An acquaintance or a friend?

Foreigners often don’t know when to use the word “an acquaintance “and when “a friend”. This happens because in Russian these words have additional meaning.

Usually we use the word “an acquaintance” when we want to show that there’s no friendship between people. Usually we speak using this word about a colleague or a neighbor. Or sometimes we can call a person whom we don’t know well “an acquaintance”.

We say “a friend”, when we want to stress, that we know this person well and for a long time. People often say “ a school friend”, “an old friend”, and “a close friend”. One shares common interests and has close relationship with a friend. The word “a friend” toward a close person can be used regardless of gender. One can say: Maria is a close friend of mine”, “Sergey is my best friend”.

The word «подруга» “a girl friend” is an equivalent to the word “friend”, when it’s used by a woman. But when it’s used by a man, this word gets and additional “sexual” connotation. That’s why if a Russian man wants to say that he has only friendly relationship with a woman, he uses the word “an acquaintance”. But if he wants to show that there’s not only friendship, but love between them, he says: “my girlfriend”, “my girl”.

Don’t forget about these peculiarities when you tell about your girlfriends!

Moscow Map

If you haven’t bought a map of Moscow yet, you are definitely thinking about it in the close future. When you come to an unknown city, it’s necessary to have a map. In any case, you can find Moscow map in internet on the following site: map.yandex.ru.

Look at the map: you’ll see that there are many “circle” streets. They encircle the central place which is the Kremlin. The Kremlin is a political and administrative centre of Russia. The President works in the Kremlin. Important governmental meetings and events take place there. Earlier the most important and the richest people of Russia lived there, for example, the Patriarch – Head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Kremlin was both the dwelling and a fortress: that is why there’re such thick walls in the Kremlin. There are magnificent works of art and history from different centuries inside and outside of the Kremlin.

In the past all Moscow was inside the Kremlin. That’s why you can see such thick wall around it. Later the town began to grow and a new wall, another “ring” appeared, which took the name “Kitaj- Gorod”. Several centuries later one more “circle” street appeared: the boulevard ring, and at last the main circle thoroughfare of central Moscow today appeared : “Sadovoje” or “Garden” ring.

Radial streets appeared alongside circle ones. They were built to go to other Russian cities and towns: to the West- to the city of Smolensk – Smolenskaya street, to the town of Tver- Tverskaja street, to Dmitrov- Dmitrovskoje thoroughfare. Tverskaya street is traditionally one of the main central streets of Moscow. One can find the most expensive restaurants, shops, popular theatres, movie theatres, etc. here.

Metro map coincides in many ways with the ground structure of the city: there is a” circle “ line in the center of the city (people often call it “a ring” line) and many radial lines which cross the “ring” line. To get to the downtown, for example, to the Kremlin or to the Red Square, one needs to go to some central stations: “Arbatskaya” or “Ohotny Rjad” or “Biblioteka Lenina” or “Plocshadj Revoluzii”.