Жена (everyday) and супруга (formal) - two words for wife, a stress shift that changes е to ё in the plural, and a root that connects wife, woman, and femininity.
The singular is жена (stress on the last syllable: zhenA). The plural is жёны (stress moves to the first syllable: zhYOny). When stress shifts forward, the unstressed е becomes ё.
This stress-shift + vowel change pattern repeats across Russian:
жена → жёны сестра → сёстры звезда → звёзды весна → вёсны
The rule: when stress moves off a syllable containing е, that е often becomes ё if it was historically a ё all along. Dictionaries list жена with е because the ё is hidden under unstressed pronunciation - it only reveals itself when stress arrives.
| Russian | Pronunciation | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| жена | zhena | wife | Standard. Everyday speech. Fem. |
| супруга | supruga | wife (formal) | Official / formal. Documents, speeches. Fem. |
| Russian | Pronunciation | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| женщина | zhenshchina | woman | Fem. The general word for "woman." |
| женский | zhenskiy | female / women's | Adjective. Женский день = Women's Day. |
| женственный | zhenstvennyy | feminine / womanly | Adjective. Describes feminine qualities. |
| жених | zhenikh | groom / fiance | Masc. Same root: the one who takes a wife. |
"Моя жена" is the standard introduction. When introducing your wife, Russians say "Это моя жена, [name]" (This is my wife, [name]). Using супруга here would sound like you're giving a press conference, not introducing a person.
Жена and женщина share a root - and a history. Both come from the Old Slavic root жен-, meaning "woman." Жена originally meant "woman" broadly (as it still does in some Slavic languages like Bulgarian). Over time, Russian narrowed it to "wife," while женщина became the general word for "woman." This is why жених (groom/fiance) also has the жен- root - literally "the one who takes a woman."
8 марта - International Women's Day. Женский день (March 8) is one of Russia's biggest holidays. Husbands give жёнам (wives, dative plural) flowers, and the whole country celebrates женщины (women). It's a public holiday with real cultural weight - not a token gesture.
Slova teaches жена with its dative жене, instrumental женой, plural жёны, and the phrases where each form appears - not just a word list.
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