On our range of Soviet tours, we naturally spend a lot of time in the former motherland of the Soviet Union: Russia. It’s no secret that in Russia few people outside of Moscow and Saint Petersburg speak English, this is thankfully changing but slowly. Therefore it’s vital to learn at least a few words and phrases before traveling to Russia and is guaranteed to change how Russian people receive you and will change your travel experience for the better. One of the main questions were asked by our clients is ”how do you say thank you in Russian?”. So in this article, we’re going to look into the various ways you can say thanks in Russian.
Like anywhere in the world, never be afraid to use thank you to express your gratitude to Russian people. Bus drivers, helpful locals, and restaurant and hotel staff, the latter are unfortunately seriously underappreciated by locals in Russia and some will be pleasantly surprised when you thank them for their service.
Like many aspects of the Russian language, there are various ways to say something. Thankfully (no pun intended) thank you is limited to only two forms.
Spasibo – In Russian, spasibo means thank you in Russian. Pronounced spa-cee-ba, in Cyrillic it looks like спаси́бо. One of the most useful and boundary-breaking words in the Russian language. If you really want to express your gratitude for somebody in Russia after they’ve significantly helped you, you can say Bolshoy (big) Spasibo which means thank you very much.
Blagodaryu Vas – This is a more tongue twister method of how to say thank you in Russian but it is a good way to profess your ability to be more poetic with your Russian language skills than saying Spasibo. Blagodaryu Vas is considered to be a more formal method of saying Spasibo and originates for the old Bulgarian language that was used as a basis for the Russian language. Bulgarian language from the old days is considered very poetic and is a popular synonym of Spasibo and is a method of saying thank you in Russian that is worth remembering.