капли
“капли” (kapli) — drops (medicine) in Russian. Noun, level A2. Kapli v nos zakapyvayut tri raza v den — "nose drops are used three times a day" — medicine by drops: nose, eyes, heart; the same shape as water has: a drop falls, drops heal. In a live sentence: “Капли в нос закапывают три раза в день” — Nose drops are used three times a day. Written with the characters к, а, п, л, и. A word from the everyday Russian course, level A2.
In short
| Written in Russian | капли |
| Read in Latin letters | kapli |
| Translation | drops (medicine) |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A2 |
Why it looks that way
Kapli v nos zakapyvayut tri raza v den — "nose drops are used three times a day" — medicine by drops: nose, eyes, heart; the same shape as water has: a drop falls, drops heal.
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.
- Капли в нос закапывают три раза в деньKapli v nos zakapyvayut tri raza v denNose drops are used three times a day
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 “drops (medicine)” in Russian?
«капли», read “kapli”. In a live sentence: “Капли в нос закапывают три раза в день” — Nose drops are used three times a day. Noun, level A2; written with the characters к, а, п, л, и.
How is “капли” written in Latin letters?
kapli. 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?
Kapli v nos zakapyvayut tri raza v den — "nose drops are used three times a day" — medicine by drops: nose, eyes, heart; the same shape as water has: a drop falls, drops heal. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.