Russian slang

After my previous post someone on Instagram asked me to consider creating a post on the Russian language for a more advanced level of language proficiency, so here you go, today's topic is Russian slang words and phrases that you will not find in textbooks. (All the explanations will be written in English so that even those readers who do not speak Russian at all are still able to understand everything.) I will be adding stress marks to Russian words after the vowel it's suppose to fall onto.

Slang borrowed from the English language

No surprise, some of the slang words and phrases that are most used by the modern-day Russian youth, have been borrowed from the English language (waddup globalisation). Here is a list of a few such borrowed words and phrases.

1. лол = lol

Here it's important to note that, since in Russian we absolutely love creating new words out of thin air or modifying the already existing words to make them more fun or more slang-ish, we managed to do that even with "lol" (which is not even a word, originally). So what you will also often see in text messages or hear being said in Russia are лал which still means "lol", and ла'лка, which is used as a sort of an insult when you're making fun of someone OR to describe someone who is ridiculous or stupid. (P. S. These two words are more of a teen slang, even more so that just лол, so I would honestly advise to be cautious when using them since you won't come off as a well-educated person if you use them, which is not a big deal when talking to your friends or just your peers during a party but in other situations it may not be the best idea. If you're French, for comparison, this is about the same level of familiarity as the word "wesh", so... you get the picture.)

2. втф = wtf

3. плиз = please / плз = pls

Here we also change the word плиз sometimes and use пли'зки instead but, again, all of this is teen slang, not really sophisticated.

4. вау = wow

5. воу = woah

Here I am honestly not sure if it actually comes from "woah", even though it seems logical. In general воу is used when you're unpleasantly surprised with someone else's actions and you're about to tell them to stop doing what they're doing (whereas вау is used to express that you're surprised neutrally or pleasantly).

6. ок = ok / оке'й = okay

I know this, this is an obvious one, but still. And honestly at this point it's not even slang anymore, I've seen this used even in work emails between collegues, so it's not a big deal at all.

However, there are modifications to this word that are more familiar, and those are о'ки, о'кич, оке'юшки (all still mean "ok").

7. го = go

The slang word го in Russian is used when you want to say "let's go" or "let's do it". You can use it both at the beginning of a sentence ("Го в Макдоналдс", "Let's go to McDonalds'") or as a reply ("Кто-нибудь хочет в Макдоналдс?" - "Го", "Does anyone want to do to McDonalds'?" - "I do").

8. мб = maybe

This one is used literally all the time in everyday speech by every single young person I know.

9. сло'у/со'у сло'у = slow/so slow

Used to describe a person who's, well, being slow on comprehending things (duh). Pretty sure it originated from some meme or something like that.

10. ван лав = one love

This phrase is used to underline that someone or something is incredibly loved, is somebody's favourite. I think I heard this phrase being used in English originally as a sort of pacifist, hippie notion (one love as in one humanity where we are all friends etc.) but in Russian someone how means a different thing. I don't think it's used that often, it's also mostly teen slang (I wouldn't say I know anybody older than 18 years old who uses this phrase, but still it's useful to know).

Original Russian slang

Moving on to the original Russian slang, here are some words and phrases that are also used regularly by mostly young people in everyday speech.

1. ну = well

"Well, I don't know" = "Ну, я не знаю". (This one is your GO-TO WORD, OKAY. Remember this one before all else.) And honestly this is not even slang, just as in English, French or whatever, but I still felt like adding it to the list because it's probably the most important word to learn in any possible language.

2. ти'па = like

"It's, like, a bit disgusting" = "Типа, это немного отвратительно". To be frank, though, I wouldn't say that in Russian we use this word as often as, let's say, Americans may use it in English. Saying "He was, like, really rude and, like, I got so offended and like, I don't even know what I did wrong, like, you know?" would be really friggin' problematic to say in Russian (even impossible, I would argue).

3. thank you (спаси'бо) = спс, спаси'ба, паси'ба, паси'б, паси'бки

4. in short (коро'че) = крч, каро'ч

5. прекл (original word: прико'л)

This one is pretty hard to translate to English but it's used in a variety of contexts. It may be used as a response "Cool!" or "That's funny" or "That's ridiculous" or the aforementioned wtf and lol. As a noun it can mean something funny, something ridiculous or something insane or stupid.

6. жесть, дичь

These two words are used to describe something that is really bad or really annoying or really shocking.

7. блин = frig, flip, eff

In Russian we have an equivalent of the F-word, and it's arguably even worse to use than when it's used in English because in Russian curse words are seriously bad. But we use блин all the time even though it comes from the original F-word in Russian (which I will not mention here). As I've already mentioned, it's the same thing as saying "frig" or "flip" or "frigging" or "flipping" in English instead of using the F-word, it's pretty family-friendly and will not get you into trouble and you will hear it being used almost everywhere and by everyone in Russia. The more hardcore version would be бл (usually used when texting), it's like saying "eff" in English (not as bad as the F-word but much closer to it than блин).

8. жиза' (original word: жи'знь)

Is used to say that something is relatable. Approximate English translations include: "ikr", "I've been there", "right!", "so true".

9. норм = норма'льно (okay/fine)

"Как дела?" - "Норм" ("How are you?" - "I'm fine"). Used both in texting and in spoken Russian all the time.

10. For this final one, a few words that are also slang versions of some of the most commonly used words.

чот = что-то (something)

чо/чё = что (what)

поч = почему' (why)

оч = о'чень (very/really)

неоч = не о'чень (not really/not very...)

ваще' = вообще' (generally/actually)

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I hope that this list was useful for both those of you who are familiar with the Russian language and those of you who are not. If you want to see more posts like this, let me know, also I'm always grateful for any feedback I can get so don't hesitate and comment under this post or hit me up in the DMs on Instagram with your feedback and your suggestions for new posts! You can also subscribe to this blog to get a notification email every time a new post is out. Have a good day and week everyone!