главный герой
“главный герой” (glavnyy geroy) — main character, protagonist in Russian. Phrase, level A2. Glavnyy geroy knigi — malchik — "the book's main character is a boy" — geroy was first the warrior of the old tales, now the one at the center of the story; a woman is geroinya. In a live sentence: “Главный герой книги — мальчик” — The main character survives to the end. Written with the characters г, л, а, в, н, ы, й, г, е, р, о, й.
In short
| Written in Russian | главный герой |
| Read in Latin letters | glavnyy geroy |
| Translation | main character, protagonist |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Glavnyy geroy knigi — malchik — "the book's main character is a boy" — geroy was first the warrior of the old tales, now the one at the center of the story; a woman is geroinya.
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.
- Главный герой книги — мальчикGlavnyy geroy knigi — malchikThe main character survives to 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 “main character, protagonist” in Russian?
«главный герой», read “glavnyy geroy”. In a live sentence: “Главный герой книги — мальчик” — The main character survives to the end. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters г, л, а, в, н, ы, й, г, е, р, о, й.
How is “главный герой” written in Latin letters?
glavnyy geroy. 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?
Glavnyy geroy knigi — malchik — "the book's main character is a boy" — geroy was first the warrior of the old tales, now the one at the center of the story; a woman is geroinya. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.