- Forum >
- Topic: Russian >
- "Молодец!"
60 Comments
Can I use this sentence after sex? or is it used only in educational context?
Я не могу перестать смеяться, когда думаю о том, что после секса кто-то говорит "Молодец!" :D :D :D
Мододец is only for man. For instance добрый мОлодец. A woman may be умница (умничка) only.
I would translate this as good job! Who says attaboy these days in English?
I actually had to google it, because I 've never heard "attaboy" before (I'm not a native speaker, obviously)
I actually probably say it on a daily basis. But I use it in the same way it's suggested here, sort of patronising. Kind of as a way of saying "Good job, you finally did your job right"
I was under the impression that this is used only toward small children, in a vaguely insulting manner towards underlings, or sarcastically - golf clap after a fail Молодец!
I can't find where I saw this - it was several places, though.
It is not insulting, just a bit patronizing. So you will use it toward friends and your subordinates but not towards people you are not qualified to judge. For example, if a famous writer writes a very good book or a singer you love performs really well, it would feel out of place to praise them with «Молодец».
By the way, feel free to suggest other options. Obviously, it is impractical include hundreds of different options but right now "Good job!"/"Well done!"/"Atta(boy/girl)" are the only ones that come to my mind.
By the way, feel free to suggest other options.
Oh I meant to reply to this but forgot about it until I saw russianduo post today.
Your options are absolutely fine (and I agree that bunches of options are just confusing and impractical). I was simply trying to clarify, for myself, when this would be appropriate based on other things I'd read.
2 things:
- I can't remember in the intro to this course if it strongly encourages reading comments - even to the problems you get right. It should. The course (as great as it is) couldn't possibly cover all permutations, but the comments section is a gold mine of colloquial usage, nuance and discussion. And that grows daily. I read comments on my review questions, every time, just in case there's some additional information. There usually is.
In other languages on DL I find doing this less important. With Russian? Well you could probably get by without it, but if you wanted to actually learn the language it seems extremely useful.
- How would you say "Well done!" or, perhaps "Bravo!" [I loved your book/opera/play] to someone you weren't qualified to judge but to whom you wanted to express your admiration?
This strikes me as sarcastic, or a bit baby boomerish -- I can't imagine myself or my grandparents using "Way to go." Instead, it would only be my parents' generation.
To be honest, I can't stand the phrase, though I might be alone in that.
I've only heard Americans use it non-sarcastically. I just can't say it seriously with a British accent.
A gen-Xer here; have been living in the US for many years now, albeit learnt my English in the UK. I do say "Way to go!" but only sarcastically, commenting on someone's inept or incompetent actions. I wonder if it's a generational backclash given that baby boomers seem to be using it as an actual encouragement.
Does it really feel out of place? I'm just asking, because I remember when I was in Minsk, I attended the city festival there and whenever there was a group of performers, the audience would shout "молодцы" all the time! Maybe that's a Belorussian thing, though...
Thank you for making me remind of the plural. It's not a Belarusian thing. It's plural word of "Молодец!"
Living in Ukraine for almost a year, I find that Молодец translates quite well to "good jobber" (if that makes sense)
I never thought about it, but I suppose it makes sense--if I'm grading tests and I write "good job!" to a student who got 100%, that's fairly standard praise. But the only time I'd say "good job!" to, e.g., a professional athlete, is sarcastically: "Good job in scoring the own-goal that lost us the game!"
Hi. I have two native Russian speakers who say this to me in response to my Russian practice. I'm under the impression it's something someone says when praising your efforts. Would "Nice!" work as a translation?
I've been following a famous russian singer and his fans are writing "молодец" to him all the time! It's one of the first russian words I learned because of this.
What would one use for performers or other people one admires? I've heard shouts of "Bravo/Brava" a ballet setting, but what would one say to a writer, for example? Simply, "I love your new book?"
I was warned by a Russian friend that to describe something as хорошо is very luke-warm praise, so that if you are asked how something went and answer "хорошо" it comes across more as "it was fine", "it was OK" rather than active approval.
His explanation was because this was the word used for a mid-range grade in the schoolwork grading system.
Yep, хорошо is usually just "fine", unless the sentence used certain structures or words to make it stronger:
- очень хорошо = very good
- Так хорошо!.. = So good!...
If you want it stronger, there are bags of other words at your disposal, defining stronger shades of awesome: отлично, прекрасно, превосходно, замечательно and others. The standard grade system used in schools and universities uses the scale of (literally) "unsatisfactory"-"satisfactory, adequate"-"good"-"excellent"
(this "adequate" when used like that is, really, more like "better than nothing")
Is there a different phrase that means "congratulations?" That's what I put, and it wasn't accepted.
348
Likewise. I've been using молодец as congratulations for a long time... Am I now being told that I was incorrect all that time?
"Молодец!" is an informal expression of encouragement/praise. You could use "congratulations" in that sense too, but the primary meaning of "Сongratulations!"="Поздравляю!"
- 2375
Is there a feminine version of this word? I have seen it in masculine singular and plural only, so I guess it's unisex, but that's unusual, isn't it?
Unisex nouns are usual enough in Russian albeit rare, also it concerns many job titles. Молодец means basically "a guy" thus masculine, but nowadays it's used towards women as well.
Except, the word itself is not specifically feminine. A boy can be told "Какой же ты молодчина!" (Notice the masculine form of "какой".)
I have some Russian friends who translated it to "good boy". I'm not an English native speaker neither, so duo's " good job" sound strange to me... But I guess it means the same anyway in everyday English. Would Duolingo accept "good boy" or "good girl" as possible translation here?
I don't know how many times I reported "Attaboy!" should be accepted (especially that Attagirl IS accepted already), but no reaction so far... maybe commenting will help in that matter? :)
No connection. Unless you think that "computer" and "decanter" are similar enough to be considered connected.
Well, the -er suffix on both of them suggests they're a thing that does a thing to another thing (computing numbers, decanting a liquid)...
And Russian "-eц" is simply an ending of some masculine nouns, not carrying any specific meaning as far as I can tell. E.g. "конец"="end/ending", "перец"="pepper", "огурец"="cucumber", "глупец"="fool", "мудрец"="wise man" etc. The last two examples could make you think that this suffix helps turning an adjective into a noun ("глупый"="foolish/stupid"; "мудрый"="wise"), which is often the case, but it certainly does not work that way with the first three examples here.
If you say, "Пиздец ты молодец." then this can be applied if, for example, you drop something or commit a strange act that frustrates the person you are talking to. It is pronounced with a touch of irony.
Вот классический пример употребления. Без слова "пиздец", конечно)(Here is a classic usage example. Without the word "пиздец" of course)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk2DfKmf6pw
Huh, so it really is a noun.
молоде́ц məlɐˈdʲet͡s
m anim genitive молодца́, nominative plural молодцы́, genitive plural молодцо́в (Wiktionary)
Usage:
мо́лод|ец (ФОЛЬКЛОР) brave lad, fine young man.
молод|е́ц (-ца́); м strong fellow.
молоде́ц! (разг) well done!
она́/он молоде́ц! (разг) she/he has done well!
держа́ться (impf) молодцо́м to put up a good show.
(Collins 1997, ed. 2, https://www.wordreference.com/ruen/молодец)
Who knows what разг means?
разг is short for разговорное (colloquial). It marks words that are commonly used in speech and do not create much effect there, still within more or less neutral style (as compared to bookish language, regional vocabulary or language associated with poorly educated people).
The latter is the plural.
Молодец is a noun, so if you address a group of people, who all performed well—you would use Молодцы!
Oh boy! ≠ Attaboy!
At least not in California, where I live now. In fact, they are almost opposite: Oh boy! is an expression you would use when witnessing a mishap, or to express your commiseration.
