Thread: заняться

to engange

заняться твоего врага без милосердие.

To engage your enemy without mercy.

In your example "engage" means "вступать в бой" or "открывать огонь". I would translate your sentence as:

Бесщадно открыть огонь по врагу.

i had a feeling i as going to get it wrong, it sounded cool though, but hey я предумал сам.

zanimatsya - zanyatsya

Ya zanimayus russkim yazykom - I study Russian

Ya zanimayus mashinami - I'm in the car bussiness

Ya zanimayus lyubovyu s moey podrugoy - I'm making love to my gf

The verb is quite useful, although a "neutral" translation (of only the infinitive, not in a sentence) in English doesn't come to mind...

To be occupied with (or for the second one, My occupation is)

Originally Posted by mike

To be occupied with (or for the second one, My occupation is)

Such a translation, however, doesn't include the meaning of "zanyatsya" in my last example - "zanimatsya lyubovyu". To be occupied with love? Sounds very artificial. It's just one of those words you can only translate in a certain context IMO.

And how many other sentences does it work in this context just fine? I think the last example is not the same use of the verb, and means more "to engage oneself in" than "to occupy oneself with." Same verb, different meaning based on the noun. Run ten miles and then go to the tub and "run" some water.