Language through Literature

Chameleon


Ежели каждый будет кусаться, то лучше и не жить на свете…

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If every one of them is going to bite, then it would be better not to live in this world at all…

Where it stands

Пущай мне заплатят, потому — я этим пальцем, может, неделю не пошевельну… Let them pay me for it, because with this finger, maybe, I shan’t so much as stir for a week…

Этого, ваше благородие, и в законе нет, чтоб от твари терпеть… There’s nothing in the law either, Your Honour, that a man must put up with it from a dumb beast…

The words in this sentence

е́жели
if (archaic/colloquial for если)
ка́ждый
each, every (nom m sg)
бу́дет
will be (3sg of быть) — быть
куса́ться
to bite, sting (inf)
то
that; then (если... то)
лу́чше
better (comparative of хороший)
и
and; also, even
не
not
жить
to live
на
on, onto; at
све́те
light; world (prep sg) — свет

А. П. Чехов, «Хамелеон», 1884 · sentence 20 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, no account.

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