# Say cheese



## Mircea68bucuresti

1) In Romania we say brinza -the same as in Russia (брынза)
You also say сыр - are they synonyms ? or сыр means something else- for instance pressed cheese.

2) In Romania we say brinza dulce- meaning сладкая брынза
I saw that in Russia you say творог - I presume that сладкая брынза is not correct- am I right ?


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## Mircea68bucuresti

by the way - how do you say in russian "say cheese" -when taking pictures to others


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## morzh

1. "Say cheese" - а)"Внимание, снимаю" б) "Сейчас вылетит птичка". (we do not call for smiles when taking pictures).

2. Сыр - generic name for EVERY sort of cheese. Basically. it is "cheese". Kase. Formaggio. Fromage. 
3. Брынзой в России называют один из молодых рассольных сыров. Наверное, то же, что и в румынском. Похожие сыры есть в любой культуре. Close to "Feta" cheese.
4. Since I do not know what "brinza dulce" stand for, that is, I never saw it, neither did I taste it, I have to take your word for it, that is, that it is the same as "творог".

Творог - this is what we here call "farmer's cheese". (farm cheese).
I have just made a batch of it. I do not buy farm cheese, I make it. Get a gallon of milk, ferment it with some sour cream, let it turn into "простокваша" (to sour and to curd), and then warm it up in a hot water bath, so the "обрат" or "syworotka" (whey we call it here) starts separating, and then put it into the cheesecloth (марля) and let it firm. Makes excellent "творог".


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## Natalisha

morzh said:


> 1. "Say cheese" - а)"Внимание, снимаю" б) "Сейчас вылетит птичка". (we do not call for smiles when taking pictures).


Yes, we do, and even sometimes say "скажи _сыр_"!


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## Sobakus

Natalisha said:


> Yes, we do, and even sometimes say "скажи _сыр_"!



Which is always awkward with the first-timers, because you don't have to move your lips at all when saying "ы", if anything you move your jaw forward sometimes. Children for example always get confused. "Птииичка" definitely works better


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## morzh

Sobakus said:


> Which is always awkward with the first-timers, because you don't have to move your lips at all when saying "ы", if anything you move your jaw forward sometimes. Children for example always get confused. "Птииичка" definitely works better




I think it is a joke-parody to American "say cheese" 

Actually, there's a know joke about a photographer asking a customer to say "кишми-и-иш", with the customer consequently saying "изю-у-ум" 

(or is it vice versa)


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## alekscooper

When we take a picture we may say different things. 

1. 'Внимание, снимаю'. To me it sounds a little bit formal (unless pronounced with smiles and giggling) and is not intented to provoke any sort of smile. For example, if you are getting your passport picture, the photographer may say 'Внимание, снимаю' or 'Внимание...' or something like that so you won't be taken by surpise with your eyes, for example, looking down.

2. 'Сейчас вылетит птичка'. Well, this immediately puts me in some informal context which allows of smiles, funny faces, etc. To me personally it sounds a little bit childlike, so when I'm in front of the camera and hear 'сейчас вылетит птичка', I feel like a kid of 7 or 8 or something 

3. Скажи "сыр". It's a word-for-word translation of 'Say cheese' and it _is_ intended to bring smiley faces, but I personally think it's not because to say 'сыр' you need to stretch your lips (you don't, actually, as it has been written above), but because it makes no sense to say 'сыр' in front of the camera and, consequently it's funny which leads us to the smiles.

4. I have also heard Скажи сиськи a number of times (Say boobs). Again, this is used for the same reason as 'скажи сыр', although it's not a word-for-word translation, well, at least, I have never heard that it is. Saying 'сиськи' while being photoed makes even less sense than 'сыр', so, again, smiles. Needless to say, it's very informal.

I hope that helps


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## marco_2

In Polish the situation with cheese is almost the same as in Russian:

- *ser *- a general name for "cheese". Traditional names are: *ser biały *(farm cheese, творог), *ser żółty *(hard cheese, голландский сыр) and *ser(ek)  topiony *(processed cheese, плавленный сыр(ок). We also use the word *twaróg *when we make it at home, exactly like morzh described it.
- *bryndza *is cheese made by our highlanders on Polish-Slovak border; the word was brought by Vlahian (Romanian) shepherds and I guess it is the same cheese as Romanian brinza and Bulgarian *сирене.*

And when we take pictures we mostly say *uwaga *(attention) or *uśmiech, proszę *(smile, please); sometimes young people say "say cheese" just for fun. And in Polish there is a famous joke about a photographer who wanted to take a picture of a frog and tried to make her narrow her mouth by saying *dżem *(jam), but it was too difficult for her, so she said *marmeelada *(marmelade)


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## alekscooper

*marco_2*,do you have in Poland what Russians call 'творог'? I can't know if you have ever tried Russian творог, but who knows


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## marco_2

Well, I used to visit Russia, though many years ago, and I tried творог, and if I remember well, I didn't notice essential differences between Polish and Russian one. According to dictionary "творог - это сгустившиеся частицы кислого молока, отжатые от сыворотки" and we make it in the same way. Of course, the taste can vary, depending on a fat content and other factors.


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## morzh

alekscooper said:


> *marco_2*,do you have in Poland what Russians call 'творог'? I can't know if you have ever tried Russian творог, but who knows



Well, generally, standard "tvorog" and farm cheese are the same.

However, when you say "Russian tvorog" - there is no such single thing as "Russian tvorog". There are varieties, and they, being essentially the same technologically, will differ by their taste and consistency a lot.

There is that one that they used to sell in the USSR, almost the single type almost everywhere outside Moscow, where one could buy more than just one variety even back then.
It is not too dry, sour to the taste tvorog, often mixed by those from sales personnel with some other sour milk substances to gain in weight so they could skim "a little" for themselves.

Then there is less sour, denser variety, almost dry - "Bazarny tvorog". 
There is also "Krestiansky" which is also different in taste.

The tvorog I grew up eating in my village was fresh from our milk lady, and was close to that "bazarny" - not sour, or barely so, and quite dry. When cut with a knife, it would cut almost as rubber - very dense.

Today I do not know what varieties are sold in Russia, as I am no longer live in there, but from my in-laws I know that what we call "cottage cheese", is also sold there, and people call it "зерненый творог".
Also I am sure, as commercial environment improved, more varieties of the regular "tvorog" are sold nowadays.

And this is apart from all those "cheese spreads" which we used to call "tworozhnye syrki".

So when you say "Russian tvorog", you have to specify exactly which subvariety you mean, and what the consistency/taste of it is.

Then Marco2 can answer your question with more expertise.


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## alekscooper

2*morzh*

Of course, there are different sorts of творог, but why would I start a conversation about all of them if I'm barely sure that *marco_2 *has tried any of these sorts? 

Anyway, it's all clear now


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## marco_2

I'd like to thank you all for completing my knowledge about contemporary situation on Russian творог market. I hope I'll be able to visit Russia some day and taste all kinds of tvorog  By the way, which stress version do you prefer nowadays: *творог *or *творог? *- the dictionaries give both of them.


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## morzh

marco_2 said:


> I'd like to thank you all for completing my knowledge about contemporary situation on Russian творог market. I hope I'll be able to visit Russia some day and taste all kinds of tvorog  By the way, which stress version do you prefer nowadays: *творог *or *творог? *- the dictionaries give both of them.




Both are perfectly correct. I use "творОг".
It is strictly personalp reference.

This is one of those rare cases where one can choose and still be in the right.


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## Maroseika

marco_2 said:


> By the way, which stress version do you prefer nowadays: *творог *or *творог? *- the dictionaries give both of them.



The main literary variant is творо́г, while тво́рог is obsolescent but still acceptable. As for me, I use both variants equally.


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## alekscooper

marco_2 said:


> By the way, which stress version do you prefer nowadays: *творог *or *творог? *- the dictionaries give both of them.



I think only one out of 10000 will say твор*о*г now. When I was a child, my mom told me that интеллигенция said твор*о*г, which I'm still not sure about.
To me твор*о*г, if not uttered by a lady of 80 or something, sounds as if a person wanted to convey some meaning, that he's special or something like that.

However, may be it's just a regional dialect. Being a big city child I'm almost completely unaware of any reginal variations.


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## alekscooper

Cool, while I was writing my post, two people said they used твор*о*г, which makes me a sort of minority


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## Maroseika

Don't scare, minorities are respected here. By the way we have such a cool feature here as cyrillic stresses.


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## alekscooper

And how can I apply this feature? (I'm new here and I haven't used forums of that type for a while).


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## Maroseika

alekscooper said:


> And how can I apply this feature? (I'm new here and I haven't used forums of that type for a while).


When you answer a message you can see stressed letters in the menu. But you can't see them if you use "Quick reply".


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## alekscooper

thanks!


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## Vladmir

I can say that using those two versions (тво́рог/творо́г) has deep roots in family habits. And alekscooper is not alone in his habit to speak _тво́рог_


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## morzh

Maroseika said:


> ... By  the way we have such a cool feature here as cyrillic stresses.




The stresses still don't work properly. If someone introduces a feature and it works only with one (still unknown to me) font style and/or size, to me it means "no workie-workie".
It either works or it doesn't. The stress mark put God knows where cannot be accepted as "stresses work".

This is why I don't use it and I won't 'til it's fixed.


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## Rosett

При фотографировании можно попросить "Улыбочку!"


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