Russian "maybe" - the meaning and meaning of the word

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There is an almost untranslatable word "maybe", which plays a key role in our life. People hope for it all the time, and it has become a feature of the national character.

This is a phrase from "The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda" by Alexander Pushkin. Recall, for those who suddenly forgot: the priest agreed to hire Balda for a kind of payment - Balda will give him three clicks a year. And the priest agreed, hoping that the clicks would not be strong … Pushkin, like no one else, understood the Russian soul. And good-naturedly laughed at the peculiarity of the Russians to hope for a chance (and a freebie).

The word "maybe" cannot be translated into other languages, it has a lot of shades of meaning and a very emotional color. It is always an expression of hope for good luck, given that there are few reasons for the success of an enterprise. This is hope and hope for the help of God and supernatural forces.

"Maybe" can be both a particle and a noun. The particle “maybe” means “maybe” and is used by the speaker with the hope: “maybe they will not be caught” (and suddenly they will not be caught, maybe they will not be caught, I hope they will not be caught). The noun "maybe" ("hope at random") also means hope - for random luck, despite the fact that there are few real chances for it.

A student who has not learned the subject still comes to the exam and hopes for luck. A criminal robbing a store thinks "maybe they won't get caught." A drunken husband comes home and hopes that "maybe the wife won't notice." Fishermen go fishing along the spring river, thinking "maybe the ice will not break."

Alexey Davydov / TASS

Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary indicates that "maybe" came from "and in all" an outdated phrase that means "but now." Over time, the last vowel in "avos" disappeared and "maybe" remained.

The word could be found very often in the life of peasants. The Russian peasant did literally everything at random: sowing fields "maybe it will sprout", preparing for the winter "maybe there will be enough food supplies", gambling "maybe you are lucky" and endlessly borrowing "maybe there will be something to give back."

Why are the Russians hoping for a chance?

“Maybe” has always meant hope in God. Russians are very superstitious, so it’s impossible to just say “this is when the wheat will sprout”, because you can jinx it. And the saying "maybe" means "God willing."

The nobles also used the word. Here Ivan Turgenev writes in a letter: "Perhaps God will help me to leave here on Friday - and perhaps I will see you on Saturday." There are no compelling circumstances why he cannot leave on Friday and arrive at his destination on Saturday, but he kind of protects his words from the evil eye. He seems to say "God will give me food," "God willing, I will live."

By the way, remember the famous Soviet shopping bags? Celebrated for their practical and beautiful designs, they are now popular again due to the trend towards the rejection of plastic bags. But in fact, the word "string bag" was joking among the people. With these bags, people went to the bazaars in the hope of getting something. “Perhaps I’ll bring something in it,” the Soviet comedian Arkady Raikin joked in a monologue. Russians just love to lure luck.

Does Russian "maybe" work?

With the word "maybe" there are many sayings, designed to wean a person from unfounded hopes for unknown higher powers, which should bring good fortune at the right time. “Hold on to it, the generation didn’t break away” “Maybe the fisherman is pushing under the sides”, “The Cossack, at random, sits on the horse, and the horse beats him at random”. All this is reflected in another capacious proverb, "Trust in God, but do not make a mistake yourself."

Russian people also do not go to doctors for years, because maybe it will go away by itself. Recently, even Vladimir Putin called people to account and in his address to the nation said that it is still not worth hoping for a Russian "maybe" in the situation with the coronavirus pandemic.

But the most interesting thing about the Russian "avos" is that some supernatural forces really help very often! This is how unprepared students pass exams in some unknown way!

But Pushkin's priest was unlucky: