5 Russian Phrases To Say Something Is Easy

Tutorial Transcript

Hello everyone! Here I am again with more Russian phrases for everyday life. And in this video we're gonna talk about how to say that something is easy and simple in Russian. Let's get started... Way number one has two versions... легко and просто, легко и просто ... and they both mean simple, easy... you can use them absolutely equally. Легко, просто... those are the adverbs, and also we have adjectives for that - лёгкий, лёгкий. But remember that the adjective, лёгкий, also means that something is light. Light, for example a light bag, лёгкая сумка, or maybe umm, something as light as a feather, лёгкий как пёрышко, and also it has a meaning as easy and simple, for example лёгкий экзамен, лёгкая задача, and at the same time you can say, простой экзамен, простая задача. Это было легко. Это было просто. So, you can use both and there is no difference. Way number two comes from the way number one and here we have two phrases, легче лёгкого and проще простого. So, literally it means easier than easy and simpler than simple. In English, usually it's translated as a "piece of cake." So, something very easy проще простого, легче лёгкого. For example, your friends ask you about some very difficult exam, and for you it was pretty easy and you can say, "Ha! Легче лёгкого!" "Я сделал все зандания проще простого." So it means it was a "piece of cake!" ...very easy, легче лёгкого. Way number three is very informal and this one is Раз плюнуть, раз плюнуть... and usually it's translated as "it's a breeze" But, literally it means as easy as to spit, like - very easy, right? ... and this one you can use with your friends and maybe when someone is offering you some difficult task and you can say, "Well, for me, it's very easy maybe again, for me it's just a piece of cake. Для меня, это раз плюнуть, раз плюнуть... But remember that this one is pretty informal. Way number 4 has just one word - Элеменатарно. Элементарно... and I'm sure you understand that this is elementary it's super easy its elementary, and we use this word a lot when you want to show that something was very easy and even if it was not but you want to show that you're so cool you can say, Это было элементарно, or maybe if you are you know, bad and your friend doesn't understand some difficult text, in a text book and instead of explaining that you just say, "Ohh, it's just so easy, nothing to explain. Это элементарно, нечего объяснять ... Элементарно. And ... what else interesting about this word? Very often we add "Ватсон" there. In Russian translation, Ватсон is Watson. Watson, ... very famous Мr. Holmes' friend, Dr. Watson, and it's the line from the books and from very popular Soviet movie... Элементарно, Ватсон... and you can use this with your friends and Russian people do it a lot. Элементарно, Ватсон. Way number five is very interesting in Russian, it sounds like, Проще пареной репы. Проще пареной репы, and literally it means, it's easier than a boiled turnip. It's easier than to boil a turnip. This expression dates back to those times when Russian peasants were cooking those turnip porridges and it was very easy, like today, to boil potatoes. You just put them in the water and wait. What can be easier than that? And, since we had no potatoes in Russia until Peter the Great, the peasants were using turnip. So, when it's something very easy you can use this phrase. Проще пареной репы. Remember that you can't say Легче пареной репы. No, it's an idiom and you cannot change it, just Проще пареной репы. For example, again someone asked you about your exam Ну, как экзамен, проще пареной репы. Аnd everyone will understand the exam was pretty easy for you. проще пареной репы. And those were the five ways of saying that something is easy. легко / просто - легче лёгкого / проще простого - раз плюнуть - Элементарно, and проще пареной репы. So, next time when you want to say that something is easy don't use just лёгко or просто, make your Russian sound more natural and use one of those expressions. If you want to learn more Russian phrases check out my book, 600 Real Russian Phrases for Everyday Life, I will put the link right below this video and for today I guess that was it and thank you very much for watching. I hope to see you in my next video, bye bye!