Okay, it's not a post on experiences but more a commentary on streets and how there named.
The word for street in Russian is улица (compare with ulica in many other Slavic languages). Yes there are other street types here like проспект (avenue), шоссе (highway) and проезд (lane) but I'll be using улица in my examples.
Now улица is a feminine noun and names of streets are adjectives and Russian is one of those languages where adjectives have to agree in grammatical gender and number. So if you want to name something "Apple Street" in Russian it would be "улица яблочная" or "яблочная улица". (Note Russian word for apple is яблоко, яблочн- is used for adjective uses).
There are, however, some exceptions to the rule and that is if the street is named after a person or a date. Let's say you want to name your street after good old Vladimir Lenin. There are a couple of ways to go about it but the only difference is whether to include Vladimir in the street name or not. The full name of the street would be "улица имени Ленина" or "улица имени Владимира Ленина" which basically translates to "the street of the name of [Vladimir] Lenin". Russian names do decline and we have the use of the genitive here. What escapes this declension is Ukranian surnames ending in -enko for example (and those indeclinable foreign names). There is a street in Krasnodar named after pilot Polina Osipenko which is rendered as "улица Полины Осипенко". The first name is put into the genitive while the family name remains untouched.
And yes, there are street named after certain dates or achievements. Using ones found here in Krasnodar as examples there's 40 лет победы (named after the 40 years since WWII ended), 70 лет Октября (70 years since the October revolution I believe) 1-го Мая and 9-го Мая. The last two I've mentioned are named after the May holidays in Russia (May 1 is Labour Day and May 9 is Victory Day).
A bit of a story to go along with the two streets named after the May holidays. It was my first time getting a taxi on my own. I decided to download a taxi app (which I believe a friend of mine uses) since it was easier than making an order on the phone. It was close to midnight when I was leaving and the people I was hanging out with advised me to get a taxi since public transport was most likely on their last trip. The app was easy to use (and it came with an English interface even though it wouldn't translate поиск такси (searching for taxi) or however it was spelled). So I input where to be picked up and where to be dropped off and 15-20 minutes later I got a taxi.
Now the way taxi seem to work is that the driver knows where you are going because you either told dispatch or they received it from the app. My destination was 9-го Мая but I ended up going to 1-го Мая at first. I guess my driver got confused (and I at first thought he was taking a short cut). I think the driver realized the error after I showed him my phone and he looked at his. It was an interesting experience though (and there were no additional charges since it was a fixed rate and not a metred rate for the trip).
And as for the street names I think I'm just fascinated with the way Russian works. English doesn't have a lot of adjectives that agree with the gender of a noun since not all nouns in English carry gender. (blond man, blonde woman, red house)
The word for street in Russian is улица (compare with ulica in many other Slavic languages). Yes there are other street types here like проспект (avenue), шоссе (highway) and проезд (lane) but I'll be using улица in my examples.
Now улица is a feminine noun and names of streets are adjectives and Russian is one of those languages where adjectives have to agree in grammatical gender and number. So if you want to name something "Apple Street" in Russian it would be "улица яблочная" or "яблочная улица". (Note Russian word for apple is яблоко, яблочн- is used for adjective uses).
There are, however, some exceptions to the rule and that is if the street is named after a person or a date. Let's say you want to name your street after good old Vladimir Lenin. There are a couple of ways to go about it but the only difference is whether to include Vladimir in the street name or not. The full name of the street would be "улица имени Ленина" or "улица имени Владимира Ленина" which basically translates to "the street of the name of [Vladimir] Lenin". Russian names do decline and we have the use of the genitive here. What escapes this declension is Ukranian surnames ending in -enko for example (and those indeclinable foreign names). There is a street in Krasnodar named after pilot Polina Osipenko which is rendered as "улица Полины Осипенко". The first name is put into the genitive while the family name remains untouched.
And yes, there are street named after certain dates or achievements. Using ones found here in Krasnodar as examples there's 40 лет победы (named after the 40 years since WWII ended), 70 лет Октября (70 years since the October revolution I believe) 1-го Мая and 9-го Мая. The last two I've mentioned are named after the May holidays in Russia (May 1 is Labour Day and May 9 is Victory Day).
A bit of a story to go along with the two streets named after the May holidays. It was my first time getting a taxi on my own. I decided to download a taxi app (which I believe a friend of mine uses) since it was easier than making an order on the phone. It was close to midnight when I was leaving and the people I was hanging out with advised me to get a taxi since public transport was most likely on their last trip. The app was easy to use (and it came with an English interface even though it wouldn't translate поиск такси (searching for taxi) or however it was spelled). So I input where to be picked up and where to be dropped off and 15-20 minutes later I got a taxi.
Now the way taxi seem to work is that the driver knows where you are going because you either told dispatch or they received it from the app. My destination was 9-го Мая but I ended up going to 1-го Мая at first. I guess my driver got confused (and I at first thought he was taking a short cut). I think the driver realized the error after I showed him my phone and he looked at his. It was an interesting experience though (and there were no additional charges since it was a fixed rate and not a metred rate for the trip).
And as for the street names I think I'm just fascinated with the way Russian works. English doesn't have a lot of adjectives that agree with the gender of a noun since not all nouns in English carry gender. (blond man, blonde woman, red house)
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