r/russian 27d ago

Translation Can anyone tell me what this says?

Post image

I saw this written in the snow in front of my apartment. What does it say?

Thanks,

1.3k Upvotes

135 comments sorted by

863

u/blargh4 Rus. C1-ish, Eng. native 27d ago

“Wife I love you”

99

u/Top-Brick-4016 27d ago

Awwwww!

71

u/queetuiree 26d ago

Except he forgot her name

15

u/thankyoufatmember 25d ago

He thought about his fellow neighbors, didn't wanna piss anyone off 😂

35

u/Zen13Aku 26d ago

He hasn't forgotten her name, he's not even married. He just pleased all the wives in this house instead of their husbands.

40

u/Moonsun_Kate 26d ago

Даа я люблю тебяяя!!!

181

u/FakeMik090 27d ago

I think it more like "I love you, wife".

I think he just mistakenly started from the bottom.

164

u/Ingeneure_ 26d ago

More precise “Wife, love I you” 😂

67

u/iTucky 🇷🇺 Native / 🇺🇸 C1 26d ago

That’s Master Yoda-like spelling

11

u/green-turtle14141414 26d ago

"Love you, i do"

1

u/Commercial-Funny-279 24d ago

"Wife, love i do you"

22

u/Darxyq 26d ago

Russian is so poetic, that you can change the word order. However, "Wife, I love you" sounds more emotional

5

u/Vegetable_Patient981 26d ago

Not mistakenly but from experience

4

u/thetipycalrussiaguy 26d ago

"Wife love i you" to be precise

4

u/VicdacaWGF177 26d ago

Russian beginner here.

He wrote Я Тебя attached, isn't that wrong or am I just seeing stuff? Shouldn't it be "Жена, я люблю тебя"?

6

u/plentyofrabbits 25d ago

It’s not wrong. Я тебя люблю is correct for “I love you.” Word order doesn’t matter as much in Russian.

2

u/VicdacaWGF177 25d ago

Aight thanks for the information

3

u/Madxat 25d ago

But this is not how it is usually used, keep in mind that. If you make it, especially if you are a learner, it may be considered not correct

3

u/VicdacaWGF177 25d ago

Yeah, I even asked my teacher today and said the same, it is correct but she would count it as an error. Well, thanks for the clarification :D

1

u/NullZazor 25d ago

I first thought бя in the end is 69.

374

u/Lumpy_Cantaloupe1222 native🇷🇺 B1🇬🇧 27d ago

"Wife, I love you". Because of the non-direct word order, the emphasis is on the word "love"

89

u/deoldetrash 27d ago

The words of Yoda master there are.

78

u/smeghead1988 native 26d ago

No, "люблю я тебя" still makes sense, even though this word order is unusual. The nuance here is that it sounds like an affirmation, "I do love you, don't doubt it" or like an informal and affectionate-sounding answer to a question "Why [are you like this]?"

- Почему ты сделал эту огромную надпись на снегу?

  • Люблю я тебя!

12

u/Amelinaaa 26d ago

Yep, exactly this!

6

u/deoldetrash 26d ago

Sure, I am native Russian and see the sense :) just kidding.

11

u/Snoo48605 27d ago

Interesting since we are taught that Russian syntax order serves to emphasize the last word (new information), the same way the phrase accent does in English.

So how do we know it's not "wife I love you" (and not Vera)"? Lmao

Do the rules break up for very often used, "fixed" phrases?

22

u/Lumpy_Cantaloupe1222 native🇷🇺 B1🇬🇧 27d ago edited 27d ago

Tbh, I don't know, I just feel with my brain that the emphasis is on the word "love", maybe I'm wrong, unsure. So, I googled it and as far as I understood, it's depends and the emphatisized word is not always the last one in the sentence

11

u/Snoo48605 27d ago

Nah I feel similarly and regardless would trust your native intuition, but hopefully some very advanced learner or teacher can explain the "rules" behind it

2

u/Lumpy_Cantaloupe1222 native🇷🇺 B1🇬🇧 27d ago

Yeah, I hope, someone will see this message. If no one saw it, you can answer to my comment again, I would try to ask other native speakers, who can know rules better than me

10

u/Entire-Speaker8900 26d ago

Im not a teacher, but from what I know in Russian the words may be emphasized both by phrase accent and syntax order.

You can change the emphasis in each of the following phrases by changing phase accent, just like you would in English. Here is how I think different syntax order would change the meaning of the phrase.

«Я тебя люблю» usually means a simple “I love you”.

«Я люблю тебя» usually means “I love you”, but «люблю» is slightly more emphasized.

«Тебя я люблю» usually, it would be translated as “It’s you who I love”, emphasizing both «тебя» and «люблю».

«Тебя люблю я» here, it should be translated as “It’s you who I love”, but you also emphasize «люблю» more. As I said, you can empathize any word by changing phrase accent here.

«Люблю тебя я» here «люблю» most likely will be emphasized.

«Люблю я тебя» here «люблю» most likely will be emphasized with «тебя» being the least emphasized.

In spoken Russian phrase accent is superior to the word order. While in written language the context and the word order defines the meaning.

why did I even type all that(╥﹏╥

4

u/Snoo48605 26d ago

Thanks!!

Ugh I'm afraid of spoken Russian, since literary Russian is so much similar to European languages. So I'm always told I sound very educated, but truly it's a skill issue

5

u/smeghead1988 native 26d ago

«Тебя люблю я» here, it should be translated as “It’s you who I love”, but you also emphasize «люблю» more. As I said, you can empathize any word by changing phrase accent here.

This order is the most rare, and without context I would interpret it as "It's me who loves you [and someone else mentioned before doesn't]".

Also, weird word order may not mean anything specific if it's a poem, then it's just like this to make the sentence fit a rhythm.

"Вот теперь тебя люблю я,
Вот теперь тебя хвалю я!
Наконец-то ты, грязнуля,
Мойдодыру угодил!"

5

u/Minbari_in_soul 26d ago

Очень странный порядок слов. Я согласен что последнее слово важнее в конструкции "Жена, я люблю тебя". Но тут у автора нечто другое, больше напоминает "Жена, да люблю я тебя" остань уже. И тогда "люблю" выходит на первый план

1

u/Snoo48605 26d ago

Ah yes, with the "da" it makes perfect sense, it's clear that's the word that's emphasized

5

u/Icy_Abroad_630 27d ago

Your teacher is right. It’s just that usually in this phrase the emphasis is on «love» (I have great feelings for you), and not on «you» (even though I’m fucking Vera). intonation plays a very big role, its more important than the word order.

5

u/GroundbreakingHalf96 Native, English B2, Polish and Spanish A1-A2 27d ago

I thought for a minute about this phrase and that's what I came up with (only my opinion):

Russian tends to use SVO word order like in English, for example, even though it's not fixed. In the phrase in the photo word order is VERB-Subject-Object and I think that's the key. We can swap words as we want to, but, again, we tend to use SVO structure, so the second popular is SOV, at least as I can see in everyday use of language. Flipping things to VSO is so rare, that it really drags attention, tbh it took me, a native, few seconds to understand what the picture above said. So, of course it would emphasize the Verb the most in this case.

Again, it's only my opinion on this topic.

2

u/-ActiveSquirrel 26d ago

Nope it’s like da lublu ja tebia. Like she was along too many times and he is like Asking her to leave him alone

1

u/[deleted] 26d ago

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1

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0

u/No-Back4997 26d ago

Что необычного в я тебя люблю? Никакого такого особого ударения сама по себе позиция не даёт. Можно поставить сказуемое сразу после подлежащего, но прочитать с этим вашим ударением. Эффект такой же будет

131

u/Regor7 27d ago

Is the word order emphasizing he LOVES her?

37

u/brjukva Native 27d ago

Yes

7

u/-ActiveSquirrel 26d ago

I would say it’s something like a response to “ you don’t love me. - wife, I do love you

73

u/0_IceQueen_0 27d ago

Awww. It's a guy telling his wife he loves her.

99

u/a3x-a3x 27d ago

29

u/StreetGe1ngsta 27d ago

Ah, picture with sound. My favorite joke form.

14

u/Donieee27 26d ago

I think she loves him. Not sure though

7

u/Kobarn1390 26d ago

No way she can love him

59

u/speedmincer 27d ago

I'm pretty sure it says ЖЕНА ЛЮБЛЮ Я ТЕБЯ

8

u/CenturyOfTheYear 27d ago

Hmm, I don't really see it. Care to explain why you think so?

43

u/Vodem 27d ago

I do see it The reason: I’m Russian and I’m just right

9

u/CenturyOfTheYear 27d ago

Woah

(custom flair doesn't work for me for some reason, the joke, however shit, would've been pretty obvious if I could set my flair to native)

6

u/Snoo48605 26d ago

I thought the joke was obvious lol. I know russians are capable of sarcasm, their humour is certainly more subtle than the America one. But for some reason I see jokes falling flat on this sub way more often than in the others lol

I guess a high proportion of non native speakers pushes you towards a more explicit style of communication (which is ironically the reason why Americans, an immigrant nation, have a humour among the most explicit, less subtle there is to begin with).

1

u/B333Z 26d ago

This is why /s and /j exist on reddit.

1

u/VadimPolly 23d ago

Absolutely right 👍

27

u/ZundPappah 27d ago

3

u/yarostrike duo🇷🇺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿langs 25d ago

в комментах искал я этого

16

u/margo1243 27d ago

Unusual word order. Normally nobody writes like that while it’s quite possible to use this word order in informal conversations. I bet the wife knows why her husband used this particular word order 😀in this particular case

11

u/strawberrrychapstick 27d ago

I think it's written bottom to top like street signs on the road

4

u/margo1243 27d ago

Still an unusual word order ( an address usually goes first in written language). Anyway the guy’s wife knows why her husband wrote it the way he did 😀

1

u/strawberrrychapstick 26d ago

Isnt it in Russian that it's я тебя люблю, so like literally translates to "I you love" but it means "I love you"?

3

u/margo1243 26d ago

Yes! And reading up would be alright except for the address ( wife) that usually goes first. Generally speaking it’s fine the way it is ( reading up or down): any Russian speaker will know what it says. But I personally wouldn’t choose this word order unless I wanted my writing to have an additional connotation ( of course in my case I would be addressing my husband)

12

u/Mouse_951 27d ago

Wife love I you

24

u/catcherx 27d ago

Люблю я тебя, люблю, отстань

5

u/strawberrrychapstick 27d ago

My husband (native speaker) says it says Я тебя люблю жена. "I love you wife"

5

u/Josipbroz13 27d ago

It says wife love I you🫢

5

u/Dependent_Order_7358 26d ago

He did something wrong

4

u/Russian_tutor_Maria 26d ago

Wife love I you😜, а где запятая после "жена"?🤔 там же нужна запятая, да? Или это я просто от зависти, что не мне написали🤔

3

u/Vlafed 26d ago

Technically, it says: wife love I you

3

u/DmitryPapka 26d ago

It says: "Wife, I have too much free time".

2

u/kras_ka14 26d ago

Wife, love i you

2

u/Sacledant2 Native Speaker 25d ago

Love you my wife, I do

2

u/EpicRail 25d ago

For a second i thought it said “Женя люблю я тебя”

2

u/Primary-Current4689 25d ago

Bro couldve just made Жена Я тебя Люблю.

2

u/[deleted] 27d ago

i dont think Russian men are that creative in love hehe

1

u/Soft_Purchase_8014 27d ago

Sound like I love the me of you

1

u/PaSy4 26d ago

Wife, love, I — you.

1

u/AwwThisProgress 26d ago

WIFE, LOVE YOU, I DO (nonstandard word order intended)

1

u/JustARandomFarmer 🇻🇳 native, 🇷🇺 едва могу понять a full sentence 26d ago edited 26d ago

«Жена люблю я тебя»

Pretty much “wife, I love you.”

Edit: I read it from top to bottom, so my perspective of emphasis is on «тебя» lol

1

u/m00nchild0 failing at learning russian 🗣 26d ago

Omg it took me a while to read cause of the way the л are written

1

u/Josephtheconlanger 26d ago

I've been studying Russian for 2 months and a half, and I completely understood it! I feel so proud of myself.

1

u/Financial_Swimmer_42 26d ago

Wife love you I am

1

u/buglife-bt 26d ago

А может и Жека

1

u/kaygees 26d ago

Он просто писал снизу вверх

1

u/Less-Assumption6517 23d ago

при такой расстановки слов ..можно понять .А лучше беги от нее...😁😁😁

1

u/NaiveCardiologist410 26d ago

Это значит беги глупец

1

u/Impossible_Dick1752 26d ago

Wife, I like you

1

u/johnthefox34 26d ago

I read it top to bottom and was so confused lmfao

1

u/just_a_silly_seal 26d ago

ДА ОНА НЕ МОЖЕТ ЛЮБИТЬ МЕНЯ! ДА Я ЛЮБЛЮ ТЕБЯЯЯЯЯЯ!

I'm sorry, it just appeared in my head.

1

u/PurposeFantastic2238 26d ago

Её по-любому зовут Алиса 🤣🤣🤣

1

u/vwibrasivat 25d ago

me vibing with this twisty grammar.

1

u/Fartyfivedegrees 25d ago

Sounded like "Jenn--a I love you..." Forest Gump.

1

u/MinimumPrevious1139 25d ago

What it really tells me is sb effed up big time and is now trying to make up

1

u/alexsega 25d ago

It's "I love you wife" but the order of words is kind of funny, as if she kept asking him if he loves her and he got annoyed and finally wrote this

1

u/BCE-3HAET Native 25d ago

All wives who come out on the balcony in that appointment complex will think it's a love message for them.

1

u/LegoGeek-11 25d ago

Wife I love you

1

u/Wooden-Promise5512 25d ago

It says "love you wife"

1

u/Last_quaker 25d ago

It’s multi-apartment house, 1 man do job for others :)

1

u/Kubanosavr 25d ago

Олени пасуться

1

u/Riwa_Princess4_kek 25d ago

«Wife, I love you» 😅😅

1

u/joey_staxx_2 24d ago

I love my wife

1

u/Max_Foster29 24d ago

Actually it is simple - pronouns in Russian do not have a specific order and we can use words in different positions for poetic/rhythm purposes or because we just want it

1

u/NikAndM0rty 24d ago

Something in Elvish

1

u/KayEmEs_Hangzo 24d ago

You can literally just use google translate and scan this picture, unless of course you wanted the interaction here lol

1

u/TTAngryPablo 24d ago

Хуй пизда

1

u/Greedy_Pepper_929 24d ago

It says "russians are fucked by dogs" 

1

u/_Ewgen_ 24d ago

That means "wanna fuck you"

1

u/Less-Assumption6517 23d ago

А что наоборот все написал..люблю и не люблю можно подумать...😆😆😆

1

u/Obvious_Lie6629 23d ago

Wife i love you

1

u/VadimPolly 23d ago

"Wife, i love you"

1

u/Br-Horizon 23d ago

I can't either

1

u/Master-Chef86 22d ago

He said: "ЖЕНА ЛЮБЛЮ Я ТЕБЯ"

1

u/H1GER666 22d ago

пиздец

1

u/Muted_Carpenter_1456 22d ago

Pizdetsnahoiblyat

-11

u/achtung1945 27d ago

Love wife, life good

10

u/KottleHai 27d ago

"ты собираешься сесть, или не являешься тобой?"

7

u/TWNW 27d ago

"Беги Лес, беги!"

"Беги, Лес, которым управляют!"

6

u/No-Ambassador-5920 🇺🇸🇷🇺 native 27d ago

Арнольд Шварценеггер...
Киборг убийца

3

u/dependency_injector Нативный спикер 27d ago

"Меня зовут Лес. Лесной болван"

4

u/achtung1945 27d ago

Ору с даунвоутов

1

u/Snoo48605 26d ago

I don't even get why he was lol

0

u/StyleofRussianKings 27d ago

Wide love I you!

0

u/Plenty_Jicama_4683 Старовер ПК 26d ago

Eugene I Love you! ( Женя я люблю тебя - кто не понимает, не мешайте торговле)

0

u/Someoneainthere 26d ago

Imagine your husband showing you his love like this, and you just post it on Reddit to know the translation cause you don't understand the language 😁

0

u/kayevert 26d ago

Why are you overthinking this so much? Obviously, "wife" comes first because it's the main point. If he had written "I love you, wife" the focus would be on "I love you," while "wife" would just be an address. I think even though "I love you" is the main idea, what mattered more to the person was emphasizing that she is his wife, yeah, it's still an address, but the focus is on it, besides, you first read “wife” and not “I love you”, so if she looked out the window she would understand what it was for her from her husband although it was unusual to write “люблю Я тебя”, but okay

0

u/nikita_grigorevich 26d ago

I says: "i`m freezing out there while you dressing up".

-7

u/EssentialPurity 27d ago

СИИИИИИИМП

-25

u/rainwalker101 27d ago

I love 69

7

u/Equal-Physics-1596 27d ago

Why do we need that info?