All Work and No Play: Russian Verbs Related to Работать

Работать, to work, is one of the first verbs one learns in Russian. It very useful in its primary sense, but it also has some interesting “relatives” — derivative verbs that have a slightly different meaning. This post will look at five of them, given in pairs of imperfective and perfective.

Подраба?тывать/подрабо?тать

The prefix под- means “under” and can sometimes mean “a little bit” (подкра?сить — to touch up with paint) or “to do something along with someone” (подпева?ть — to sing along). Подраба?тывать means “to have a side job/gig” and may be followed by a noun in the instrumental case to show the occupation.

Я диза?йнер, продолжа?ю подраба?тывать на до?му, но всё равно? живём мы небога?то.

I’m a designer and keep taking on some assignments to do at home, but we still don’t have a lot of money.

[Наталья Радулова. Молчание или скандал // ?Огонек?, 2014]

Зараба?тывать/зарабо?тать

Зарабо?тать means “to earn” or “gain.” It can be followed by nouns in the accusative case to say what is earned, such as де?ньги (money), and на + a noun in the accusative to say what the thing earned will be used for, such as зарабо?тать на жизнь (to make a living) or зарабо?тать на кварти?ру (to earn enough to buy a flat/apartment/condo).

Когда? мы пе?рвые два миллио?на рубле?й зарабо?тали, у нас да?же са?йта не? было.

When we earned out first 2 million rubles, we didn’t even have a website.

[Елена Николаева. ?Я знаю, что у вас на ужин? // ?Эксперт?, 2015]

Note that зарабо?тать as a homonym can also mean “to start working.”

Обраба?тывать/обрабо?тать

Обрабо?тать can mean “to treat,” as in a wound (обрабо?тать ра?ну) or to process something like information. The related noun is обрабо?тка.

Одна?ко обрабо?тать пото?к да?нных на одно?м компью?тере практи?чески невозмо?жно.

However, it is virtually impossible to process this data stream on one computer.

[Александр Латкин. Собака на процессоре. За использование простаивающих компьютеров можно получить 120 лет тюрьмы // ?Известия?, 2002.01.31]

Разраба?тывать/разрабо?тать

Разраба?тывать means “to develop” something like a plan, process, or software. Basically, it is used to talking about anything inventive but not about improving conditions (what would be called developing an area in English).

На?до разрабо?тать таку?ю социа?льную систе?му, кото?рая максима?льно защища?ла бы дете?й из малообеспе?ченных семе?й.

We need to develop a social system that would protect children from low-income families as much as possible.

[Ирина Мельникова. Школа выживания // ?Итоги?, 2003.02.11]

Перераба?тывать/перерабо?тать

You might remember the prefix пере- in the sense of “too much.” This applies here, too, when перерабо?тать means “to overwork.” However, I would like to look at a different, more interesting sense of this word.

Пере- can also mean “to do over.” In this sense, перераба?тывать can mean something like “process” or “convert” when we talk about raw materials or “recycle” if we talk about waste.

Япо?ния ― еди?нственная из всех официа?льно нея?дерных стран, кото?рая сама? лега?льно перераба?тывает своё отрабо?танное я?дерное то?пливо.

Among all the countries that do not officially have nuclear weapons, Japan is the only one to recycle its nuclear fuel legally and independently.

[Геворг Мирзаян. Самураи скоро вернутся // ?Эксперт?, 2014]

~ Maria