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Russian · phrasebook

Excuse me in Russian

Excuse me in Russian is извините (izvinite): the same word as sorry, doing attention-getting duty. To squeeze past someone say разрешите (allow me), and to call a waiter or a shop assistant Russians famously use девушка or молодой человек.

Aurélien CuvelierAurélien CuvelierAug 9, 2026 · Updated Aug 10, 2026
извините
izvinite
getting attention

The ways to say it

извините (izvinite), getting attention: also the plain sorry

простите (prostite), same job: equally common as an opener

разрешите (razreshite), let me pass: allow me; standard in transport and crowds

девушка (devushka), calling staff (f): literally girl; standard for any woman serving you

молодой человек (molodoy chelovek), calling staff (m): literally young man; same job for men

How to use it

Извините opens almost any interaction with a stranger: asking the way, asking the time, starting a question in a shop. Простите does the same job; both then continue with the question: извините, вы не подскажете... (excuse me, could you tell me...).

On the metro, разрешите (or the fuller разрешите пройти, allow me to pass) is how you move through a crowd, and вы выходите? (are you getting off?) is the ritual question near the doors.

Watch out

Девушка addressed to a fifty-year-old waitress startles every learner, but it is the neutral, standard call: no Russian equivalent of madam or miss covers service situations, so girl and young man do the work regardless of age.

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Aurélien Cuvelier

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Aurélien Cuvelier Founder, NuanceDeck

Aurélien Cuvelier builds NuanceDeck, the app that teaches Russian and French words in context. Each course follows the official proficiency word lists and a frequency corpus for its language, and every word comes with real, annotated example sentences.

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