part and parcel of the language, add immensely to its richness. Their variety is accounted for by the historical development of the Russian language. More often than not Russian idioms are a stumbling block for non-Russian speakers, as they fail to understand Russian, both written and spoken, without the mastery of a sufficient number of idioms, especially those which occur most frequently. This book is intended primarily for English speaking students of Russian who have a knowledge of the essentials of Russian grammar and are familiar with a basic Russian vocabulary. The two types of idioms are mainly given in the book: phraseologica l fusions, wo rd combi nati ons whose me an in g cannot be derived from the meaning of their elements (e. g. and phraseological unities , собаку съел, а м о р и ь ч е р в я ч к а ), ), word combinations whose meaning is partially dependent on the кап ля meaning of their individual words (e. g. д в а с а п о г а п а р а , в м е ). ). The idioms are arranged alphabetically as units. If the main verb can be used both in the imperfective and perfective aspects, the idiom is given in the aspect that occurs more frequently in speech. Idioms in which the order of components is not fixed strictly are given in their most typical form. Each entry consists of a Russian idiom, its transliteration, literal translation and explanation. Also included wherever they were available, are English equivalents. (Given in many instances are two or three English idioms covering the meaning of the Russian idiom).