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Language through Literature

Chameleon


Ежели сказал, что бродячая, стало быть и бродячая…

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If I said she's a stray, then a stray she is…

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Where it stands

— Она бродячая! — She's a stray!

Нечего тут долго разговаривать… No use standing about talking…

Истребить, вот и всё. Destroy her, and that's the end of it.

The words in this sentence

е́жели
if (archaic/colloquial for если)
сказа́л
he said (past m of сказать, to say) — сказать
что
that (conj.)
бродя́чая
stray, wandering (nom f sg) — бродячий
ста́ло
became; began (past n of стать) — стать
быть
to be
и
and; also, even

А. П. Чехов, «Хамелеон», 1884 · sentence 48 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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