What does “a black cat ran between them” mean in Russian?
Почему чёрные кошки приносят удачу или неудачу?
A1 Russian listening practice · Standard Russian · Curated for beginners
In Russia a чёрная кошка crossing your path means bad luck, and some people will stop or spit over their left shoulder before walking on. The cat also lives in an idiom: между ними пробежала чёрная кошка, “a black cat ran between them,” means two people have had a falling-out and aren’t friends anymore.
Неудача is the clip’s word for “bad luck”: удача is luck, не- flips it, and приносить неудачу is “to bring bad luck.” The speaker here takes the other side: я люблю чёрных кошек, they’re красивые and милые.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.