Thread: Weird expressions

I have seen some weird expressions in lessons-files from www.princeton.edu. Even a russian didn't understand this:

Что слышно? = what's up?

I suppose it is kind of slang or something.
Does the understanding of some expressions depend on where the person come from, socially, geographically etc.?

Some other expressions were:

Нахал(ка)! = Jerk
мнe некогда. = I'm in a hurry
нe спрашивай = don't ask! (answer to Что слышно?)

Originally Posted by jz12

I have seen some weird expressions in lessons-files from www.princeton.edu.

#
Could you please give me the direct link to the lesson files?

Some of the expression were introduced in lesson 1:

http://www.princeton.edu/russian/SLA101 ... F%20Files/

Originally Posted by jz12

I have seen some weird expressions in lessons-files from www.princeton.edu. Even a russian didn't understand this:

Что слышно? = what's up?

I suppose it is kind of slang or something.
Does the understanding of some expressions depend on where the person come from, socially, geographically etc.?

Some other expressions were:

Нахал(ка)! = Jerk
мнe некогда. = I'm in a hurry
нe спрашивай = don't ask! (answer to Что слышно?)

All the expressions seems pretty common to me.

I second that, Paxan. All of the expressions listed are common and present no problem to native speakers of Russian.

Originally Posted by jz12

I have seen some weird expressions in lessons-files from www.princeton.edu. Even a russian didn't understand this:
Что слышно? = what's up?

Who is that Russian? ALthough this particular one might be a little confusing when taken completely out of context. It might be better to replace it with "Что нового? or "Что новенького?"... Что слышно is better used in a phrase like this one:
Что слышно о Вашем дядюшке?

All other expressions are completely normal.

Thanks for good replies

I was a bit unsure about the expression Что слышно?. It seems a bit weird to me. But it may be used by some. City slang or something?

Originally Posted by jz12

I was a bit unsure about the expression Что слышно?. It seems a bit weird to me. But it may be used by some. City slang or something?

It is perfectly common and normal (not slang). Your confusion probably comes from an attempt to translate it directly to English. Try to translate "what's up" to Russian and tell me if that's not weird?

Ok. that's good to know. The reason for my confusion is that a russian (from Murmansk) didn't understand the expression written. If it's very normal, it's very good to me

The reason for my thought to be slang was the expression appearing on an internet page with russian slang.

thanks

Originally Posted by jz12

The reason for my confusion is that a russian (from Murmansk) didn't understand the expression written.

Now, this is weird! My guess it was out of context and you presented it as slang to him and he couldn't figure out what was so special about it...

No. I simply wrote this expression over msn. She said that expression didn't make any sense to her.

Maybe she meant that it sounded a bit weird because there was no context as you mentioned.

"Что слышно?" directly means "what's heard?"

May be she interpretated your message as "how do you hear my writing?"
Maybe she supposed that you should have written "что написано?" "what's written".

Or may be you forgot to put this sign "?" at the end?

"Что слышно" is not all that common, and, unlike "What's up", it is never used as a form of greating. It is not weird or rare either, but it should be only used in certain contexts.

You can use it when you know that the person who you are talking to has been expecting some news or something like that, and when this person knows that you know. In other situations, it may cause confusion.

You can say something like "Что новенького?" instead.

ok. thanks. that sounds very logical to me.