two completely unrelated questions

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

Are there phrases in Russian that people use all the time that are technically incorrect, but sound much more natural? I was thinking of the common English phrase "Me and Bob went somewhere," where "me and Bob" is technically incorrect, but what (most) people say casually anyway. In this case, saying it the correct way ("Bob and I") can sound stilted. Are there examples of this sort of thing in Russian?

In a completely unrelated, and much weirder, question -- has anyone read the Russian version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series? I was thinking about the section where it talks about time travel and verb tense, and was wondering how that was translated.

Comments

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

That is right, yet Злей is far from Snape, which I believe is a derivative from "to snap", быть резким, ругаться...

I don't want him to be Злей :P

[oryx_and_crake]

Personally I think that Snape comes from "snake" and "snipe", maybe with a dash of "nape" (of one's neck that he grasps to strangle you :-))

Unfortunately, some things in this life are not to our liking :-)

And when translating a wordplay or a meaningful name of a character,it is very difficult to preserve both the meaning and the sound of it.

[kehlen-crow.livejournal.com]

I agree with you.

Let us just hope we'll see who is right this summer, not when the 7th book is out!

[angels-chinese.livejournal.com]

I guess that Snape comes from "snake" and "ape". Exactly like Snark = snape + shark ;)