THREE FUN FACTS ABOUT RUSSIAN

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1. BLUE, BLUE, AND BLUE

The Russian language has more expressions for shades of blue than most other languages. It splits the descriptions into light shades (голубой) and dark shades (синий). Russian eyes aren’t better at distinguishing shades of blue, but their language appears to be more adept at expressing them. This is interesting as some languages don’t even differentiate between blue or green.

2. MIDDLE NAMES VARY WITH GENDER

Russian middle names are patronymic and vary by gender. The body of the name remains the same, but a gender-specific suffix is added. The suffix ovich or evich is added for boys, and ovna or evna for girls. So, if Mr. Ivan has a son, his middle or patronymic name would be Ivanovich or Ivanevich, and if he has a daughter, it would be Ivanovna or Ivanevna, followed by the surname. Interestingly, surnames only appeared in Russia in the 18th century.

3. WORDS FOR THE RUSSIAN MARKET

Russia has a population of over 170 million people. Runet, the Russian-speaking internet, has over 100 million subscribers and is certainly worth focusing on.