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Language through Literature

Chameleon


Ты, Хрюкин, пострадал и дела этого так не оставляй…

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You, Khryukin, have suffered damages, and don't let this business drop…

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Where it stands

Попадись этакая собака в Петербурге или Москве, то знаете, что было бы? If a dog like that turned up in Petersburg or Moscow, do you know what would happen?

Там не посмотрели бы в закон, а моментально — не дыши! There they wouldn't go looking into the law — in a flash: breathe no more!

Нужно проучить! They must be taught a lesson!

Пора… It's high time…

The words in this sentence

ты
you (informal)
Хрю́кин
Khryukin (name; from хрюкать, to grunt)
пострада́л
suffered, was harmed (past m) — пострадать
и
and; also, even
де́ла
matter, affair (gen sg) — дело
э́того
this (gen sg) — этот
так
so, thus
не
not
оставля́й
leave it! (imper sg impf) — оставлять

А. П. Чехов, «Хамелеон», 1884 · sentence 38 of 53

This is one sentence of «Хамелеон» — 53 sentences long, and the whole story reads like this: every word glossed where it stands, the English out of your eyeline until you ask for it. Free: the reader opens the first instalment with no account and the rest with a free account, and the page with the English under every line needs none at all.

Open «Хамелеон» in the reader Read it whole, English under every line

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