A medicine for headache

[solito.livejournal.com]

Please note that in the English language you say "a medicine for headache" while in Russian the preposition is от - "Лекарство от головной боли".  If you say by mistake "Лекарство для головной боли", your Russian counterpart will understand it like "A medicine to produce headache". But it's OK to say "Лекарство для лечения чего-либо" or "Лекарство против чего-либо"

Лекарство от...
Лекарство для лечения...
Лекарство против... (colloquial)

Usage examples:
Сынок, ты случайно не видел, где мои таблетки от давления - Sonny, have you seen by chance my pills for the blood pressure.
(в аптеке) У вас есть что-нибудь от головы? - (at the pharmacy) Do you have anything for the head(ache)?
Человечество упорно ищет лекарство против СПИДа - Mankind persistently seeks a medicine for AIDS.
Новый шампунь против перхоти совсем не помогает - The new anti-dandruff shampoo does not help at all.
Есть средства для лечения диабета, но ни одно из них не вылечивает - There are drugs to cure diabetes but none cures it completely.
Лучшее средство от любви - новая любовь - The best remedy for love is a new love.

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

Лучшее средство от головы - гильотина.
Guillotine is the best remedy for a headache.

:-)

против "против"

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

FWIW, "против" in this context sounds very icky to me.

Re: против "против"

[solito.livejournal.com]

Well, it is still vanilla Russian...

Re: против "против"

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

Vanilla? I think it's a recent contamination.

Also, cf. http://www.livejournal.com/users/mitrius/288656.html, where "X для Y" is discussed.

Anyway, this discussion probably belongs to pishu_pravilno...

Re: против "против"

[solito.livejournal.com]

Well - you may like or dislike the fact that the language is changing. Is it recent or not - it is widely used now and is not denounced by the Russian language authorities (ИРЯ).

Re: против "против"

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

Those same people that propose to write "жури, брошура, парашут"? LOL.

I don't have a problem with language change. I'm just pointing out that this particular usage is still far from being acceptable.

Re: против "против"

[solito.livejournal.com]

>is still far from being acceptable

You mean it is still far from being acceptable for you, right?

Re: против "против"

[nbuwe.livejournal.com]

I know this is unscientific, but yandex search turns up 300K hits for "лекарство от" vs. 41K hits for "лекарство против".

Also, I don't think you'd object that "лечить против" is wrong (correct is "лечить от"). Hence my point that "лекарство против" is a recent contamination. I.e. my point is that language is changing and that particular form is still to make its way into the language norm.

You make a far stronger statement that "лекарство против" is *vanilla* Russian. Why do you need to *insist* on that very strong statement, while still invoking "language is changing" argument is still beyond me.

*plonk*

[smorodina.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tips. In return, a little help with articles - 'The English Language' would normally have a definite article (although if you shorten it to 'English' there is no article unless you are talking about the people), 'Mankind' never does. I know these can be tricky!!

[solito.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much - I updated the entry. The articles is a constant headache for me and I have no medicine for it yet :)