Judith Hehir Sep 20, 2010:

I'm wondering if we used to have something like those школьные тетради. We used them in a Reading Room where I was employed for four years, but they were so old, they were yellowed. They were small like the university exam booklet jobbies, and they had a max of about 20 (if that) pages. They are no longer available on the market. I know that much.

Angela Greenfield Sep 20, 2010:

We just don't have notebooks like that, ladies. I had to buy them from a Russian store specifically for my kids' Russian lessons. I don't know how you would translate "школьные тетради". Thin notebooks?
The "общие тетради" are definitely a version of composition notebooks. The only thing is that they can be ruled or quad ruled (общие тетради в линейку или общие тетради в клетку), and I don't think we call them both "composition notebooks".

Judith Hehir Sep 19, 2010:

Susan +1 I would only add that some universities use very small (in terms of size and number of pages) composition notebooks (not sure what they're called) for final exams. Otherwise, we make no such distinction on the basis of age. We have 1 subject notebooks, 5 subject notebooks, etc, and obviously the 5 subject notebooks are thicker (and have subject dividers).

Susan Welsh Sep 19, 2010:

Distinction doesn't exist this way in AE A school notebook for younger children usually has fewer pages and is labeled "wide ruled," because their handwriting is not so good yet, they need more space to write, so the lines are farther apart. A notebook for older students and adults is labeled "college ruled," although it is not only for college (just makes it sound more sophisticated), and the lines are closer together. The former is thinner, but more than 12 pages; the latter is usually very thick, often with 5 subject dividers, so maybe 1 inch thick (I don't know how many pages that is). Both are just called "notebooks," except for this distinction about the "rules" (lines). A "composition book" is something else--that is bound with a hard cover and a string binding, not spiral or glue; it is more permanent. It is used by all ages, but notably in classes where students are doing creative writing or such compositions that they might want to keep (or, the teacher doesn't want them to tear pages out, as in a spiral notebook). @Michael: So Общая Тетрадь is just "notebook."