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My host family used кушать all the time, including for adults.

My understanding was that кушать is more informal, though, which is why есть is what's taught in textbooks.

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poluzhivago.livejournal.com

Modern Russian mainly uses "есть" as "eat". Кушать - is an outdated almost archaic word. The only appropriate use of "кушать" is a very polite invitation "Кушать подано!" - and it's also old-fashined.

Regardless people often say "кушать" when it's more appropriate to say "есть" - it's low colloquial use.

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constpd.livejournal.com

The verb “кушать” is somehow more “loving”. If “кушать” is used to a child it expresses some kind of adoration with a child and therefore is applicible. If you say “я кушаю” it would imply that you love yourself very much and it will really sound a little ridiculous.

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nadyezhda.livejournal.com

I love this verb. It reminds me of the times when I was living in Georgia and visiting in Moldova. It's so... cute and polite and just the way your mom or grandma would tell you to "eat up!" :)

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hopeinagpa.livejournal.com

haha...when we were in Vladimir, I asked my group leader the same question, and he in turn asked a few natives. I thought their answer was pretty interesting (though I'm not entirely sure if I buy it):
"кушать" and "есть" are really the same, but foreigners usually use the former, because it's easier to conjugate and therefore, the latter is more...Russian.

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lena-supercat.livejournal.com

"кушать" is more friendly/conversational than "есть", that's how I would define the difference. For instance, "есть" would be the preferred word to use in an essay, unless you were deliberately trying to make a joke or make the sentence seem less formal. "я кушаю" can indeed seem ridiculous if you're trying to use it in a serious context; if you're deliberately trying to be funny or cute, though, it's quite okay. :-)

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belacane.livejournal.com

i agree with this according to my experiences living in moscow and all the people I spent time with.

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gjertsen.livejournal.com

Wow, the distinction between these two verbs seems quite subtle. I think I'll stick with есть for now...;)

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freedomcry.livejournal.com

There are people, a minority but not a statistically insignificant one, who are irritated by the word «кушать», seeing it as very corny. Being one of them, I'll take the liberty to thank you on behalf of us all for making this excellent decision. ;)

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Seconded! :)

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I'm outraged by this unjustified attack on the word "кушать":). There is nothing ridiculous about it. It'с just a less formal way to say "eat". I think I'vе never answered "Я ем" to a question "What are you doing?".

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Hmmmm... this must be the matter of the difference in local dialects. Where are you from? (I mean, in what part of Russia or the former Union were you born?)

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Odessa:)

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That's what I feel -- and this is the answer :)) The usage of "кушать" applying to adults is typical for Southern Russian dialects, from Odessa to Rostov. But "normative" literary Russian doesn't really allow this kind of usage.

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I know how you Moscovites feel about the Russian we speak:)

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Come on, my father grew up on Malaya Arnautskaya and my grandfather was from Nikolaev. That's completely not the point. It just happened so that it was the Muscovite dialect that formed the literary norms of Russian language, not the Odessa speech (at least because the Muscovite dialect took its more or less present form some 200 yeas before the very foundation of Odessa city.)

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According to my professor, есть is the "classy" word, and кушать is vernacular. So есть is more educated/formal and кушать is more casual and/or less-educated.

My host family used кушать all the time, including for adults.

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I'm kind of confused now, as half the people here think кушать is formal and half think it's informal. Yay for colloquialistic use.

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This is mostly the matter of local dialects. Кушать is more common in Southern Russian dialects - if you hear a Russian pronouncing all Г's soflty, just like the Ukrainians do, be almost sure that he/she uses кушать for "to eat" and зал for "living room" :)

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Well, FWIW, my host mother was from the far east, and both my professors (who use yest') from Ukraine....

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But they were PROFESSORS, right? So they knew the norms of the literate language :)

Far East has almost no disctinct dialect: it was almost not inhabited by Russians until, say, very late 19th century, so the most of locals are relatively late settlers from wherever in the former Union, Ukrainians, southern Russians etc. etc. etc. included. I knew more than a couple people from Vladivostok or Sakhalin Island who spoke nice "normative" Russian, as well as more than a couple of people from Chukotka or Khabarovsk who spoke really bad "суржик", Russian-Ukrainian pidjin.

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I never heard "zal" being used for a living room in Odessa. We said "gostinnaya", I think. Although for many of us, it was the word describing an apartment or house we saw in the movies. Since not too many of us could boast having an apartment big enough we could use one room as a living room, not a bedroom.

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