Is “на здоровье” a toast in Russian?
Смешной визит к врачу с больной головой
A2 Russian listening practice · Standard Russian · Curated for beginners
Many foreigners think на здоровье is the Russian toast. It isn’t: Russians don’t usually clink glasses with it. На здоровье (“to your health”) is what you say back when someone thanks you, especially for food: спасибо, очень вкусно! — на здоровье! For a toast, Russians say за здоровье! or будем!
The на vs за difference matters: за means “(drink) to,” as in за нас!, “to us!” Polish na zdrowie is the toast, which is probably where the mix-up spreads from. The sketch ends with a deadpan exchange after a very odd consultation: спасибо, доктор — на здоровье.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.