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Is there a russian word for soft touch ?
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Posted by: rattlesnake6979

Hi , does anyone know the russian word for " soft touch " or being taken for a ride ? Is there a russian expression which I could use when I think I am being used by anyone in the fsu ?

rattle

Posted by: Chris_UK

Rattlesnake,

I asked my fiancee and she said that a good transliterated translation would be:

"dav yairchivwee chillaveerk"

literally "gullible person". It's not so slangy as "soft touch" but it should get your message across if you have cause to use it!

Regards
Chris

Posted by: wavetossed

Oh my god! Why do people transliterate Russian like this?

At least you gave the translation so we can look it up in a dictionary. A more standard way of writing this would be

doverchiviy chelovek

And once you have learnt the basics of the Russian alphabet you'll know how it is really pronounced.
http://www.masterrussian.com
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePar...nunciation.html

Posted by: Chris_UK

Wavetossed

I have a newish computer and haven't set it up for the Russian character set yet, hence why I used transliteration. Plus, Rattlesnake might not be familiar with the Cyrillic alphabet.

By the way, I am quite familiar with it myself and can pronounce almost any Russian word you put in front of me, whether I know what it means or not.

I don't like transliteration either. To me, most of the seemingly accepted ways of transliteration result in pronunciations which sound little like the Russian words actually sound. For example, do you think that "chelovek" actually *sounds* more like the Russian pronunciation than the "chillaveerk" that I used? The same goes for "doverchiviy" / "dav yairchivwee".

Of course, yes, if someone were to write "chillaveerk", then a Russian probably wouldn't understand it but I wanted to convey how the words actually sound. Sure, the communication Rattlesnake was talking about is more likely to be via email, so I accept you're correct in pointing out how it should be written (if not pronounced!).

Chris

Posted by: Jill

I actually don't know the expression "soft touch" in English

But "being taken for a ride" I think I understand

Doverchii chelovek isn't really it--it just means "a trusting person"--although that would be a person who could be easily taken for a ride.

There's the verb "to be deceived" which is obmanivat. If you want to say "he is deceiving me" you would say "on menya obmanivaet."

There's also "lapshu na ushi" which is the more "slangy" equivalent (but literally, hanging a noodle on your ears).

Did I understand correctly what you're trying to say?

Posted by: rattlesnake6979

Yes , Jill - being taken for a ride is the same as or even is identical to or even one and the same as being a " soft touch " .
You know , Jill , us brits and you yanks seem to sound like we speak the same language but as our great war time leader , Churchill said - the USA and England are " Two nations, one oceon but separated by a common language ". Thankyou for the input - as always Jill - you have provided me with new words which I can use to impress the locals ...

Balshoya spaseeeba . Paka

Rattle