Speaking without getting tongue-tied

Olga Severetskaya – linguist, journalist of the radio station "Echo of Moscow" 1991–2022, candidate of philological sciences, leading research fellow at the V.V. Vinogradov Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, holder of the Pushkin Medal. This book is about the "error-prone" areas of the Russian language. Every day we encounter words that are not easy to use – putting on boots, sneakers, or loafers, packing pairs of socks, stockings, and jeans into our suitcases, going on vacation abroad or to the countryside. There are cases where the norm is strictly defined, and there are cases where "freedoms" are permissible. This book is also the history of some words and expressions, names and surnames. We will master airplanes, steamboats, and locomotives, visit the faraway kingdom, the thirtieth state, where the Tsar waits for us, and we will even look into cheat sheets and seriously consider whether there are tails on scoundrels and hangers-on. We invite you into the fascinating world of the Russian language.