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Chameleon


Елдырин, — обращается надзиратель к городовому, — узнай, чья это собака, и составляй протокол!

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Yeldyrin,” the superintendent turns to the policeman, “find out whose dog this is and draw up a report!

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Where it stands

Как оштрафуют его, мерзавца, так он узнает у меня, что значит собака и прочий бродячий скот! Once they fine him, the scoundrel, he’ll learn from me what a dog means, and the rest of the stray cattle besides!

Я ему покажу Кузькину мать!.. I’ll show him what’s what!..

А собаку истребить надо. And the dog must be destroyed.

Немедля! Without delay!

The words in this sentence

Елды́рин
Yeldyrin (name)
обраща́ется
addresses; treats (3sg of обращаться) — обращаться
надзира́тель
police inspector, overseer (nom sg) (archaic)
к
to, toward (+ dat)
городово́му
to the policeman (dat sg) — городовой
узна́й
find out, ask (imper sg) — узнать
чья
whose (nom sg f) — чей
э́то
this; it is — этот
соба́ка
dog
и
and; also, even
составля́й
make up, compose (imper sg) — составлять
протоко́л
official report, deposition (nom/acc sg)

А. П. Чехов, «Хамелеон», 1884 · sentence 25 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.

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