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The Malefactor


— Чёрт ли в нём, в живце-то, ежели поверху плавать будет!

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— What the devil is the good of it, of the live bait, if it’s going to float along the top!

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Where it stands

Вру… Lying, am I…

— усмехается Денис. — Denis smirks.

Окунь, щука, налим завсегда на донную идёт, а которая ежели поверху плавает, то ту разве только шилишпер схватит, да и то редко… Perch, pike, burbot always take at the bottom, and any bait that floats along the top, why, only an asp will snatch that, and even then but rarely…

В нашей реке не живёт шилишпер… In our river the asp doesn’t live…

The words in this sentence

чёрт
devil (чёрт) — черт
ли
whether; question particle
в
in, into
нём
him, it (prep of он: о нём) — он
живце́-то
on live bait (prep sg + particle -то) — живец
е́жели
if (archaic/colloquial for если)
по́верху
along the surface, on top
пла́вать
to swim, float
бу́дет
will be (3sg of быть) — быть

А. П. Чехов, «Злоумышленник», 1885 · sentence 16 of 73

This is one sentence of «Злоумышленник» — 73 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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