I know it’s an unpopular opinion given current circumstances, but I’ve always been a huge nerd about Russia. The history, the geography, the music, etc. And as an American, I’ve always found it fascinating how U.S.-Russian relations have fluctuated over time. We’ve gone from allies, to enemies, to frenemies. This doesn’t mean I support Z or Putin, of course. What are you a nerd about?
I’m a nerd about translation, translation choices, and differences in cultures. I find it fascinating that the tiniest details in your language choice are capable of changing the meaning entirely. I also happen to be a Russian, so maybe this example for the Russian-English language pair would be interesting to you:
Given: комната = room мальчик = boy одна из = a (one of) эта/этот = the (that) в = in вошел = walked
В одну из комнат вошел мальчик. A boy walked in a room.
Этот мальчик вошел в эту комнату. The boy walked in the room.
В эту комнату вошел мальчик. A boy walked in the room.
Этот мальчик вошел в одну из комнат. The boy walked in a room.
English uses a/the to define what’s known/unknown, and Russian doesn’t have a similar tool but it can change word order and add some extra words for more precision. Russian also uses a lot of cases to define who does what and when, and English just doesn’t need that, the word order does it all.
Looking at all that makes me feel like I’m watching something beautiful. Like I find solace in the fact that there is more than one way to see things.
I wondered how things worked in Russian without articles like the and a.