кататься на коньках
“кататься на коньках” (katatsya na konkakh) — to skate in Russian. Phrase, level A1. Zimoy my katayemsya na konkakh — "in winter we skate on the lake" — ice only; the -sya turns the riding back on yourself. In a live sentence: “Зимой мы катаемся на коньках на озере” — In winter we skate on the lake. Written with the characters к, а, т, а, т, ь, с, я, н, а, к, о… A word from the everyday Russian course, level A1.
In short
| Written in Russian | кататься на коньках |
| Read in Latin letters | katatsya na konkakh |
| Translation | to skate |
| Part of speech | phrase |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
Zimoy my katayemsya na konkakh — "in winter we skate on the lake" — ice only; the -sya turns the riding back on yourself.
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.
- Зимой мы катаемся на коньках на озереZimoy my kataemsya na konkakh na ozereIn winter we skate on the lake
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 “to skate” in Russian?
«кататься на коньках», read “katatsya na konkakh”. In a live sentence: “Зимой мы катаемся на коньках на озере” — In winter we skate on the lake. Phrase, level A1; written with the characters к, а, т, а, т, ь, с, я, н, а, к, о…
How is “кататься на коньках” written in Latin letters?
katatsya na konkakh. 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?
Zimoy my katayemsya na konkakh — "in winter we skate on the lake" — ice only; the -sya turns the riding back on yourself. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.