The Word's Worth

About once a year, there is yet another discussion of how best to translate Vladimir Putin’s assessment of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

A short history of Russian New Year's Eve addresses.

Want to know what words and expressions a panel of linguists chose as Russian words of the year? Pour a stiff one before reading.

A Russian primer on holiday tree decoration from an expert. No, really.

What’s a toxic relationship? A toxic crowd? A toxic person? Who knows? But it sounds bad.

A simple query led to grammatical confusion — among experts! If grammarians are confused, what's a poor foreigner to do?

Wisdom, in Russia - and presumably in Russia - is a walk on a tightrope.

On Moscow baristas, polite cliches, and the mysteries of ancient Russian taste buds.

Language specialists have been having a grand time with the phrase “not bad,” trying to determine how it measures up on the Good-O-Meter with the Russian word неплохо (not bad).

Sometimes in Russian it’s the easy words that kill you.