Russian Classes: Let's talk about cats

Let’s talk about cats today!

Here are some famous cats in Russian culture:

Matroskin is the cat from the Soviet cartoon 'Prostokvashino', about life in the village. He's a very practical cat, who owns a cow and acts as the head of the household. He knows how to embroider, use a sewing machine and even play the guitar.

Gav is the main character of the cartoon 'The Kitten Named Gav'. Gav is a very unusual name for a cat, as the word literally means "woof" in Russian.

Behemoth is the enormous evil cat from the Bulgakov novel 'The Master and Margarita'. He is a member of Woland’s (Satan’s) entourage and is described as a typical trickster, adored for his charisma, buffoonery and catch phrases.

All these cats have rather unique names. More traditional Russian names for cats include the following: Kuzya, Barsik, Murzik, Murka, etc. By the way, the last two come from "mur" - the cat purring sound in Russian.

INTERESTING FACT! We actually have two words for cat - "кот" for males and "кошка" for females. Unlike in English, we never use the pronoun "it" when talking about animals. In fact, each animal species even has a default gender by which it's referred to - before you get to the gender of the actual individual: the bear is male, for example ("медведь"), while cat is female ("кошка"), and so is dog ("собака").

• У меня есть кот. Его зовут Муськин.
• I have a cat. His name is Mus’kin.

• Обожаю мою кошку! Она очень ласковая и умная. 
• I love my cat! She's very cuddly and smart.

Check out more lessons in our Telegram channel, using the tag #russianclasses!

Dear readers,

Our website and social media accounts are under threat of being restricted or banned, due to the current circumstances. So, to keep up with our latest content, simply do the following:

• Subscribe to our Telegram channel
• Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter
• Enable push notifications for our website
• Install a VPN service on your computer and/or phone to have access to our website, even if it is blocked in your country