понятие
“понятие” (ponyatie) — concept, notion in Russian. Noun, level B1. Eto ponyatie nam obyasnili na uroke — "this concept was explained to us at the first lesson" — the mental unit, the notion: the concept of time; from ponimat, and the spoken ponyatiya ne imeyu lives more often than the word itself. In a live sentence: “Это понятие нам объяснили на первом занятии” — This concept was explained to us at the lesson one. Written with the characters п, о, н, я, т, и, е.
In short
| Written in Russian | понятие |
| Read in Latin letters | ponyatie |
| Translation | concept, notion |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | B1 |
Why it looks that way
Eto ponyatie nam obyasnili na uroke — "this concept was explained to us at the first lesson" — the mental unit, the notion: the concept of time; from ponimat, and the spoken ponyatiya ne imeyu lives more often than the word itself.
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.
- Это понятие нам объяснили на первом занятииEto ponyatie nam obyasnili na pervom zanyatiiThis concept was explained to us at the lesson one
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 “concept, notion” in Russian?
«понятие», read “ponyatie”. In a live sentence: “Это понятие нам объяснили на первом занятии” — This concept was explained to us at the lesson one. Noun, level B1; written with the characters п, о, н, я, т, и, е.
How is “понятие” written in Latin letters?
ponyatie. 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?
Eto ponyatie nam obyasnili na uroke — "this concept was explained to us at the first lesson" — the mental unit, the notion: the concept of time; from ponimat, and the spoken ponyatiya ne imeyu lives more often than the word itself. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.