In the Russian lesson I worked on today there was an interesting expression – много где (mnogo gde) – which is a colloquial way of saying “many places” or “lots of places”, and literally means “many where”.
It’s used in the following context:
– где ты был, кроме России?
(gde ty byl, krome Rossii?)
where have you been besides Russia?
– Я много где был, в Европе и Азии.
(Ya mnogo gde byl, v Yevrope i Azii.)
I’ve been to lots of places in Europe and Asia.
Related Russian words include:
– где-то (gde-to) = somewhere
– где-нибудь (gde-nibyd’) = anywhere / somewhere
– нигде (nigde) – nowhere
In English we have somewhere, nowhere and anywhere, but not manywhere, which seems like it could be a useful word. Do any other languages have a word like this?
Hi Simon, interesting post! I also like the related word:
негде (negde) – (there is) nowhere
It’s used with the infinitive of the verb in impersonal expressions like
Мне негде жить (mne negde zhit’) – There is nowhere for me to live.
I love the way Russian can be so succinct!
Polish has mało gdzie “in few places, ‘littlewhere'” but there’s no equivalent construction for “many”, you have to use the prepositional phrase w wielu miejscach “in many places”. Doesn’t Russian have мало где, too?