Archives for: September 2010, 02

Флешка (часть первая)

September 2nd, 2010 by Don

About the most convenient way these days to move files from one laptop to another is to use a USB flash drive. There are several phrases associated with that concept in Russian, among which are флеш-накопитель "flash storage" and флеш-память "flash memory", but in common usage you will mostly hear флешка or флэшка. It looks odd to Russians to see the letter э anywhere aside from the first letter of a word, so I'm guessing in the long run the флешка spelling will win out. In either case, be sure to pronounce the л hard, not soft, no matter which spelling you use.

Флешки имеют самую разнообразную форму. Flash drives come in all sorts of shapes.
Чёрт возьми! Я случайно удалил все файлы с флешки. Dammit! I accidentally deleted all the files from my flash drive.
Скинь те фотки на мою флешку, пожалуйста. Copy those photos to my flash drive, please.
— Не хочешь скинуть этот софт?
— На флешке нет места.		 "Do you want to copy this program"
"There's not enough room on my flash drive."

Probably the most common question about flash drives is how much data they can hold. The way to ask the question properly is:

— Какого объёма твоя флешка?
— Четыре гигабайта.		 "How big is your flash drive?"
"Four gigabytes."

It's also possible to say things like:

На сколько гиг твоя флешка?
Сколько влазит на твою флешку?
У твоей флешки какой объём?
У твоей флешки какая ёмкость?
У твоей флешки какая вместительность?		 How big is your flash drive?

I was amused to find out that sometimes geekoids will substitute the word гектар hectare for гигабайт gigabyte:

На сколько гектар твоя флешка? How big is your flash drive?

Last but not least, you might also hear something like:

Твоя флешка — какой объём?
Твоя флешка — какой размер?		 How big is your flash drive?

Those versions look awful in print. Don't ever write them in an official document or course paper, but don't surprised if you hear them when friends are talking among themselves.

Posted in Electronics | 1 comment »