Russian Phrases For Children: Parts 1-3

I am so glad these are helpful to you guys! Holly that is hilarious! Again I can't thank nungesser enough for helping me get these out here to you all!! :thankyou: :clap:

This 6 part guide is awesome! So great to have transliterations along with it. One thing I noticed is the pet section on page 1 of part 2 is a little messed up. The transliteration and Russian words are off by one line. Shift them up and they match. Except for the "The cat's name is" that is totally wrong. I tried to edit them in acrobat, but I had issues. Thought you should know in case you'd want to edit them later. All that aside, the guide is GREAT. wish I had it for our first adoption a year and a half ago of our now 11 year old daughter. We can use it later this year when we adopt our 8 year old daughter! Thanks for posting this reference! Take care, Tom

I'd love to have a look at the phrases, but don't have enough privleges to view part one (apparently...). Can anyone help? I'm living in St. Petersburg, Russia right now. I thought a little cultural immersion--and a few language lessons-- would be helpful while I gather my courage... Spacebo!

Shay and Nun I am getting good use out of these....but not retaining much have to keep referring to them.... Thanks again

Thanks much. While knowing some Russian, we didn't need it with our 10 month old when we adopted last year. They were very helpful over Easter when we returned for trip 1 of our second adoption - this one a 3 year old bio. brother of our 2 year old son. After brushing up quite a bit via Pimsleur and the phrase guide I was ready to open up some light conversation. I must have sounded a little too good because I could tell he was ready for more and he expected that I understood all he was saying. We worked it out very easily. This information will come in very useful for our trip home and with family who will want to try to be conversive. Thanks much - very helpful!

THank you for this information..it is a big help!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're right on, Sharon - may I add a few words/variations on words that I think you'll all find helpful???First, the phrases are pretty good. The only real change I would make is a small one - just remember, every time you're seeing (and saying) the letter 'e', don't just say it the way we Americans would. Say 'ye'; example: "privet, kak dela?" (Hi, how are you) would be said more like this: "Privyet, kak dyela?"Just a thought. :)So, for some 'toddler talk':Kids generally don't say 'urine', they say potty, or a similar 'kid word'. Likewise in Russian, kids say a word we Americans don't like particularly, as it's close to a rather vulgar version for us. It's not vulgar in Russian, though. They'll say 'peesat' - "Ya khachu peesat" - I need to pee (transliterated 'I want to', but kids in Russia rarely say 'I need' - it's almost always 'I want'). The word kids use for poo is 'kaka' (older kids might use more vulgar terms, but we won't go there...assuming this is 'toddler talk', after all...:)) - "Ya khachu kakat" - I need to go. Kids also add lots of suffixes to their words, which may make them hard for you to understand at first. These are pretty much used by parents and caretakers to make things sound sweeter, or gentler...for example, they will often add 'ichka' to the end of a name or word - very often kids will say 'padushichka' or 'Vanichka' or 'kartoshichka', which could leave you scratching your head even though you may have learned the root words they're saying (padushka - pillow; Vanya (common boy's name); kartoshka/kartofyel - potato.) I just thought I'd throw that in for thought - most kids I know use these without even thinking about them.If a little one doesn't feel good, they usually say 'Ya bolyeeyu' - I'm sick. They'll say this if something hurts or their stomach is upset - they don't generally make a destinction. 'Bolno' (the 'l' in that word is said very soft) means pain, but it also means (especially to kids) something hurts, something doesn't feel right, something is out of order inside them. It doesn't necessarily mean they're feeling pain - just as they could say 'I'm sick' and really mean they scraped their knee, they could say 'it hurts' and mean they feel like throwing up. Just be sensitive and ask 'gdye bolyeet?' - where does it hurt/feel bad? and watch their body language.To 'throw up' is a tough one, but I put it in here because it'll probably come in handy (and perhaps save you a carpet cleaning session). I can't even begin to list how many different ways people say this in English - synonyms abound. Russian is the same, but little ones will most often say 'virvut' (the 'i' is a letter we don't have in English; it's a real back-of-your-throat 'ee'), or 'toshneet' - which means nautious. It's getting late and I'm getting kinda tired...if this was helpful at all, I'm glad! If y'all think of more words, please let me know and I'll be happy to share what I've learned living with 100+ Russian orphans - trust me, I've just about seen it all! :)-RussianJen <><

I am so glad to have found these. They have been a lifesaver with our newly home 3 yo from Ukraine. hopefully this will pop them back onto the front page!!

While in Russia over the Christmas Holidays visiting for the THIRD time, our guy, who speaks VERY well for 2.5 would say a few things we couldn't figure out. He would pinch his older brother and say "Beuna"....come to find out is means "Hurt?" as in "am I hurting you?" He would also run around saying "Agoya Nada", which I guess, loosely translated, means "Time for fun"...

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Thank you so much! We are just getting started and know that time will get away from us.-Karen

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I am Russian and unfortunately the pronunciation of the phrases is incorrect. In some cases the child will still understand you, but some of the phrases I would have never understood being a native speaker. I encourage future parents to do more search in the internet. There are some web sites where you can put a phrase in English and the computer will give you the phrase in Russia (and the audio will play the phrase to you). I have no time to search for it now,but in general - do not rely on one source of information only.

Just one more little thing, if I may - I noticed that they translated 'oh my goodness' as 'bozhe moy'. Not a huge deal to a lot of people, but that's actually 'Oh my God', and, at least for some (like me) a phrase I wouldn't use. Just thought you might like to know!