How to Say "About" in Russian

o[ə]

The English word 'about' is translated into Russian as о. Wiktionary also lists об (ob) and про (pro).

Meaning: concerning (prep)

Ways to say it

“about” in Russian
Russian	Romanization (Wiktionary)	IPA	Note
о	o	[ə] (narrow) [ɐ] (narrow)
об	ob	[əb] (narrow) [ɐb] (narrow)	with prepositional
про	pro	[prə] (narrow) [prɐ] (narrow)	with accusative
насчёт	nasčót	[nɐˈɕːɵt] (narrow)	with genitive

The primary way to say 'about' is to use a preposition meaning 'concerning' a topic or subject.

Which one should you use?

The standard forms о and об are used for general topics or thoughts and require the prepositional case. In contrast, про is often used when discussing more specific, concrete or superficial subjects and requires the accusative case. The form насчёт is also used to mean 'about' or 'regarding', but it requires the genitive case.

Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?

насчёт is a more colloquial option.

Related words

How does it change in a sentence?

The standard preposition о takes the prepositional case. To avoid difficult consonant clusters, use the variant об when the following word begins with a vowel. If you use про, the noun must be in the accusative case and if you use насчёт, the noun must be in the genitive case.

How do you pronounce it?

Did you know?

The word насчёт can be confused with the phrase на счёт, which means 'into the account' as in a bank transaction.
The word насчёт is literally a combination of на meaning 'on' and счёт meaning 'count' or 'calculation'.
The preposition про is so closely associated with informal speech that using it in a very formal academic paper might be seen as a stylistic error.

Examples in context

Я не о вас.
I'm not talking about you.
This sentence is useful for clarifying that the subject of the conversation is not the person being addressed.
Tatoeba #4628867 by marafon, translation #3920692 by CK
Я не о них.
I'm not talking about them.
This sentence is useful for clarifying that the subject of the conversation is not a specific group of people.
Tatoeba #4628869 by marafon, translation #3920693 by CH
Я не о нём.
I'm not talking about him.
This sentence is useful for clarifying that the subject of the conversation is not a specific male person.
Tatoeba #4628871 by marafon, translation #3920694 by CH
О русской литературе
About Russian literature
Об экономике
About the economy
О будущем
About the future
Об этой книге
About this book
О моей семье
About my family
Про нашу поездку
About our trip
Про последний фильм
About the latest movie
Про собачек
About the puppies
О моей работе
About my work
Об этом факте
About this fact
Про новый ресторан
About the new restaurant
О нашем плане
About our plan
Об этой проблеме
About this problem
Про интересный проект
About an interesting project
14048 more sentences on Tatoeba

Example conversation

Maria and Alexander are discussing a movie at a cafe.

Мария Maria

Ты слышал новости о фильме?
Ty slyshal novosti o fil'me?
Have you heard the news about the movie?
Александр Aleksandr

Нет, что ты о нём знаешь?
Net, chto ty o nyom znayesh'?
No, what do you know about it?
Мария Maria

Я читала статью о новом режиссёре.
Ya chitala stat'yu o novom rezhisseryore.
I read an article about the new director.
Александр Aleksandr

Это очень интересно, Мария.
Eto ochen' interesno, Mariya.
That is very interesting, Maria.

Sources

Wiktionary, “about” translations and entries о, об, про, насчёт, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
Word origins: Wiktionary entries насчёт, о, об, про, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.

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How to Say “About” in Russian