Learn the Most Common Russian Homonyms | Confusing Russian Words

Всем привет! It's Mila from Hacky Russian and I'm here to help you learn Russian language easy, fast and with a lot of fun. Today I will show you some really confusing Russian words. Homographs. Words that are spelled the same and often even sound the same, but they have different meanings. And it's extremely important to know these words if you don't want to put yourself in an awkward situation. So, the first thing that you need to know is that there are three types of homonyms in Russian language. Homophones, homographs and homoforms. And in this video we will cover some really important Russian homographs, words which are spelled the same, but often have a different stress and have a different meaning. One of the best examples of Russian homographs are the words As you can see, you don't want to make a mistake here. Don't worry, the only time when these two verbs are written the same is in infinitive form. So, it's very important to put the stress at the right place. By the way, you can download the guide with the most common Russian homographs in short poems. I will not list all these homographs in this video because you can find them in the guide. The next pair of Russian homographs Can you hear the difference? The only difference is in the stress. Again, these verbs are only spelled the same in one of their forms with a pronoun Я. Let's conjugate these two verbs to see the difference between them. So, the first is the verb ПЛАКАТЬ to cry. Он плачет. Она плачет. Мы плачем. Вы плачете. Они плачут. Я плачу. Ты плачешь. Он плачет. Она плачет. Мы плачем. Вы плачете. Они плачут. And now the verb ПЛАТИТЬ to pay. So, as you can see, these two verbs are only spelled the same when we use a pronoun Я. Я плачу. Я плачу. There is a funny Russian song of the rock band Leningrad. Я плачу и плачу. Я плачу и плачу. Here's the next pair of Russian homographs, which are not only spelled the same, but are also pronounced completely the same. БРАК and БРАК. БРАК, a marriage, and БРАК, a faulty work or a defect of an object. Let's agree that it's kind of ironic. In Russian we have a joke. But these two words have completely different etymologies. The first word БРАК, which means a marriage, comes from a verb БРАТИ, which is БРАТЬ. And that is logic, because we have an expression БРАТЬ ЗАМУЖ, to get married, to take someone as a wife. БРАТЬ ЗАМУЖ. But if you don't like this word, you can use its synonym СУПРУЖЕСТВО. Well, I believe that БРАК is БРАК. The second word БРАК, which means a faulty work, comes from German and means to break. Here are the synonyms of this word ПОВРЕЖДЕНИЕ, ДЕФЕКТ and ПОРЧА. Don't worry, you can always understand from the context whether you have a word БРАК as a marriage or БРАК as a faulty work. Here are some of the most common expressions with the word БРАК, which is a marriage. Which is to get married. We also have some expressions like БРАК ПО РАСЧЁТУ, which is a marriage of convenience. Or БРАК ПО ЛЮБВИ, a marriage for love. And now I'm going to blow your mind with a simple word КОСА. The first meaning of the word КОСА is a braid. The second meaning of the word КОСА is a scythe, a hand tool for mowing the grass. Not this picture, this one. But that is not all, there is also a verb that comes from a word КОСА, and that is КОСИТЬ. And there are 5 most common different meanings of this verb. The first meaning of this verb is to scythe, so it's quite logic, right? КОСА is a noun, and КОСИТЬ is a verb. Most people use nowadays a grass mower, which is translated as ГАЗОНА КОСИЛКА. But it's better to use a verb STRITCH instead of КОСИТЬ when we speak about the grass. So instead of saying КОСИТЬ траву ГАЗОНА КОСИЛКОЙ, it's better to say STRITCH траву ГАЗОНА КОСИЛКОЙ. However, you can anyway hear people using a verb КОСИТЬ with a noun ГАЗОНА КОСИЛКА. But I believe that it's better to use this verb with its particular tool КОСА. In this sentence we have a word КОСА in instrumental case. But there's also a word КОСОЙ, actually two words, a noun and an adjective. As an adjective it has two possible meanings. The first one is SKY, for example КОСАЯ ДВЕРЬ, КОСАЯ ЛИНИЯ. Second, this adjective is also used to speak about people who suffer from squinting. But this form is rather rude and colloquial and is more correct to say КОСОГЛАЗЫ. However, as a slang it is also used to speak about people who cannot hit the center of the target. For example, ВОТ ТЫ КОСОЙ, НЕ МОЖЕШЬ ПОПАСТЬ В ЦЕЛЬ. As a noun you can find this word КОСОЙ in Russian fairy tales and cartoons, because it was used to refer to hares. ЗАЯЦ. ЗАЯЦ КОСОЙ. And КОСОЙ can also be a nickname, usually for people involved in criminal. But there was also a Russian prince Василий Юрьевич КОСОЙ, that's QUINT. And КОСОЙ was not his real surname, it was a nickname that he got after he was defeated, imprisoned and shortly afterwards blinded by his cousin Василий II, who was also blinded 10 years later also by his cousin. And he got another nickname, which was ТЁМНЫЙ, the dark. And here comes the second meaning of the verb КОСИТЬ, which is to squint one's eyes. Let's look at some examples of the verb КОСИТЬ. When we are kids, parents can tell us The third meaning of the verb КОСИТЬ is slang, and it's used with the preposition ОТ. КОСИТЬ от чего-то, meaning to avoid doing something. Another slang meaning of the verb КОСИТЬ is to imitate, and we need to use a preposition ПОД. To imitate somebody. Or you can also name a person. So, we've already had a verb КОСИТЬ with a preposition ПОД, but there is also КОСИТЬ with a prefix ПОД. ПОДКОСИТЬ means to fall victim or to make someone collapse or make someone weak. For example, Well, that's all for the word КОСА and its different forms. And here is a funny phrase that consists of these homonyms. Can you guess what it means? Well, I will change the order of these words. Maybe it will help you to understand it. Is it better? Okay, I will decipher it for you. КОСОЙ, which means a hair. КОСОЙ, which means кривой, skew. That's easy. The next word is КОСЯК. And this word is really interesting because it has several homonyms. And no, it's not a word with several meanings because these meanings have nothing in common. So, first of all, КОСЯК is a jam. It can be a door jam or a window jam. Second, КОСЯК is a group of birds or fish following in the same direction. КОСЯК рыб is the same as СКОПЛЕНИЕ рыб, плывущих в одном направлении. Next, КОСЯК is a slang word for this. We say КОСЯК марихуаны. But I think that this word КОСЯК is mostly used nowadays in the meaning of a fault or a mistake. So, for example, if someone tells you ЭТО ТВОЙ КОСЯК, it means it's your fault, it's your mistake, and not it's your joint. Well, who knows? By the way, there is also a verb that comes from the word КОСЯК, which is КОСЯЧИТЬ, or НАКОСЯЧИТЬ, perfective form. For example, But of course, it's a slang word, so don't use it in formal situations and with people you don't know well. Well, that's all for today. I just want to remind you that you can now download the guide with the most common Russian homographs. In my next video, I will show you more confusing Russian words, homoforms, words that are spelled and pronounced the same, but represent different parts of the speech. I hope that you enjoyed watching this video, and if you did, don't forget to like it and leave a comment below. If you like my project and you want to get more exclusive materials to learn Russian language, you can become a patron of Hack Your Russian. Find a link in the description.