Any vs. every kind (любой / всякий)

Any Kind vs. Whichever You Choose

When translating the English word "any" into Russian, you need to decide whether you mean "all sorts of" or "any single one."

Use всякий to express "every kind" or "all sorts of." It highlights variety and diversity. Like any adjective, it declines to match the gender, number, and case of the noun it modifies.

There are all sorts of clothes in our store.
В нашем магазине есть всякая одежда.

Use любой when you mean "any" in the sense of an open, free choice—whichever single one you pick, it doesn't matter.

Notice the contrast between these two concepts in action. A universal color might match "all sorts of" things (emphasizing diversity), whereas you need shoes to match "any" single dress you happen to choose (emphasizing interchangeability).

Achieving Saturation

Sometimes, simply doing an action isn't enough; you need to do it until you are completely satisfied, relieved, or have had your absolute fill.

In Russian, you can express this "achievement of a state through saturation" by wrapping a verb in a circumfix: adding a prefix like вы- (or sometimes на-) and the postfix -ся.

For example, sleeping isn't always enough; sometimes you need to get a full, satisfying amount of sleep (выспаться). If you are carrying emotional tension, you might need to talk until you completely unburden yourself (выговориться).

When this type of saturation action takes an object—meaning you have consumed or experienced your absolute fill of something—that object must be in the Genitive case. For instance, насмотреться means to watch or look at something to the point of complete satiation.

She watched her fill of all sorts of films and managed to cry her fill.
Она насмотрелась всяких фильмов и смогла выплакаться.