"Are you an artist?"
Translation:Вы художник?
17 Comments
FYI: artist is a false friend of a translator. In Russian артист means actor
Can артист be used in the senses in which English would say artiste? i.e. referring to a creative person in general, rather than someone who paints or draws
"артист" is the one who plays in movies or performs on stage or on the street. A creative person in general is "тво́рческий человек" or "творческая ли́чность" if you want to add some officiality.
The one who paints or draws is "худо́жник".
Thank you, that is most helpful. However, I have also seen актёр used in Russian. Is this a synonym of артист? Or are there differences in meaning?
"актёр" is the one who plays roles in movies and theatre. This is a more narrow definition.
No, артист = актёр if he plays roles, but a mime or a musician, for example, are not актёры, they are артисты.
Yes, I think everyone who performs on stage is an "артист". Including dancers. Not including sportsmen, TV hosts and interviewed people.
Ah, thank you. So you are simply an артист, until you start to have success in the profession.
So musicians and singers are also артисты? What about dancers? Does it cover all the "performing arts"?
Are you saying that horses are architects? In Soviet Russia, horses design stable for architect!
Is вы художница a correct translation? As if I'm using formal you while speaking with a woman. It is correct in Czech, but I know that there are some differences for the formal you between Czech and Russian.
I reported it anyway.
In English, in recent decades, there has been a move to drop gender-distinctive suffixes from professional nouns e.g. to use actor for both men and women, rather than to call a female actor an actress. Similarly Jew is now the accepted demonym for both men and women, and Jewess is only now used when the speaker wishes to be offensive. Does a similar trend exist in Russia? I seem to remember meeting a Russian woman who described herself as a художник.
Why does Вы художника not work? It says I have a typo and corrects it to художник. Wouldn't the first work for a woman, or am I messing up cases with that?
