ребёнок

Russian

Alternative forms

ребёнокъ (rebjónok) — Pre-reform orthography (1918)

Etymology

Inherited from Old East Slavic робѧ (robę), diminutive of робъ (robŭ, “slave”) from Proto-Slavic *orbę. Compare with па́робок (párobok, “lad”) (dialectal). The relationship with "slave" could arise from the meaning "orphan" because orphans carried out the hard work in the household.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key):
Audio: (file)

Noun

ребёнок • (rebjónok) m anim (genitive ребёнка, nominative plural де́ти or ребя́та^*, genitive plural дете́й or ребя́т^*, relational adjective де́тский or ребя́ческий or ребя́чий, diminutive ребёночек)

(plural де́ти, less commonly ребя́та) child, kid, baby: children, kids, babies
Synonym: дитя́ (ditjá)
(plural only) (plural ребя́та) guys, fellows, friends, comrades

Usage notes

The singular form can only refer to "child"/"baby" sense.
The plural form ребя́та (rebjáta) can mean "guys", "friends", etc.
For the plural form "children" де́ти (déti) is the preferred word but ребя́та (rebjáta) is also used.
The suppletive plural form де́ти (déti) is originally a plural form of дитя́ (ditjá).

Declension

Declension of ребёнок (anim masc-form hard-stem accent-f/b irreg)

	singular	plural
nominative	ребёнок rebjónok	де́ти^△, ребя́та^* déti^△, rebjáta^*
genitive	ребёнка rebjónka	дете́й^△, ребя́т^* detéj^△, rebját^*
dative	ребёнку rebjónku	де́тям^△, ребя́там^* détjam^△, rebjátam^*
accusative	ребёнка rebjónka	дете́й^△, ребя́т^* detéj^△, rebját^*
instrumental	ребёнком rebjónkom	детьми́^△, ребя́тами^* detʹmí^△, rebjátami^*
prepositional	ребёнке rebjónke	де́тях^△, ребя́тах^* détjax^△, rebjátax^*

^△Irregular.
^*Use the second plural with the meaning "friends!", "fellows!", "guys!", "comrades!".

Descendants

→ Belarusian: рабёнак (rabjónak)

References

Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “ребенок”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress