Kushat' vs. Est'

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

What are the differences in usage between кушать и есть?  

Comments

[licvidator.livejournal.com]

For me кушать is a old form, that is replaced now with есть almost everywhere in daily life.

[oryx_and_crake]

http://www.gramota.ru/spravka/trudnosti/36_143

In short, кушать is only applicable to children and when you address your guests politely and somewhat archaically: "Кушайте, гости дорогие". Any other use for this verb is a strict no-no. In no circumstance whatsoever an adult male should say "я кушаю", "я покушал" etc.

[freedomcry.livejournal.com]

Кушать is a somewhat affected term. What this means is, it can be used to achieve a particular kind of tone of expression which is at once formal and homely, and it’s also very easy, by using it randomly or pretentiously, to make it sound extremely corny.

You probably shouldn’t say кушать unless and until you know completely what you’re doing, style-wise.

Вкушать - enjoy the fruits of something

[lion-casserole.livejournal.com]

.
There are many verbs in Russian to describe this action. From the top of the meaning (just to show the major difference)

есть (to eat) - to eat to appease one's hunger, to absorb the food
кушать (to eat) - to eat for/with pleasure

There is a joke in Russian. A man in a restaurant is speaking to a waiter:

- Неси, для начала, литр водки.
- А кушать что будете?
- Вот ее, родимую, и буду кушать.

One could replace the verb "кушать" with "жрать" ("жрать" means "to gorge", "to eat with no respect to others nor to the food"), this change is possible in Russian, while no one would use the verb "есть" in this context):

- Неси, для начала, литр водки.
- А жрать что будешь?
- Вот ее, родимую, и буду жрать.

[oryx_and_crake]

>>You probably shouldn’t say кушать unless and until you know completely what you’re doing, style-wise.
+1000

[alex-mashin.livejournal.com]

Also, "Кушать подано".

[oryx_and_crake]

Yes. In a word, several strictly defined and narrow contexts.

[orrine.livejournal.com]

Кушать is a colloquial word. Although there're other cases when it can be used. You can use just есть and you will be right

[arbutus.livejournal.com]

Native Russian speakers: Is the usage different in other parts of the former Soviet Union? I am living in Azerbaijan right now, and I honestly don't think I've ever heard есть in everyday conversation - it's always кушать.

[for-news.livejournal.com]

"to have a meal" vs. "to eat"

[kozavr.livejournal.com]

Don't listen to them :) There is no big difference between кушать and есть. Use which you want and don't loose your time on this subject. Even if the usage is slightly inappropriate, you will be understood.

[cassandraclue.livejournal.com]

I'm wondering if it also depends on the kind of company you keep, because when I am with my friends, I always hear "кушать" and "жрать," never "есть."

[4px.livejournal.com]

+1

[marsianka-selma.livejournal.com]

In Belarus, "кушать" is pretty rare, it's used only in conversation with children or ironically.

[orie.livejournal.com]

"кушать" is used when parents talk to kids.
If one uses it when talking about grown-ups he may be considered very uneducated.

[wolk-off.livejournal.com]

Yes, as a colloquialism, it tended to be also a local thing: you'd hear Ukrainians, Southern Russians, and Caucasians (or Caucasian Russians, while they existed) always overusing it, which, for a Muscovite ear, tended to have a nauseating effect ;-)))

[irre.livejournal.com]

+1!!

[oryx_and_crake]

It is not about being understood - you will be understood even if you speak like "Моя пошла в магазину". It is about speaking correctly and projecting a certain image. If I hear someone say я кушаю, I will assume that the person is illiterate.

[alamar.livejournal.com]

Кушать vs есть is never about educated/uneducated and it wasn't.

If you're never ever using кушать we may say your language is poor and bland; but you can also use it when the context is not suitable and confuse your public slightly.

[viata.livejournal.com]

Caucasian Russian here (Northern Caucasus), the usage I'm used to is consistent with what the first comments describe.
Although I've mentioned the overuse of кушать by Moldavians and some Southern Caucasians.

[kozavr.livejournal.com]

"lose", not loose
sorry

[joho07.livejournal.com]

I'm not Russian, but I have a lot of Russian friends, and they always say "кушать" when referring to eating - unless they say "I want to eat/I am hungry" which would be "я есть хочу".

[old-radist.livejournal.com]

Even if you are right - many comments here can be understood in the way, that the difference between "кушать" и "есть" looks like the difference between (for example) "лóжить" и "класть". But that is actually not the case! Where the word "лóжить" is really illiterate I would stand up to the fact, that "кушать" is not so bad in the real life. Imho, one should be a little bit snotnosed to set value on it.

°-)

[upthera44.livejournal.com]

Well, if you are able to use it sometimes as a colloquial word, another question is: Can you use it with an object? I.e., кушать что-то? Or is it usually without an object and just about eating in general?

[oryx_and_crake]

Sure, you can use it with an object. The problem is that language etiquette manuals do not recommend using it at all. I have to stress that it is _not_ colloquial in the manner the word жрать is colloquial. I think one may call it a strong social marker.

[oryx_and_crake]

>>If you're never ever using кушать we may say your language is poor and bland
Why's that? If one does not have children, he or she will have no occasion to use it at all. The only other occasion, потчевание гостей i.e. repeating Кушайте, гости дорогие is definitely out of fashion now.

[oryx_and_crake]

And any other usage is exactly that, uneducated.

[oryx_and_crake]

Here's a great thread from elsewhere discussing this topic

http://lelyechka.livejournal.com/566125.html?thread=18679405#t18679405

[alamar.livejournal.com]

I've never heard uneducated people use it extensively, so no, it's not.

I understand that you might think "everything what sounds weird to me is uneducated", but that's poor standing.
That's promoting poorer language because you can't figure out why you need so many words in dictionary. Perhaps we can drop half of those and still feel nothing?

No, I say. You should not be "serious" as in serious cat; you should not be afraid of saying words; you should not frighten other people against having a rich vocabulary but you should be experimenting out.

[oryx_and_crake]

Excuse me, but the language etiquette manuals do not agree with you. (If you want to sound silly, that's totally your problem, but please do not mislead the language learners.)
I already posted a link to gramota.ru on the subject; here's a quote from Rosenthal (I sincerely hope you know this name; if you don't, you probably should not judge Russian language-related matters):
Глагол кушать стилистически ограничен в своем употреблении: в современной литературной речи он не употребляется в форме 1-гo лица (в 3-м лице обычно только по отношению к ребенку), т. е. практически он используется только при вежливом приглашении к еде. В остальных случаях употребляется его нейтральный синоним есть.
http://sinykova.ru/doc/rosental/styli_xxxv.html

[oryx_and_crake]

P.S. I think you may find this article interesting as well http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%F3%EB%FC%F2%F3%F0%E0_%F0%E5%F7%E8

[old-radist.livejournal.com]

Already seen... °-) Funny!

[alamar.livejournal.com]

Language etiquette manuals have to stay on the safe side. In the field, e.g. when you go to lunch with your colleagues every day, you'll very soon run out of your vocabulary, and start using all sorts of weird words to describe the process. Or you'll be a very boring people indeed, who says "Пойдёмте обедать" every workday for many years.

[oryx_and_crake]

>>Or you'll be a very boring people indeed, who says "Пойдёмте обедать"
I'd rather be that than some kind of stupid sickly sweet dummy who addresses his coworkers as if they were small children.

>>and start using all sorts of weird words to describe the process
Isn't this exactly what you propose with кушать?

[alamar.livejournal.com]

I've figured already that you prefer to stay on the boring side.

However, what I wanted to point out, it's bad when you use "uneducated" to slap a some kind of linguistic behavior, which while sometimes correlating with some dialectal boundaries, have no relation whatsoever to the actual level of education.

Please don't use "uneducated" for anything other than asserting someone's formal education, because this both confuses people on the meaning of "education" and lets you to try and force people to take your (boring, as we've figured out) point of view on the subject.

I was mildly offended, and it's not even that I use "кушать" a lot.

[oryx_and_crake]

It is not just my point of view, as I have proved with multiple links to authoritative sources. Sorry, I don't see the point of continuing this argument. You are very welcome to go on speaking as you do. Just don't try to convnce others that this is standard accepted Russian.

[alamar.livejournal.com]

I wasn't trying to. My point was that it has nothing to do with educated/uneducated.

"Ложить" is uneducated. "Кушать" isn't.

[oryx_and_crake]

Sure, sure, you know better than Rosenthal. gramota.ru and Wikipedia put together. Let's stop this meaningless discussion.

[alamar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, perhaps not worse than you interpreting rosental, gramota.ru and wikipedia.