Twins

[david-us.livejournal.com]

 I have identical twin boys. I was in a conversation with a Russian the other day and was trying to convey this when I realized that I really wasn't very confident in how to say this. 

I had a lot of words swimming in my head - but I wasn't sure what to say.

близнец?

And what's the plural of this? How would you convey that they are male twins as opposed to female twins? What if it was one of each gender?

What about ...

двойник/двойня ? 

Again, how is it best to convey the gender of the twins?

How would you say "fraternal twins", "Identical twins", "He is my twin brother."

Thanks!
 

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Comments

imho

[simplex.livejournal.com]

"fraternal twins" - двойняшки.

"Identical twins" - близнецы.

"He is my twin brother" - он мой брат-близнец.

"male twins" - братья-близнецы.

"female twins" - сестры близнецы.

[aksioma-tg.livejournal.com]

You should say: близнецы. It is the plural for the word. You also may say the same about the female twins, but you also may use "близняшки" which is more colloquial though usually is assotiated with the girls.
Двойняшки usually means fraternal twins, both of the same amd different gender.
And about your brother you may say just "Он мой брат-близнец", "Она моя сестра-близнец/близняшка"

[simplex.livejournal.com]

Or "Он мой близнец", "Она моя близняшка". Without брат/сестра.

[aksioma-tg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it sounds a little strange to me

[riegel.livejournal.com]

yeah, sounds strange indeed

[trilbyhat.livejournal.com]

Скорее "мы с ним/ней близнецы".

[simplex.livejournal.com]

И так тоже можно. Не понимаю претензий, волне нормальный оборот речи.

[trilbyhat.livejournal.com]

If I heard someone saying "Он мой близнец", I would assume he was not a native speaker. I cannot substantiate this notion, though.

[4px.livejournal.com]

+1

[hyyudu.livejournal.com]

Близнецы, близняшки
Он мой брат-близнец or она моя сестра-близнец.

[riegel.livejournal.com]

"двойня" is only used for a woman pregnant with twins or when talking the fact of birth of twins
"у неё будет двойня", "она родила двойню", "у них двойня" (родилась).

[surkova.livejournal.com]

двойник is a person who pretends to look like someone else

[emperor-spock.livejournal.com]

I don’t think there is a colloquial or neutral equivalent for 'identical twins'. If you really want to emphasise the fact that the twins look exactly the same (which isn’t always true) — either mention it using more words or adding another clause ('у меня близнецы. Так похожи, что только по одежде отличаем') or use the scientific term 'однояйцевые близнецы'; ('monozygotic twins'). Choose the one you like more — and the one that is more appropriate to the situation you use the language in (say, if you know that you talk with a well-educated person, you could use the latter. Otherwise — the former, or a fusion of the two, if you like the scientific term more ('у меня однояйцевые — одинаковые, то есть — близнецы')).

You could, of course, say simply 'у меня одинаковые близнецы' — it will be understood, but it reeks of Translatorese to me, so maybe you’d want to avoid it.

'Двойняшки' refers to the same phenomenon as 'близнецы', but, as you might have guessed, it also means that there were two babies born at the same time, unlike 'тройняшки' ('triplets'), 'четверняшки' ('quadruplets') and so on.

'Двойня'('тройня', 'четверня') tends to be more elevated in register than the above words, and it is almost exclusively used with newborns and in expressions that refer to pregnancy and childbirth (like it was said in an above comment).

'Двойник', on the other hand, means 'a double, a look-alike'. 'A person who pretends to look like someone else' (i.e. an impostor) — is 'самозванец'. A person whose job is to substitute someone else with the same looks is 'двойник'.

[nataxxa.livejournal.com]

If you understand spoken Russian well you will like this short story from Eralash, about twins who are not twins in fact
http://smotri.com/video/view/?id=v8454878683