(no subject)

[soidisantfille.livejournal.com]

What is the idiomatic way (or ways) to say "good luck" in Russian? I seem to remember being told it was something like "не пуха, не пера." Is that correct?

Basically, I just want to be able to wish my friends good luck with their final exams in Russian.

Comments

[bohemienne.livejournal.com]

That is correct, and if they tell you to go to hell (k chortu!) in response, then you know you did it right. :)

[florentia.livejournal.com]

ни пуха ни пера is more familiar, you can say удачи

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

Correct version is „ни пуха, ни пера!“ — and, yes, this form of wishing is ideal particularly when dealing with exams.

[oryx_and_crake]

One small correction: it is нИ пуха, нИ пера (sounds more or less the same, though).

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Ни пуха, ни пера ("ни", not "не"). It requires a qite rude (but expectedly rude!) answer "к чёрту!" (to hell with that.) It's the part of an ancient hunters' superstition.

But the 100 percent correct and polite way to say good luck is to say just "Удачи!" (literally, "luck!")

[sventhelost.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that ни пуха ни пера is for exams only. Is this correct?

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

I feel a need to emphasize that „к чёрту!“ uses „ё“ (“io”, “yo”), not a simple “o”.

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

Just a hint: you may use “á” to insert “á” into LiveJournal entries and (or) comments. (And you may have a Semagic macro (http://www.livejournal.com/users/mithgol/226941.html) for this.)

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

I know :) I'm not really dumb, just old-fashioned.

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

As (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=wolk_off)wolk_off (http://www.livejournal.com/users/wolk_off/) already mentioned below, it's a part of ancient superstition, so this form is suitable in any situation when people feel (or become, or happen to be) both superstitious and in the need of being wished luck. Exams are the most obvious example, since hunting (as a way of life — i.e. for food and feather, not for pleasure) is less popular nowadays... Siberia can be an exception, however.

[mivlad.livejournal.com]

Semantically this is not a Russian letter. There is a special Unicode symbol to insert accents in cases such as this one.

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

Ok :-)

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

“Combining accent” symbol has special limitations (http://www.livejournal.com/users/mithgol/226941.html?thread=1212285#t1212285), particularly in LiveJournal (because of Verdana font).

Re: Reply to your comment...

[mivlad.livejournal.com]

Oh well. So this thing is broken and so no one uses it and because of this no one bothers to fix it. I hope this loop will get broken at some time.

[pen0rz.livejournal.com]

I thought that the letter "ч" was always soft, so what difference would it make?

[malaya-zemlya.livejournal.com]

No difference. Until 1956 (I think) the word used to be spelled with an "o". Then they changed the rules for some odd reason.

Some writers (like dimkinDmitry Gorchev) still write it the old-fashioned way: чорт, чорный etc - Because it's fun.

[wolfie-18.livejournal.com]

Well actually, isn't "luck" originally удача? The reason for the удачи would be because you're in essence saying "Я желаю вам/тебе удачи," right? And желать takes genetive.

[florentia.livejournal.com]

yes, it is used only before exams

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Correct.

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

Seems like M$ has corrected this problem: Verdana v.2.43 shows combining diacritical marks OK.

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

No (or almost no) difference in pronunciation, but still there is difference in spelling.

If you're wishing luck via ICQ or e-mail, or in LiveJournal, then you'll need correct spelling as well.

[mithgol.livejournal.com]

Great. So where can I get Verdana v2.43?

[ekeme-ndiba.livejournal.com]

It's is included in the Windows XP Service Pack 2 (in fact, only regular version of the font).

[pen0rz.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought.