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Когда я была маленькой

When I Was Little

A2 · Elementary · fiction · 10 scenes · Premium story

Nine summers in one village, told from thirty years later. A six-hour train and a suitcase too heavy to carry; a grandmother who got up at five and baked twice a week; a grandfather who said about four sentences a day and mended whatever broke; berries eaten before they reached the basket; a bicycle far too big; and one storm when every mirror in the house was covered and nobody explained why. The story is built to teach the past tense — habits that repeated for nine years, against the handful of things that happened only once.

Read Когда я была маленькой in Russian

Characters

  • Anya (Аня) — The narrator, remembering
  • Grandmother (Бабушка) — Up at five
  • Grandfather (Дед) — A quiet man
  • Vitya (Витя) — The neighbour's boy

Vocabulary from this story

  • деревня — village
  • бабушка — grandmother
  • дед — grandfather
  • печь — stove
  • огород — vegetable garden
  • курица — hen
  • пирог — pie
  • двор — yard
  • колодец — well
  • сосед — neighbour
  • река — river
  • лес — forest