Russ, A very…

FUNNY means humorous, is that what веселый means?

Uly, «веселый» means cheerful, jolly.

freaking articles...
and yes, веселый is funny

Russ S, загляните, пожалуйста, в словарь.

забавный is funny; веселый is fun

I’m getting off Lingvo for a while until they clean things up. I’m sick of it. So I’m not ignoring anyone if I don’t respond - I’m just not here!

Anna, I've never heard/seen the words "jolly; jovial" being used in everyday speech.
As for 'merry', I've mostly heard it in the context of ''merry x-max''. Never heard someone would say "merry person".
I've been hearing the word "cheerful" here and there but to me, it's more like "неунывающий, бодрый"

In real life I'm hearing 'funny' is used quite a lot to describe 'веселый'.

At last, don't forget that we're describing a person (the boatman) and you can see how those adjectives are used to describe a person:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=jolly+person%2Cjovial+person%2Cfunny+person%2Cmerry+person&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=28&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cjolly%20person%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cjovial%20person%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cfunny%20person%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cmerry%20person%3B%2Cc0

Uly, no one is going to clean anything here, you know that.

And leaving the site won't help. Just ignore the trolls.

Thanks, Uly! )
Have a good time! )

Russ, a funny person is comical, humorous; a fun person is jovial, jolly, people have a good time with them. You don’t seem to understand the difference.

I do understand.
But in Russian, the word 'веселый' is very broad. It can include comical, humorous, funny, fun person, cheerful, joyful, and more.
We don't know why exactly the boatman was веселый but the most common is probably because he's funny or fun (as you said).

By the way, I knew a few boatmen back in the 90s. They actually all were
весёлые every day but in a different way )))

Well, just to be clear, FUNNY in English would refer to a comedian, or someone who says something that makes you laugh every time they open their mouth.

Yes, agreed.
And how do we know the boatman is not like this? the answer is - we don't.

As for taking a break from the site due to lots of junk being posted, think of this - you're not being here will result in even more junk being posted. Who's going to validate all that? No one... hence more junk. ((

Russ, I’m not Russian. If you feel that веселый here means comical/humorous, then by all means add your translation. I don’t argue with natives - I just explain the English as best I can.

I know you're not, yet ))
As I said the word 'веселый' is very broad in Russian. So, more than one English adjective would work here.
My point in this long tread was that 'funny' (and 'fun' as you added) tend to be more common in English to describe 'веселый' person (rather than merry, jolly, jovial)

Улий, плюнь на троллей и разотри. don't let them to distract you from the main and interesting things on this site.

The reason people here is learning languages.

Thanks.

*The reason people are here is to learn languages.

Вам нужно исправить также и свою ошибку -
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/slowpoke. Тот, кто делает что-то медленно, особенно ребёнок

Тормоз по-русски - плохо соображающий, медленно соображающий, до которого медленно доходит

Uly, Russ, let me share some of my thoughts. I grew up in Europe and Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union. So, though I was raised in Russian family I never saw the reality of the USSR and then Russia until I was 16 years old. That’s why for me a lot of meanings of the word «весёлый» just don’t exist or have been out of my life, so I didn’t even think about them now. Can this mean I can’t be a good translator? That a good translator should have a broader experience?
And I was thinking not only about this issue, but also the change of generations (in a country) and the difference in their life experience. This difference is the reason we will get different translations of sentences without context (like the one we have here) by the representatives of different generations and it is also the reason why the language evolves.

*The reason people are here is to learn languages. Thanks.

I think I can become a good translator, because I will always have the context. )

Excuse my philosophical approach, sometimes I can’t help myself. ) Once I’ve spent a whole month reading only philosophy textbook. )

Anna, I like your philosophical approach and no one said you couldn't be a good translator. None of us is. Most of us have one native language and are learning/practicing the second one. So, yea, there always will be differences in how people interpreter words or phrases. It indeed depends on where you grew up and when. I don't know your level of Russian but in this case, it doesn't matter because the word весёлый in Russian can be used to describe a lot of things.
Sometimes весёлый can even be used to describe a drunk person.

Russ, I was thinking about the fact that I know only one meaning of весёлый in Russian. And that it will be difficult for me to translate sentences with it into English even with the context, because I can simply fail to understand Russian context. But Google will help, I hope. )

My level of Russian is OK. )
But once I was asked into what a children’s playground turns in the evening and I couldn’t guess, but the rest of the people answered immediately.

Hmm, and what a children’s playground turns in the evening ?

Just like with the word "веселый", «Тормоз» can have multiple meanings in Russian. And different people can use it differently.
I've also heard the word Тормоз sometimes used in the automotive industry ))

Russ, в место встречи алкоголиков. (

Anna, I suspected that but wasn't sure because lucky in my childhood it wasn't the case. The worst I remember is that teenagers would gather in the playground and play cards, some of them would smoke but no heavy drinking. Some would bring a portable cassette player and they would listen to rock music. I remember that because my older brother was among them and sometimes I was hanging with him from dusk to night time. That's how I discovered AC/DC, ZZ Top, Deep Purple, Kiss, and others. Good times...
But these days I suspect it's not the same.

Russ, of course it’s not the same.

You know, I want to be 100% sure that “a funny person” and “a fun person” mean the same.
I’ve decided to ask a question on stackexchange. I will post the link to it here when I receive answers.

Anna, “a funny person” and “a fun person” are not the same. Uly has already explained it here. Check his comments in this thread.

Russ, I was talking about your statement:
“We don't know why exactly the boatman was веселый but the most common is probably because he's funny or fun (as you said).”
Did I misunderstand you?

My statement means that when we hear someone saying in Russian "Лодочник очень весёлый" it doesn't immediately tell us the exact meaning. And its' not only about "Лодочник". If someone says: Он весёлый парень - we don't immediately know what kind of 'весёлость' it is. It would require some additional questions to clarify why he is весёлый.

I think the searing question here is whether веселый парень means the same as забавный парень, because in English, it doesn’t.

Ah! Now I see, sorry. )

Мы тут дома посовещались, потому что вопрос не однозначный. ) И пришли в итоге к такому мнению.
Если смотреть с точки зрения тех, кто смотрит дешевые комедии, разницы может не быть. Если смотреть с точки зрения более образованного человека, который не смотрит такие передачи, то весёлый будет означать человека, который шутит, смеётся, в хорошем настроении, а забавный - над которым некоторые люди (которых я описала выше) - смеются, а другие - сочувствуют ему; или же это необычный в чём-то человек, отличающийся от других.

Please, bear in mind that this is my point of view. And I’m eager to know what others think. )