Our blog covers topics such as Russian-to-English translation challenges, improving Russian language skills, discussions on Russian grammar and syntax, reviews of translation software and tools, and case studies showcasing successful translation projects. We also explore various aspects of Russian culture, literature, and current events, serving as a valuable resource for both beginners and professionals looking to enhance their Russian translation skills and knowledge.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Russian Translation of Months
Winter (Зима) months:
January - Январь
February - Февраль
Spring (Весна) months:
March - Март
April - Апрель
May - Май
Summer (Лето) months:
June - Июнь
July - Июль
August - Август
Fall (Осень) months:
September - Сентябрь
October - Октябрь
November - Ноябрь
Winter (Зима) months:
December - Декабрь
Happy winter hollidays.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Searching 'Russian Translation' in Google
The main objective you need to look for when doing a search in Google is to BE SPECIFIC.
- If you are looking for a machine or computer translation - you need to search for "Free Russian Translation."
1)Translation made by a machine or a software, if this is the case, then you need to type in "Free Internet Russian Translation" and our favorite search engine will bring you the results you are looking for.
2)And there is also a free translation which is done by a human-volunteer. These kind people usually hang out in so called forums. So, if you need a translation done by a Russian-speaking person, then "Free Russian Translation Forum" word combination is the right one.
- If you are looking for a Russian Translation company, then try to help the machine to recognize your need. There are different types of translations. For example, if you have a letter that needs to be translated into Russian, then go ahead and search for "Russian Letter Translation".
- If you need a legal paper to translate for a Government use, then search for "Russian Legal Translation" or "Russian Legal Document Translation."
- If you are anxious to get your diploma or a birth certificate translated into English or Russian, then do a "Russian Certified Translation" or to be more specific - try "Russian Birth Certificate Translation" etc.
- If you don't know Russian language and want to translate a website into English, then "Russian Website Translation" is the right search term for you. As far as now, the best free website or url translator on the web is Google Translator which can be found here: http://translate.google.com/translate_t. With its help you can translate loooong texts as long as whole websites. And it works for many languages -23 of them.
A technical translation is not that easy and you will need to ask a professional company to help you with that, so start with Russian Technical Translation and somebody will be there for you.
Over the phone translation is the only kind of translation that won't be done without a translator's help. If a written text in a foreign language can be "understood" somehow, at least you can get an idea, then a spoken language - no way here. So, you can just look for a "Russian Phone Translation" or a "Russian Telephone Translation" and you will be fine.
So, I hope the guide will help you to better find your way around in the net of Russian translation world.
Friday, November 7, 2008
T4K - what it means in Russian language
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
International Translator Day
Why September 30? Here is the answer - it's the day of death of St. Jerome in 419 or 420. This saint translated the Bible (Vulgate) to Latin language. He is an "official" the patron of interpreters and translators. This holiday was started in 1991 by the International Federation of Translators. More and more people celebrate this holiday (I heard a comment on the news about this translation day).
In 2004, the festival was celebrated under these words: «Translation - the basis of multilingualism and multiculturalism». - which I agree with. «Interpreters are in the heart of communication. As agents of foreign ideas and actions, they form part of a world in which we live. Translation is therefore a determinant of multilingual communication, and at the same time it symbolizes the openness of the people and democracy. » - I think these words are very wise. And hopefully the work of translators and interpreters will be valued more than it was in the past.
In 2005, this festival was celebrated with this slogan: «The responsibility of an interpreter before the profession and society». In 2006, it was celebrated under the following slogan: «A lot of languages - one profession». In 2007, it was celebrated under the slogan: «Do not shoot at courier».
In 2008, the International Day of the translator notes under the slogan: «Terminology: Words have meaning».
In other words, respect Translators and Interpreters! - it's a tough job.
Citations and dates were taken and non certified translated from an open source site.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Conference or 3 way calls to Russia got more expensive
Does it worth it to set up a conference call yourself? The answer is YES if you know how to do it and if you want to save some money. Of course, it's better to pay just for the over the phone translation rather than for the 3 way connection plus a translation. Usually a translation company tends to benefit from people who think that making a connection is something extraordinary and you have to be tech savvy. Some companies are taking advantage of that and charging their clients way more than it really costs. For example, one online dating company which makes calls to Russia and Ukraine charges around 5 bucks per minute! It's ridiculous.
The right price for a connection of three people is about $1. This is what it is all about. International calls are not that expensive.
If you are interested in knowing more how to make conference calls, you can google for "How to make a conference call to Russia or Ukraine or Belarus." You can first try to connect yourself and your friend here in the US and after you succeed, you can try connecting internationally. Good luck!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Christie's Russian Website Translation Mistakes
Two weeks ago one of our professional Russian English translators who is a big fan of Christie's auctions found out that their website have a Russian version of the site.
And she let them know that the translation was done very poorly with a lot of syntax and orthographic mistakes. (Just a little note to everyone: If you would like to avoid translation services like that, you should be using Certified Russian translation instead of just regular translation services.) The page I'm talking about is here: christies.com/features/welcome/russian
I also noticed the same kind of mistakes on two other pages: christies.com/features/welcome/russian/buy.aspx and this one christies.com/features/welcome/russian/sell.aspx (Copy and paste into your browser these links to check them out).
On the images below you can clearly see all the mistakes I'm talking about. Of course, if you do understand Russian language.
The image was kindly provided to me by Russian Telephone Translation website.
As far as me, I think that every certified Russian translator can correct those mistakes and/or do a professional English Russian website translation of Cristie's website. I think that a well-respected auction and a brand name like Christie's should have a perfect image.
Here are more images from their website. I marked some obvious mistakes. But of course there are a lot more. You just need to read it carefully and you'll find all of them. I think there are from 13 to 25 mistakes overall on the Russian version of Christie's web site.
All images were provided to this blog under the copyright from Russian Telephone Translation website. All images are copyrighted and can be used only after a written consent from the owner.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Happy Birthday in Russian Language - How to Make a Wish (audio)
Today I am going to teach you how to wish a Happy Birthday in Russian.
So, if need to make a Russian translation for a friend who has a birthday, then read on.
Russian translation for a HAPPY BIRTHDAY is С ДНЁМ РОЖДЕНИЯ - Russian transliteration for this phrase would be - S DNJOM RAZHDENIJA. You can listen to the audio recording of the phrase "happy birthday" in Russian below:
Or you can also say Поздравляю с Днем Рождения - transliteration would be as follows: Pazdravlyaju s dnjom razhdenija and the English for that would be Congratulations with your birthday (I know that it is not a very popular way to say it in English, but believe me, it is very common to wish a happy birthday in Russian).
Here is how it sounds like in Russian:
If you are willing to wish something more, then here are some ideas for you:
I wish you happiness - Я желаю тебе счастья - Ya zhelayu tebe schast'ja.
I wish you health - Я желаю тебе здоровья - Ya zhelayu tebe zdarov'ya.
Here is a good example of a birthday greeting for your friend:
Я желаю тебе крепкого здоровья!
Я желаю тебе долгих и счастливых лет жизни!
И самое главное, Я желаю тебе счастья - безмерного счастья! каждый день!
The Russian to English Translation of this birthday greeting will be as follows:
I wish you a long and successful life.
I wish you excellent health.
Most importantly, I wish you happiness - without measure - every day!
I hope that this post will help you to wish a Happy B-Day to one of your friends in Russian!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Easy to Learn Russian Words
PLEASE - Russian translation for that word is POZHALUISTA or ПОЖАЛУЙСТА.
Here is a usage example for you: Can you PLEASE forward me that Russian certified translation today?
The stress should be on the second syllable which is ZHA.
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The next easy to learn word is
How are you? - Kak Djela? or Как Дела?
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Good - Harasho - Хорошо.
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Happy Birthday in Russian will be S dnyom Razhdeniya - С днём рождения!
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Super in Russian is going to be Super - Супер - almost the same like in English=) - so this is the easiest to learn Russian word.
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Bye - Paka - Пока
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Next time I will try to compose a list of useful words for special occasion like a birthday.
So, see you soon.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Certified Russian English Translation - Another point of view
Friday, June 20, 2008
Russian Certified Translation Services - Does Certified Translator need to live in your area?
So if you need a Certified and Notarized Translation of your documents, you can definitely contact this company: RUSSIAN ENGLISH CERTIFIED TRANSLATION.
They have a lot of experience in this particular field. You can check out their testimonial page.
By the way prices are very affordable as well, probably the most reasonable on the territory of the continental USA.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Freelance Translator Day in Russia — May 14th
Origin of the word "freelancer": Freelancer, or a freelance worker is a person who works without a long-term contracts. This term was first used by Sir Walter Scott in 19th century in his famous "Ivanhoe."
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Army of poor Russian people continues to grow
Picture is taken from газета.ру,
the text was done by using Russian phone translation.
According to the statistical agency of the distribution of money incomes among Russians in the first quarter of this year, one third of the total (30.3%) incomes of Russian population is accounted by the richest 10%, and only 1.9% - 10% share of the poorest citizens. Since last year the ratio has been steadily changing in favour of the rich. In the same period in 2007 - 10% of the richest people had 29.7% of the total incomes, and only 2% - 10% share of the poorest citizens. And this is despite the growth of salaries, pensions, as well as the growth of consumer goods.
Therefore, experts recognize the result of the prevailing rather strange, given that in late 2007 and early 2008 the Government had made efforts to increase revenues to the neediest categories of citizens - government workers and pensioners. For example, since last year the pensions grew almost by 37% and in March 2008 monthly pension was 3895 rubles; accrued average nominal wages in March of 2008 was 16428 rubbles, while real wages in March of 2008 increased by 14.6% comparing with March 2007.
But the differentiation of income is no way affected. "Therefore, efforts were inadequate and did not increase salaries", - explains expert Natalia Akindinova. Disappointing statistics related to the fact that incomes of the richest and the middle class grew more than the poor and needy Russians. For example, the proportion of the population with average incomes over 25 thousand rubles per month increased from 5.2% in the first quarter of 2007 to 9.8% in the first quarter of 2008. Those who earn 10-15 thousand rubles increased from 16.9% to 19.7%, and those who receive from 8 thousand to 10 thousand rubles - from 11.3% to 11.6%.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Make your computer write Russian letters
You was always wondering how to make your computer write Russian letters, i.e. letters in Cyrillic. If you are in the non-Russian speaking country, then most probably you don't have Russian letters installed on your computer keyboard. I can show you how you can type these symbols using regular US keyboard. I'm using Windows XP. I also attached an image of a Russian keyboard so that you could see where a particular letter is located. I hope it helps.
Step 1.: Go to Start Menu
Step 2.: Select Control Panel
Step3.: Click on Regional and Language Options
Step4.: In the submenu at the top select Languages
Step5.: You will see "Text services and input languages" - click Details
Step6.: After that you will see Installed services, click Add
Step7.: Add input Language window pops out, select Russian
After going through all these steps you will be able to type Russian letters. To switch in between language bars you should try either pressing CTRL+Shift or Alt+Shift all depending on your settings. So now you can start making Russian letter translation or just communicate with your friends like you are in Russia.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Learn Russian Swear (bad) Words in Dialogue
I am using as many commonly used words and phrases as I can think of. I included Russian version plus a Russian transliteration so that you could read and pronounce these swear words and phrases. I also put some guidelines for how offensive each word/phrase is. I used a scale from 1 to 3 to show how offensive this or that bad word is.
This short story is about two friends who are watching a sport game.
If you would like to find more dialogues, you can find them on this page: Learn Russian Language. We also have Russian Phone Translation phrases at your request.
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Visiting a friend watching the game (on Russian TV).
1) Блять3, ты все еще смотришь эту игру? ::: Blyat', ty vse eshe smotrish' etu igru?:::Shit, Are you still watching this game?
Блять – noun: two meanings: slut, and you say it when you are expressing yourself. English equivalent – shit, fuck. You can use this word only in this form.
2) Сборище долбаебов3. Они вдувают2. Играют как девочки. ::: Sborishe dolbaebov. Oni vduvayut. Igrayut kak devochki. ::: What a bunch of shit! They suck! They play like sissies!
Долбаебов – singular – долбаёб – a very strong bad word; meaning - a dumb person. You can use this word to anybody whom you don't like or you are a veeeery good friend of.
1) Кто? Команда А? Но капитан нормалёк1 играет. :::: Kto? Komanda A? No kapitan normalyok igraet. :::: Who? "Team A"? But that captain is good!
Нормалёк – derived from a word Нормально - English equivalent - normal.
2) Ты это видел? Осёл2. Это даже и не пахло фолом. Ty eto videl? Osyol. Eto dazhe I ne pahlo folom. :::: You see that? Foul!? That was not a freaking foul!
Осёл – another way to say that a person is not a smart guy, you can't tell this to a female, used only for men. Original meaning - an animal – dunkie.
1) Арбитр или косой1 или слепой1. Arbitr ili kosoj ili slepoj. :::: The ref has a screw loose, or he's blind.
2) Знаменитый игрок еще ни разу не забил. Меня это бесит1. Znamenityj igrok eshe ni razu ne zabil. Menya eto besit. :::: "Famous player" hasn't scored yet! I can't stand it!
Бесит – imperative form – бесить – English version for annoy. He annoys me – Он меня бесит. A very common way of expressing your feelings toward somebody. Popular among teenagers.
1)Забудь, давай лучше посмотрим бейсбол или теннис. Zabud', davaj luchshe posmotrim beisbol ili tenis. :::: Never mind. Let's see some baseball or tennis instead.
2) Забей2. Достало уже. Айда1 карты поиграем. Zabej. Dostalo uzhe. Aida karty poigraem. ::::: Screw it. Enough! Let's go play cards (specific card or board game?).
extra stuff:
1) Но ведь это Кубок Мира. No ved' eto kubok mira. :::: but this is the World Cup!
2) Насрать2. Хочешь посмотреть как они вдуют2? Nasrat'. Hochesh' posmotret' kak oni vduyut? ::::: Whatever! You wanna watch them get clobbered?
Насрать – imperative form. Litterally – to take shit. Pretty rude verb. Became popular in 1995 (approximately).
3) Но мы все еще можем их сделать2. No my vse eshe mozhem ih sdelat'. :::::: But we can still pull it off!
Сделать – imperative form – делать. English translation - make. Я тебя сделаю – translation - to win. I can't find an English equivalent. May be there is no one.
4) Не теряй времени. Ты теряешь своё время. Ne teyaj vremeni. Ty teryaesh svoyo vremya. :::::: Don't waste your time. You are wasting your time.
5) Арбитр обкуренный1. Arbitr abkurennyj. ::::::: The referee is on drugs!
Обкуренный – adj. From verb – Курить - To Smoke.
6) вратарь..... () ..... не следит за игрой ::::: vratar' ne sledit za igroj ::::::::: the goalie.... (and other potential positions, like refereee!) ...isn't paying attention.
7) Гол. Gol. ::::::: Score!
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Friday, March 7, 2008
Russian Letter Translation Research
Well we also wanted to know the answer, so our sponsors helped us on our research in this field...
We prepared a medium size letter in Russian to send to some Russian translation companies offering different prices for Russian letter translation service.
We googled for Russian translation and got a lot of results. Here is a screenshot for you.
OK, so on the top of the page you can see Free translators. They will give you a rough idea of what is written in your letter....It's your choice....
Then goes a Russian Translation service company which offers a Russian letter translated for four cents per word. We sent them our letter. The response came as soon as within 45 minutes, which was a record. Our linguists analyzed the translation and it got 4.5 out of 5, which I think is pretty high score.
Then I found a website of a person from Ukraine who was offering translation as well. The price was two cents per word. I sent a translation and got a response 11 hours later (I figured that was because of the time difference between Ukraine and USA). Well I got my translation and it seems that a lot of words were misunderstood by a translator, or he was using a machine translation. The overall work got 2.8 points.
Then we found a website which charged ten cents per word for a letter translation!!!! Wow, that's a lot!!! But we still wanted to try it out. Well we got a response from the website pretty fast in about an hour and a half. The quality of the translation was great for a book translation. This means that a Russian person would think that Pushkin, or Dostoevsky wrote the letter to her/him. The language was old fashioned. It seems that the translator has never been to the US and does not understand the culture. So they got 3.6 points.
I hope very much that this research will help you choose the right translation services for your needs.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Asking for Russian Translation of a BIG article for FREE - how fare is it to you?
By the way, here is the post I was talking about: http://free-translator.russian-translation-pros.com/index.php?topic=34.0 Do you think it would be fare to do the translation for free???
Monday, February 11, 2008
FREE RUSSIAN TRANSLATION
But what if you say want a translation of just a short phrase, or a text message from your beloved woman? You would think right away about going to a free online translation software, right? Let me tell you one thing: you will not always be getting an accurate translation which will make sense to you. And it's not because a person who wrote a message or a phrase was drunk or dumb, or something like that. It's just your free translator.
Well, here are good news for you: now you can google for a free translation forum or a message board and voila!!! There are a lot of forums and places on the net nowadays where kind people who know different languages are willing to help other people with the translation.
If you are looking for a Free Russian Translation, then I would advice you this FREE RUSSIAN TRANSLATION FORUM.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Russian flow to USA
Well the reason is that the US Dollar has dropped dramatically in its value on all world markets recently. And now it's really cheap to visit this country. A lot of people didn't have this opportunity before when the $ was strong. So, if you are studying foreign language, you have a lot more chances to meet someone from the country you are learning the language of.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Swear words in Russian or Russian Language culture
Monday, January 14, 2008
How to Read Russian
Let's say you found this word in Cyrillic: Давай, well the transliteration would be Davay and the pronunciation would be dava'j and the Russian translation would be let's. You can read the pronunciation, right? Try to read this word then Дав...Any luck? I bet you read it. Dav. Good Job on this task.
To make it even easier for you, here is a Russian alphabet with Latin equivalents.
A- A (like in sum)
Б - B (batman)
В - V (Vogue)
Г - G (God)
Д- D (daughter)
Е- E (sell but softer)
Ж-ZH (say it almost like in Georgia)
З - Z (that)
И - EE (meet)
К - K (cat)
Л - L (lamp)
М -M (moon)
Н- N (not)
О- O (not)
П - P (parachute)
Р - R (ram)
С - S (site)
Т - T (teach)
У - U (like in book)
Ф - F (fool)
Х - KH or H (hook)
Ц - TS (think of this one yourself)
Ч - CH (China)
Щ - SCH (the same as TS=)
Ш -SH (and again as TS)
Ъ (to make a consonant hard, always goes after a consonant)
Ь - (adds softness after consonants)
Э - E (like in pen)
Ю - YU (tune)
Я - YA (kayak)
I hope I got them all. There should be 33 letters total.
So if you want to read, lets say this word written in Cyrillic: папа - papa - which means dad. Usually in short words like that the stress goes on the first syllable. By the way there are two syllables in this word made of four letters. Now try to read мама - exactly, it's mama, which means mom. If you see this word, мать - you would read it like that: mat', T at the end is very soft. You need to train on that.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please write me or post a comment.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Speak Russian Words and Sentences like you are Russian
By the way, Russian reading is very easy to learn. I will talk about it in my next post, so check back later. If you have any comments, please tell me your opinion.
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Notes:
A word in brackets is a pronunciation.
A little apostrophe in a word in brackets after a vowel tells you to put a stress at that syllable.
An apostrophe after the consonant means that it should be soft.
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Let's go, let's learn some Russian.
The most common Russian salutation is: Hi - Привет -Privet - [preeve't];
You want to explain that it's you who are calling her: This is Peter - Это Петер - Eto Peter - [e'to Peter];
After that you want to ask a person how is she doing: Как Дела - Kak Dela - [kak Dela'];
To answer this question: Fine - Хорошо - Horosho - [kharasho'] or Excellent - Отлично - Otlichno - [atlee'chna] or Normal - Нормально - Normalno - [Narma'l'na] or Not so good - Не очень - Ne ochen - [nee o'chen'];
Then you would probably like to say Thank you - Спасибо - Spasibo - [spasee'ba];
To make your phone conversation flow you would ask: What did you do today - Чем занималась сегодня - Chem zanimalas segodnja - [chem zaneema'las' sego'dnja];
After this question, you most likely won't understand her answer, but it's OK, it is your first time. And all you wanted to do is to hear and enjoy a lady's voice, remember?
To say Bye-Bye use До свидания - Do svidanija - [da sveeda'neeja] which is more official, or you can say Пока - Poka - [paka'] people usually say this to their friends, relatives and other close people.
If you want to speak on some serious topics, then contact Russian translator.
Have a good one...
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