# Wait, hold on (on the phone)



## b4nny

I'm afraid the answer to this might be obvious, but I'm too paranoid not to ask. Imagine that you're on the phone with a good friend and someone interrupts you. How would you best tell the person on the phone to wait a second? I'm sure that _одну секунду/минуктку_ are OK, but what about the imperatives _жди_ or _подожди_?


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## Syline

"Подожди" fits here.


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## Boyar

_Обожди_ or _обождите_ may be even better.

When a person is talking to you and you tell him "подожди", it sounds as if you interrupt him because of something that he said. "Обожди" could be understood as a request to make a pause for some other reason, not necessarily related to what that person said.


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## Explorer41

"Подожди, не вешай трубку" is a literal translation. It fits.


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## Boyar

Explorer41 said:


> "Подожди, не вешай трубку" is a literal translation. It fits.


Yes, it does. It's idiomatic.


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## Maroseika

Boyar said:


> _Обожди_ or _обождите_ may be even better.



Обождать is colloquial word. Подожди looks to me quite well, but with some addition: Подожди немного, минутку, секунду, сейчас (щас) я сделаю то-то и то-то.


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## morzh

Boyar said:


> _Обожди_ or _обождите_ may be even better.



Strictly low colloquial.


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## gvozd

У меня один друг говорит: "Повиси"


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## Explorer41

morzh said:


> Strictly low colloquial.


Хм... It depends on what do you mean by "strictly low colloquial". *b4nny* stated expicitly that the question is about talking to a friend, and here "обожди"/"обождите" (the latter will be chosen if the friend is not very close and the conversation with "вы" has established) fits very well in most cases.


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## morzh

Explorer41 said:


> Хм... It depends on what do you mean by "strictly low colloquial". *b4nny* stated expicitly that the question is about talking to a friend, and here "обожди"/"обождите" (the latter will be chosen if the friend is not very close and the conversation with "вы" has established) fits very well in most cases.



I'm not saying it cannot be used.
I am sure that, say, Germans use something besides "Bitte Bleiben Sie am Apparat" when talking to their Freunden. 
What I am saying is that whenever we recommend some words that cannot even be found in dictionaries (I tried, and all I found was "обожать" i/o "обождать"), and I am guilty of using this exact one myself, we should point out that it is a colloquial word, and by some may actually be viewed as a sign of using not quite literate language.
So, using "обожди" should be judicious.

And, in anticipation of "he's talking to a good friend" rebuttal, I can only point that a person who is "too paranoid not to ask" a question about "how to say something on a phone with a good friend" still probably wants this friend to have a good impression of him, or his language.


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## Explorer41

Well. It depends next on what is a good impression for each particular case. "обождать" sounds more free, its use cases are restricted (no, here's no contradiction), and it is relatively widely used, so one should not think this word belongs to a cultural underground, or anything like that. Of course, you didn't mean that the word is not often used, but it's not evident from the words "strictly low colloquial", which may mean a lot of different things. By the way, I personally learned this word in a school, from a teacher (not of Russian language) who used this word a bit jokingly  . So the word doesn't belong to an underground of any kind.


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## morzh

Explorer41 said:


> By the way, I personally learned this word in a school, from a teacher who used this word a bit jokingly



In school I heard (though I knew enough not to use it even back then) our teacher (Russian language teacher too!) saying "покладите ручки на партъi", repeatedly so. 
A teacher is not the Pope, you know. And even the Pope is considered infallible in the very narrow sense 

Again, personally I have nothing against "обождать".


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## Explorer41

Yes, "покладите руки на парты" is a) illiterate, b) having no additional sense comparing to "положить руки на парты". Due to the point b), it's another case


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## Maroseika

gvozd said:


> У меня один друг говорит: "Повиси"



И у меня тоже - ровно один. Мне нравится.


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## b4nny

Thanks everyone. I think it's kind of cute how almost all threads in the Russian section turn into mild arguments.


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## morzh

It's all because of the mysterious Russian soul and the immense complexity of Russian language.
Makes for an explosive mixture.


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## Carrot Ironfoundersson

> I think it's kind of cute how almost all threads in the Russian section turn into mild arguments



But usually a TS has his question (fully) answered in the first 2-3 posts.


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