напрямик
“напрямик” (napryamik) — straight (shortcut) in Russian. Adverb, level B1. My poshli k reke napryamik, cherez lug — "we went to the river in a straight line, across the meadow" — the short way, no detour; the hook is the way round, and going around is the same. In a live sentence: “Мы пошли к реке напрямик, через луг” — We went to the river in a straight line, across the meadow. Written with the characters н, а, п, р, я, м, и, к.
In short
| Written in Russian | напрямик |
| Read in Latin letters | napryamik |
| Translation | straight (shortcut) |
| Part of speech | adverb |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
My poshli k reke napryamik, cherez lug — "we went to the river in a straight line, across the meadow" — the short way, no detour; the hook is the way round, and going around is the same.
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.
- Мы пошли к реке напрямик, через лугMy poshli k reke napryamik, cherez lugWe went to the river in a straight line, across the meadow
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 “straight (shortcut)” in Russian?
«напрямик», read “napryamik”. In a live sentence: “Мы пошли к реке напрямик, через луг” — We went to the river in a straight line, across the meadow. Adverb, level B1; written with the characters н, а, п, р, я, м, и, к.
How is “напрямик” written in Latin letters?
napryamik. 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?
My poshli k reke napryamik, cherez lug — "we went to the river in a straight line, across the meadow" — the short way, no detour; the hook is the way round, and going around is the same. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.