квартира
“квартира” (kvartira) — apartment in Russian. Noun, level A1, topic — home and things. From Latin quartus, "a fourth": houses were once let out in quarters — the same root English "quarter" carries, while "apartment" points to rooms set apart. In a live sentence: “Квартира близко, а дом далеко” — The apartment is close, and the house is far. Written with the characters к, в, а, р, т, и, р, а. One of 194 words in the set “home and things” in the Russian course.
In short
| Written in Russian | квартира |
| Read in Latin letters | kvartira |
| Translation | apartment |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
From Latin quartus, "a fourth": houses were once let out in quarters — the same root English "quarter" carries, while "apartment" points to rooms set apart.
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.
- Квартира близко, а дом далекоKvartira blizko, a dom dalekoThe apartment is close, and the house is far
Nearby words: home and things
Room, key, water, electricity. You will need them on your first day in a rented flat.
- домdomhouse, homeBoth the building and the hearth. Doma means "at home": vecherom ya doma — and English "at home" is built the same way.
- гретьgretto warm, to heatGreyu, greyesh — the e holds. Gret sup ili net?
- жильёzhilyohousing, a place to liveThe collective word for anywhere a person lives: a flat, a house, a room. Moy zhilyo zdes — "this is where I live".
- комнатаkomnataroomA room inside an apartment. V kvartire dve komnaty — "the apartment has two rooms".
- кухняkukhnyakitchenKukhnya tam, a komnata zdes — "the kitchen is there, the room is here". The room and the cooking in it share the word.
- ваннаяvannayabathroomThe room named after its tub. Vannaya — eto voda i mylo: "the bathroom is water and soap".
- балконbalkonbalconyThe international word with the stress on the end: bal-KON. Moy balkon nad ulitsey.
- этажetazhfloor, storeyTretiy etazh, lifta net — "the third floor, no elevator". Floors are counted the same way as in English, ground floor included.
- лифтliftelevatorLift ne rabotayet — "the elevator is out of order". The English word borrowed whole.
- лестницаlestnitsastairs, staircaseLestnitsa byla staraya — "the staircase was old". Po lestnitse — "up (or down) the stairs".
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “home and things”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “apartment” in Russian?
From Latin quartus, "a fourth": houses were once let out in quarters — the same root English "quarter" carries, while "apartment" points to rooms set apart.
- How do you say “balcony” in Russian?
The international word with the stress on the end: bal-KON. Moy balkon nad ulitsey.
- How do you say “housing, a place to live” in Russian?
The collective word for anywhere a person lives: a flat, a house, a room. Moy zhilyo zdes — "this is where I live".
- How do you say “stairs, staircase” in Russian?
Lestnitsa byla staraya — "the staircase was old". Po lestnitse — "up (or down) the stairs".
- How do you say “bathroom” in Russian?
The room named after its tub. Vannaya — eto voda i mylo: "the bathroom is water and soap".
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 “apartment” in Russian?
«квартира», read “kvartira”. In a live sentence: “Квартира близко, а дом далеко” — The apartment is close, and the house is far. Noun, level A1, from the set “home and things”; written with the characters к, в, а, р, т, и, р, а.
How is “квартира” written in Latin letters?
kvartira. 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 Latin quartus, "a fourth": houses were once let out in quarters — the same root English "quarter" carries, while "apartment" points to rooms set apart. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.