Thread: A peculiar sentence or two

I need to put a couple of sentences in Russian into my story but I'm not sure yet whether to put it in cryllic or not. How does the following sound

'Ya khachyu abmin'at val'yutu. Milion dollars. Gd'e z'd'es prachichnaya?'
'Privaskhodna'

What I'm trying to say is - I want to exchange currency. A million dollars. Where is the laundry? Answer - The police station is this way.

Have I said that? My Russian is non-existent. I am trying to compose this from the back of a guide book!!!

Originally Posted by BJ

I need to put a couple of sentences in Russian into my story but I'm not sure yet whether to put it in cryllic or not. How does the following sound

'Ya khachyu abmin'at val'yutu. Milion dollars. Gd'e z'd'es prachichnaya?'
'Privaskhodna'

It's pretty good, only "milion dolarov" and the consonants at the end of " abmin'at' " and " z'd'es' " are soft.

val'yutu

Since you are marking soft letters with apostrophe you don't need "y" here.

What I'm trying to say is - I want to exchange currency. A million dollars. Where is the laundry? Answer - The police station is this way.

So a Russian wants to exchange million dollars in a laundry and the other guy gives him directions to a police station. Is this a comical scene or these are the sentences from different parts of the story? Anyway, you really expressed it very good in Russian.

Originally Posted by BJ

Ya khachyu

If you're going for strict transliteration then I would write, 'Ya khochu'

So many very, very excited people!

Maybe it is a sort of pun. He wants to launder money, so he goes to the laundry. The police tells him to go to the police station.

spasiba! Yes, it is supposed to be funny. Its two American policemen talking together showing that they can speak Russian

People, maybe something is lost on me, but "Privaskhodna" doesn't mean "the police station is over there". It means "excellent". To translate the phrase about the police station you'll have to put in "otdelenie militsii von tam".

"Privaskhodna" means what he answered after they showed him were to go. At least that's how I get it.