ЗРЯ

We say "Зря", when we want to express, that smth we have done, was for nothing, out the window

"Музей сегодня закрыт, зря только съездил"

Так может сказать человек, который поехал посмотреть музей, потратил много времени и сил, а музей был закрыт - пришлось возвращатсья домой.

"На экскурсии не было ничего интересного. Только зря деньги (время) потратили".

Заплатили деньги, а ничего полезного не получили. Зря потратили деньги.

Or, contrary, to express, that it was a wrong decision not to do smth.

- Ну как концерт?

- Было очень хорошо. Зря ты не пошёл

Or to express that one's actions doesn't have neither any reasons nor sense

"Зря ты так волнуешься. Всё будет хорошо"

"Зря ты не ходишь со мной на танцы. Там очень весело"

Ice-cream and frozen seafood

Мороженое - ice-cream.

Мороз is, for example, -25C - a very low temperature.

Рыба - fish.

Морепродукты - море + продукты.

Продукты is what one sees in the streets always every day: in the store with such a sign one can by food.

Море - sea.

Of course, sea food in Moscow can be sold only conserved or frozen. Frozen is connecting with freeze, and it looks like замороженный. Be carefull of buying frozen something instead of мороженое!

Справка для ГИБДД

Справка is a paper, confirming facts, - a certificate, a document. While Russia is a quite (very) bureaucratic place, cправка is what you need in a range of situations. For exmaple, to get the driver's license you need a справка about your health condition, а medical one - медицинская справка.

ГИБДД - (pronounced is гибэдэдэ) is a traffic safety police, a structure, where you can get a driver's license. The old name of this police is ГАИ, which is still widely used in talking. As you can guess гаишник is a person, working in ГАИ - a popular character of jokes and complaints thanks to his famed corruption.

Банкомат / ATM

Банкомат isn't a bank (банк), as we could think, but close. It's an ATM.

Платежи - payments. They include payments for mobile, internet access, water, gas, etc.

Платежи без комиссий means there're no % you need to pay, making these payments - no comission fee.

24 часа is an important info, too, which means the ATM works 24 hoursn. You can see this sign pretty often in Moscow. For example, ПРОДУКТЫ. 24 ЧАСА signals, you can buy food all day and night long here.

Dacha or more

Море - sea

Дача - dacha, holiday house in a country-side

These people are, obviously, at the sea-side, not at the dacha (not at the Russian one).

"На море вместо дачи?" сan be translated as "To the sea instead of dacha?"

After "вместо" we can see "дачи", not "дача" - we need Genetive case here.

For most people spending holiday at the sea coast appear a better alternative to the dacha's dullness.

The answer is "Возможно!", which means "Possible!"

Где находятся кассы?

Кассы - booking offices.
But it's not just Кассы, they're железнодорожные! Железная дорога - railway; literary - iron road. So, железнодорожные кассы - a place, where you can buy railway tickets.
В соседнем здании - in the next building. (literary -neighboring. Сосед - а neighbor).

Железнодорожные кассы находятся в соседнем здании. Находятся - "are situated", in everyday speaking this word isn't necessary, but in writing use quite regularly.

Металлоремонт... And other very important services

So many words! And only 8 services.
The key word here is МЕТАЛЛОРЕМОНТ, which contains two roots - "металл" - metal, "ремонт" - repair. You can fix something metalic in this office.
What exactly?
Изготовим срочно ключи
Cрочно - urgently. Ключи - keys. Изготовить - here, the same as "сделать" - to make

Ремонт замков, зонтов
Замок - a lock, зонт - an umbrella

Ремонт застёжек "молния"
"Молния" is just a zipper at your bag or jacket. Застёжка - fastener

Кнопки на сумки
Кнопка - snap fastener. This word also means "a push-button". Сумка - a bag

Карабины - clevises. Well, mountain climbers always use them

Замки - locks, as we already know.

And the last one - Ксерокопия. This word also contain two roots: "Xerox" and "copy".

Пятёрочка

Пятёрочка is a chain of budget food stores in Russia. But what does its name means?

1 - один

2 - два

3 - три

4 - четыре

5 - пять

In school we have 5 marks system, and 5 (пять) is the best mark.

Pupils normally call marks not just - три, четыре, пять, but - тройка, четвёрка, пятёрка. The same happened, when it comes about money - 5 rub coins informally called пятёрка, 10 rub - десятка и т.д.

So, пятёрка - "the best mark" and "a 5 rubles coin" in the same time.

But shop's name isn't just Пятёрка, it's Пятёрочка.

What's -очк? Анечка, сумочка, шапочка, Ирочка - oчк suffix means "small, neat, tiny and lovely".

So, Пятёрочка is more lovely, than just Пятёрка.

That's happened to your names in Russian

Do you know, that if called John (Джон) in England or Marta (Марта) in Poland, you won't stay Джон & Марта in every situation in Russia? Get ready to some transformations!


GENITIVE CASE
A person isn't here now.

- Джон здесь?
- Джона нет.

- Марта здесь?
- Марты нет.


DATIVE CASE
A person's a recipient of some information or a present or a letter, etc

- Кому ты звонишь?
- Я звоню Джону.

- Кому ты звонишь?
- Я звоню Марте.


ACCUSATIVE CASE
A person is an object of smb's actions - looking at, listening, buying, liking, hating, kissing, etc.

- Ты видел сегодня Джона?
- Да, я его видел.

- Ты видел сегодня Марту?
- Да я ее видел.


INSTRUMENTAL CASE
You do smth along with smb.

- C кем ты едешь в Петербург?
- Я еду с Джоном.

- С кем ты едешь в Петербург?
- Я еду с Мартой.

How to make Russian do what you want? Imperative mood

Below, I posted an instruction for making tea. The bolded words have an imperative mood. This's a form, that tells you: do it (please)!

How to make it?
Look:
Купить - купи - купите - to buy - buy! (talking to a person you know well) - buy! (a polite form using in talking with a person you're not close to, or to a group of people)

-ть from an infinitive goes away!

Купить - ть = купи + (те)
Переводить - переводи - переводите (to translate - translate! - translate!)

Now look at this: дать - ть = да + й + (те)
A always folowed by Й :
Дать - дай - дайте (to give - give me! - give me!)
Читать - читай - читайте (to read - read! - read!)

Алекс приехал из Канады / Alex came from Canada

and faster:

Алекс – it’s a boy's name. Masculine nouns (everything in Russian have gender, not alive things, too) have a consonant in the end. Алекс is a subject (subject is what or whom a sentence is about), and for a subject we use infinitive form of a noun.

Приехал - ехать means 'to go by transport'. When we talk about past, we change “ть” to “л” (for a masculine noun), or to “ла” (for feminie).
При + ехал. Predict при tells, that Alex has already finished her trip and know he's here, in Russia.

из Канады – every Canadian knows, that the right name of his country is Канада. But when we answer a question 'from there?’, it becames из Канады. That form calls a Genetive case.
Сompare with the masculine form: Лондон – из Лондона, and with neutral Токио – из Токио.
So, only feminine nouns (with а or я in the end) changes.