30 clothing words
Each word is marked with its gender, the grammatical class that decides the ending of “my”, “new” and every other word that describes it: m masculine, f feminine, n neuter, pl plural only. Words that come in pairs are listed in the plural, with the singular in brackets; their gender comes from the singular. Tap a word to hear it.
Put on, wear, be in: three verbs for one English word
English “wear” covers three situations that Russian keeps apart. Choosing the wrong one is understood, but sounds foreign.
Plural-only words
Like English “trousers” and “glasses”, some Russian clothing words exist only in the plural, even for one item. Russian has more of them than English. To count them, use a special set of numbers: одни́ (one), дво́е (two), тро́е (three).
| Word | English | One of them | Two of them |
|---|---|---|---|
| trousers | одни́ брю́ки | дво́е брюк | |
| jeans | одни́ джи́нсы | дво́е джи́нсов | |
| glasses | одни́ очки́ | дво́е очко́в | |
| tights | одни́ колго́тки | дво́е колго́ток | |
| underpants | одни́ трусы́ | дво́е трусо́в | |
| shorts | одни́ шо́рты | дво́е шо́рт |
Winter clothes
With winters at −20 °C in much of the country, Russian has precise words for cold-weather clothing, and some have no English equivalent.
Buying clothes
A conversation in a clothes shop. Russian sizes use the European system for shoes and a separate Russian system for clothing, so a size 48 jacket is roughly a UK 38.