An interesting structure that came up in the Russian lesson I worked on today is Как тебе …? (Kak tebe …) or literally “How to you …”), which means “What do you think of …?”. The example in the lesson is Ну, как тебе пельмени? (Nu, kak tebe pel’meni?), which means “So, what do you think of pelmeni*?”. The reply is Очень вкусно! (Ochen’ vkusno!) = “Very tasty!”.
This illustrates the fact that you often use fewer words in Russian sentences than in other languages like English. In some ways this makes Russian easier as there are fewer words to worry about in sentences like this. Although if you’re trying to translate from English to Russian you have to remember to leave half the words out.
Do any other languages use a similar structure?
*Pelmeni are a kind of dumpling, usually filled with meat, or sometimes with vegetables or fish.
Small correction: как = how, so the phrase in question translates as “how to you?” You could also say “Что тебе пельмени?” but that would mean something like “What is your problem with dumplings, anyway?”
You could say that in English, too: “How are the dumplings?”
“This illustrates the fact that you often use fewer words in Russian sentences than in other languages like English”
You may be on to something here. It’s particularly visible in many Slavic folk songs, which use few words and often have this Haiku-like, contemplative feel. They don’t work well at all when translated literally into English (English prefers a more verbose and concrete-event-oriented style) but in fact are capable of resonating deeply with the native speakers.
Of course one should also consider that English has little derivational and inflectional morphology (while having many short words and many roots), which makes for the need of additional words to alter the shades of meaning and indicate grammatical relations.
In Gaelg (Manx Gaelic), the verb ‘to be’ is frequently excluded from many constructions. Thus, for example:
“Quoi uss? Mish Simon.” (literally “Who you? Me Simon.”)
This sounds a bit like “You Tarzan, me Jane”, but is perfectly good Gaelg.
Other examples:
“Cre shen?” (“What that?” – i.e. “What is that?”)
“Mie lhiat…?” (literally, ‘good with-you?’), meaning “Do you like…?”
pelmeni can be only with meat, all the rest – with potatoes, fruits, berries, vegerables, mushrooms called vareniki вареники