Brandon Crossдобавил заметку 9 years ago

Just to add more confusion:
прогадать - to choose wrongly. The word is mostly obsolete, but it is still used in one context: "не прогадаешь" - "you won't regret your choice"; "it's a safe bet" etc.
ex. "не знаешь, какого цвета купить машину: бери красную - не прогадаешь" - "If you don't know what which color your next car should be - choose red. You can't be wrong with red"
загадать - has two separate meanings, depending wholly on the context: "загадать желание" - "to make a wish"; "загадать загадку" - "to ask a riddle".
Ask me a riddle and I reply:
“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

Igor, that's very interesting! thank you :) In those cases, we say "you can't GO wrong"

Well done!

@Igor Yurchenko thanks for mentioning "не прогадаешь"! and of course 'загадать' should definitely be up there as it is also very common)))

Brandon, did you also work out the word НАГАДАТЬ? I hope it is the last word in the list of ГАДАТЬ/ГАДЫВАТЬ derivates.

Uly, of course "you can't go wrong"! Thank you. I felt there was something odd about "you can't be wrong", but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Brandon Cross - you're welcome. After reading your notes I get more and more fascinated with the ways Russian words are formed. I mean it's been around me since birth, but I've never payed much attention to it. It's very nice to look at Russian "from outside" =)

I think "подгадать" should be mentioned as well. It means to choose the right time for something.
ex. Планирую поездку в Европу, а цены на билеты прыгают. Возникает вопрос: как подгадать момент покупки билетов, чтобы не подгадать. :-)

Чтобы не прогадать

@Vladislav Jeong you mean -гадать, -гадывать, right? And I am aware of нагадать, предугадать etc, but again, I wanted to keep it simple)) Some prefer to tackle these prefixes/stems and such in one large chunk, but I like to learn a few at a time and test them out with Russian friends in conversation))

@Igor Yurchenko Russian is amazing!))

"We figured out the mystery of the Sphinx."
It can't be so! Nobody has figured out the mystery of the Sphinx yet. Even esotericists can't say anything reasonable on that...

@Наталья Беляева great example! but i'm not so sure it's a "must know" for beginners due to the limited area of usage)) that might be better for intermediate learners who have the sufficient vocab to finish such sentences)

I suppose "выгадать" is not worth mentioning.
Мы выгадали час, поехав экспрессом. — We saved an hour by taking the express.

@Игорь Леонтьев it's just a fun example to help clarify the verb's usage))

@Игорь Леонтьев that actually is a good one! not for beginners, but def for me))) in your example I just would have used "сэкономить", but now i'll have to incorporate that into my lexicon)) thanks!

Reading my tea-leaves and at the same time making my wild guesses I can foretell that sooner or later someone will mention a rare Russian poetic verb with the above root and meaning "to imagine" and some other people remember the famous Russian babushka who used to do some similar work with the same root. How many Russian verbs having the *гадать root are used in the previous sentence? What are they? It is a riddle that cannot be answered "Cottleston pie"!(((🙃)))

You have collected a pretty big set of related words. Russian is my second language, but I think I have never met the words подгадать and выгадать -- even if their meaning may be clear from the context. Probably I would use instead of them угадать и выиграть, respectively. May be then the style would be somewhat worse...
(Any comment?)

Выгадать and выиграть are absolutly different verbs. The first one means 1) gain 2) (сэкономить) save выгадать время — save time.
Выиграть - to win.
Подгадать - manage to do smth in time, in necessery moment.

István Mayer, this is actually odd, because in Russia we do use the verb "подгадать" quite often, meaning "to manage to do something in the right time or in the time that is convenient for oneself".

Лев Янковский, Сергей Касаткин:
My Russian basically corresponds to the usage of the sixties, when I lived six years in Kharkov.
As to "выиграть" I have meant this word in the sense which is listed in "gramota.ru" as its third meaning:
"3. Получить выгоду, пользу, преимущество от чего-л.; выгадать."
That means that the dictionary supports my usage.
As to "подгадать" -- I do not remember meeting that word. My Russian is usually good enough to encounter unknown words of general usage only rarely. May be, it became more widely spread in the last half century. (This assumption is in agreement with the fact that my old Ожегов of 1963 edition indicates it as "colloquial", while no special indication in the "gramota.ru".)

The Ozhegov's dictionary is more competent than any other internet source, IMHO.
Подгадать is really colloquial word. But it sounds equally in any kinds of conversations.

No answers came to my riddle, so ...
Разгадка:
"Reading my tea-leaves" — от read the tea-leaves — гадать на кофейной гуще
"making my wild guesses" — от make wild guesses — гадать на бобах / на кофейной гуще
foretell — предугадать
a rare Russian poetic verb with the above root and meaning "to imagine" — взгадать
the famous Russian babushka ... — бабка надвое гадала
+ bonus:
"Cottleston pie" — ответ на любую загадку (из Винни Пуха)

Помните у Высоцкого: "Под эту дату Пушкин ПОДГАДАЛ себе дуэль, и Маяковский лег виском на дуло"