Thread: The Caribbean

I was just reading an article about a man, 70 years old, who lives on the beach in St. Lucia and owns 55 acres. He lives in a shack. He turned down $60 million for his property.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/trave ... ideo1803pm

Anyhow, it got me interested in what The Caribbean is called in Russian.

So I looked it up and dictionary says: Карибский бассейн

Now, because these are 2 words... I'm interested to know how to use them, since I don't really know how to change the words with various prefixes when I have 2 words instead of just 1.

e.g.:

- I live in the Caribbean

- I'm going to the Caribbean on vacation

- I am from the Caribbean

- I left my heart in the Caribbean

Could someone translate these for me? Thanks...

Карибский бассейн refers to the archipelago. One can say я живу на Карибских островах. In the official media they would say В странах Карибского бассейна. But usually when one wants to refer to the place simply a country's name will be used:
Carribean countries are: Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, The Bahamas or Antigua, islands of Cuba, Dominica, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saba, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Guadeloupe, and Trinidad & Tobago. One of these names will be used I think.

Originally Posted by Ramil

Карибский бассейн refers to the archipelago. One can say я живу на Карибских островах. In the official media they would say В странах Карибского бассейна. But usually when one wants to refer to the place simply a country's name will be used:
Carribean countries are: Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, The Bahamas or Antigua, islands of Cuba, Dominica, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saba, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Saint Vincent, Guadeloupe, and Trinidad & Tobago. One of these names will be used I think.

Thanks. I also noticed in Wikipedia (the way I translate a lot of my Russian - clicking the Русский link), it says Вест-Индия - which in English is pretty much only used in history books.

btw. About Jamaica, one of the funniest things I've seen is a white guy talking with a Jamaican accent. Even funnier is a Chinese guy because that's really not expected. I mean Chinese guys are funny enough talking with Australian accents.

Usually (non officially) people can say just "Карибы".

Originally Posted by ycomp

- I live in the Caribbean / Я живу на Карибах.
- I'm going to the Caribbean on vacation / Я собираюсь в отпуск на Карибы.
- I am from the Caribbean / Я с Карибов.
- I left my heart in the Caribbean / Мое сердце осталось на Карибах.

Strictly speaking "Карибский бассейн" means drainage basin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drainage_basin) of the Caribbean Sea. But geographists usually combine it with the basin of the Gulf of Mexico and include most territory of Mexico and USA (see fig. in the article).

So "Карибы" оr "острова Карибского бассейна" is more preferrable than "страны Карибского бассейна".

Originally Posted by CoffeeCup

Usually (non officially) people can say just "Карибы".

Just what I was going to say.