больница
“больница” (bolnitsa) — hospital in Russian. Noun, level A1, topic — buildings and premises. From bolnoy, "a sick person": the house of the sick. Bolnitsa tam, u vokzala. In a live sentence: “Больница там, у вокзала” — The hospital is there, by the station. Written with the characters б, о, л, ь, н, и, ц, а. One of 19 words in the set “buildings and premises” in the Russian course.
In short
| Written in Russian | больница |
| Read in Latin letters | bolnitsa |
| Translation | hospital |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
From bolnoy, "a sick person": the house of the sick. Bolnitsa tam, u vokzala.
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- Больница там, у вокзалаBolnitsa tam, u vokzalaThe hospital is there, by the station
Nearby words: buildings and premises
Where to go and what is done there. These words are read off a sign more often than they are spoken.
- вокзалvokzaltrain stationThe word came from London: the Vauxhall pavilion outside Petersburg became the name for every station. English never found out — it says station.
- магазинmagazinshopThe false friend of the first order: English "magazine" is zhurnal, and magazin is a shop. The word rode in from Arabic for "warehouse".
- аптекаaptekapharmacyA cousin of "apothecary": Greek for "a storeroom". The green cross on the sign is the same as in the rest of Europe.
- продуктовый магазинproduktovyy magazingrocery storeProdukty are groceries; the adjective pins the shop to them. Produktovyy magazin zdes, a apteka tam.
- офисofisofficeOfis tam, u metro — "the office is there, by the metro". The international word with a short o.
- университетuniversitetuniversityPosle shkoly — universitet — "after school, university": no article, no preposition. Stress on the end.
- школаshkolaschoolShkola — eto uroki i druzya: "school is lessons and friends" — the course's own definition.
- почтаpochtapost office, mailBoth the service and the building. Pochta segodnya zakryta — "the post office is closed today".
- автовокзалavtovokzalbus stationVokzal with an auto- prefix: the station for buses, built on the same London word.
- пристаньpristanpier, landing stageFrom prichalit, "to moor". Rybaki stoyat u pristani — the of-form after u.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “buildings and premises”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “hospital” in Russian?
From bolnoy, "a sick person": the house of the sick. Bolnitsa tam, u vokzala.
- How do you say “school” in Russian?
Shkola — eto uroki i druzya: "school is lessons and friends" — the course's own definition.
- How do you say “pharmacy” in Russian?
A cousin of "apothecary": Greek for "a storeroom". The green cross on the sign is the same as in the rest of Europe.
- How do you say “pier, landing stage” in Russian?
From prichalit, "to moor". Rybaki stoyat u pristani — the of-form after u.
- How do you say “university” in Russian?
Posle shkoly — universitet — "after school, university": no article, no preposition. Stress on the end.
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “hospital” in Russian?
«больница», read “bolnitsa”. In a live sentence: “Больница там, у вокзала” — The hospital is there, by the station. Noun, level A1, from the set “buildings and premises”; written with the characters б, о, л, ь, н, и, ц, а.
How is “больница” written in Latin letters?
bolnitsa. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
From bolnoy, "a sick person": the house of the sick. Bolnitsa tam, u vokzala. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.