You arrive in Rossiya in the evening one day. Hungry after a long train ride you decide to look for dinner. You consult your handy English-Russian dictionary for the right word, and ask some passersby where a good place to find dinner is. They all suggest that it’s past dinner time. You’re confused, hungry, and burned by a remarkably poor translation.
For a number of reasons I won’t get into many (most) English-Russian dictionaries translate the word dinner as ‘обед’ (pronounced Obyed). Using this however will prove difficult. Обед is a great translation for banquet (though in Russian Банкет is the word for banquet). In english dinner can refer to a few things. One is that tasty meal you were hoping to have after your long train ride. However dinner is also the word for a formal gathering and this doesn’t always mean the last meal of the evening. Unfortunately ‘обед’ can refer to a lot of things ‘dinner’ is used to describe but the word you were looking for was ужин. Ужин (pronounced Uzhin) is the last meal of the day. It’s typically not used when describing a formal engagement such as a dinner with the president or a dinner to celebrate a feast day. It is however used to describe the informal evening meal of the day you were probably looking for.
Many dictionaries will happily give you the correct translation if you search for the word supper rather than the word dinner. However supper is used infrequently between regions and has a somewhat unrefined quality (at least in my experience in America). You wouldn’t ask that pretty Russian girl visiting Manhattan out to supper; you’d ask her out to dinner. Unfortunately with the average English-Russian dictionary she’d probably assume you were asking her out to brunch! This could throw off your movie plans, and make for an annoyed Russian girl! Of course you could also be blunt which is always a better approach with Russian girls. Instead of asking if she’d like to catch some obed (that’s intentionally wrong if you hadn’t guessed) ask if she would like to go to restaurant x at time y with you; no use letting cultural and regional linguistic details get in the way!