Thread: Mr Smith would like some help with understanding some short Russian texts

Hello there,

Thanks so much for your help.

Regarding sentence number 3, please can you offer a complete translation of it, as I have only managed to grasp the first part:

3. Дело в том, что у людей теперь большой выбор, но цены на газеты и журналы слишком высокие, и нужно много денег, чтобы выписать всё, что они выписывали раньше.
3. The point is that people now have a large choice, but the cost of newspapers and magazines is too high. A lot of money is necessary in order to subscribe to them all...’

The last bit of the sentence 'что они выписывали раньше', is the part that is confusing me. I would crudely translate it as 'that/so they used to subscribe earlier', which clearly makes no sense. I don't understand what 'earlier' is meant to mean in this context. Who subscribed to what 'earlier, and WHY? Does this last bit insinuate that subscribing earlier was a less costly option? Was it the Petrovs who were subscribing earlier or people in general?

If it isn't too much trouble, please translate the entire sentence into English as accurately as you can.

I'm so baffled!

Originally Posted by Mr Smith

Regarding sentence number 3, please can you offer a complete translation of it, as I have only managed to grasp the first part:

3. Дело в том, что у людей теперь большой выбор, но цены на газеты и журналы слишком высокие, и нужно много денег, чтобы выписать всё, что они выписывали раньше.

"The [crux of] the matter is that people now have a large selection [from which to choose], but prices for newspapers and magazines are too high, and [people] need a lot of money in order to subscribe to everything, to which they formerly used to subscribe."

Note carefully that in the original Russian , the "что" in "всё, что" is STRESSED (so it's pronounced shto, not shtuh, if you read the sentence out loud!).

And it's stressed because it's not functioning as the conjunction "that" (as in "He said that he would be there"); it's functioning as an interrogative pronoun, and can be translated as "what" or "which". Thus, "...всё, что..." can be translated as "everything which" or "all of the stuff." (Compare Что блестит -- не всё то золото, "[That] which glistens -- not all [of] that [is] gold.")

Originally Posted by Mr Smith

I don't understand what 'earlier' is meant to mean in this context. Who subscribed to what 'earlier, and WHY? Does this last bit insinuate that subscribing earlier was a less costly option? Was it the Petrovs who were subscribing earlier or people in general?

Taking your questions in order:

1. раньше in THIS context means "in the past; in former times; in the good old days" (as opposed to "a few hours ago" or "sooner than other people", which can be used to translate раньше in other contexts)
2. People in general formerly subscribed to lots of newspapers/magazines, back in the good old days when they cost less.
3. People in general, the Petrovs among them