как-то раз
“как-то раз” (kak-to raz) — once, one day in Russian. Phrase, level A2. Kak-to raz my zabludilis v lesu — "once we got lost in the forest" — the opening of an oral story; kak-to is an indefinite once, and English says one day. In a live sentence: “Как-то раз мы заблудились в лесу” — Once upon a time I had to spend the night at the station. Written with the characters к, а, к, т, о, р, а, з.
In short
| Written in Russian | как-то раз |
| Read in Latin letters | kak-to raz |
| Translation | once, one day |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Kak-to raz my zabludilis v lesu — "once we got lost in the forest" — the opening of an oral story; kak-to is an indefinite once, and English says one day.
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.
- Как-то раз мы заблудились в лесуKak-to raz my zabludilis v lesuOnce upon a time I had to spend the night at the station
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 “once, one day” in Russian?
«как-то раз», read “kak-to raz”. In a live sentence: “Как-то раз мы заблудились в лесу” — Once upon a time I had to spend the night at the station. Phrase, level A2; written with the characters к, а, к, т, о, р, а, з.
How is “как-то раз” written in Latin letters?
kak-to raz. 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?
Kak-to raz my zabludilis v lesu — "once we got lost in the forest" — the opening of an oral story; kak-to is an indefinite once, and English says one day. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.