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How Difficult is Russian Grammar?

  Tags: Difficulty | Grammar | Russian
 Language Learning Forum : Русский Post Reply
15 messages over 2 pages: 1
ruskivyetr
Diglot
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United States
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 9 of 15
16 July 2010 at 7:48pm | IP Logged 
It is difficult to read correctly, if you don't know the rules. If you take an afternoon to go through the rules of
spelling and how things are pronounced if stressed/unstressed, or if they are soft/hard, then you will find that it is
so much easier than just doing it the long way and figuring it out intuitively. Sure it might be harder than doing that
but it takes less time and it confuses you less.
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zhiguli
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Canada
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 Message 10 of 15
18 July 2010 at 11:08am | IP Logged 
I'm beginning to suspect that Russian spelling begins to approach English in all its quirks. Of course this is an exaggeration, but just when you think you're safe because you know the rules, you discover a word or whole group of words that doesn't conform. I remember my shock when I was told (by a philologist - most natives don't notice and don't care) that и properly gets pronounced ы after prepositions "в Италии" ("in Italy")> "в Ыталии", and no reference I've come across has ever mentioned this. And then you have certain foreign words that have unstressed "о" that gets pronounced "о" (rather than the expected "а"), or words where "e" is pronounced э - интернет > интэрнэ́т (or rather интырнэт because of vowel reduction - and if you add в you get в интернете > вынтырнэти). And without the stress, you are almost guaranteed to pronounce words incorrectly, even knowing all the rules.
I could go on, but I think it's fair to say that "Russian is pronounced as it is written" is a myth, peddled to unsuspecting foreigners by too many textbooks.

But I realise this thread is actually about grammar. So, here's something about the additional 7 "sub-cases" that you discover Russian has after getting through the 6 textbook cases:
Хитрые падежи русского языка


Edited by zhiguli on 18 July 2010 at 11:11am

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whipback
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 Message 11 of 15
29 July 2010 at 8:50pm | IP Logged 
Grammar really isn't as hard as people make it out to be, and Russian grammar is no exception. Just learn the basics of grammar and become a little familiar with the more advanced grammar. As you start reading basic books and start to advance in your reading you really pick up on many grammar aspects... the same goes for listening. I haven't even learned all of the Russian cases, and I am able to read much of a basic book called First Reader in Russian or something like that. While I am reading, I have been able to recognize the genitive case, but now I am starting to really learn it as a result of the basics books and stories I read.
I also have learned some irregularities through reading. The one I can think of now is the plural of цветок is цветы.
But let me give you a little tip for reading in a foreign language in case if you don't already know it. First read through the whole text without translating the words you don't know, then translate the words you don't know, and then read through the text again understanding it as a whole. It really helps a lot by not disrupting the flow, seeing words you already know in different cases, conjugations, etc., and for learning new words.
Hope it helps!
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Siberiano
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one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name
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 Message 12 of 15
30 July 2010 at 5:59am | IP Logged 
zhiguli wrote:
words where "e" is pronounced э - интернет > интэрнэ́т (or rather интырнэт because of vowel reduction

In 2000, a group of linguists from the Institute of Russian language, suggested a slight fix to orthography, among them to write э in foreign borrowings like this. The institute was unfortunate to be in Moscow, not from Pu's Petersburg, so the president didn't like it, and all his creepy officials started distracting this reform.
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abr
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 Message 13 of 15
30 July 2010 at 10:33am | IP Logged 
to Siberiano

В русском языке столько заимствований, и некоторые уже такие старые, что обрусели окончательно. Смена в них "е" на "э" и, как я полагаю по аналогии и других букв, только усугубит положение, добавив к устоявшимся правилам новые исключения. Про то, что придется перепечатывать кучу словарей я заикаться не буду - сибирь большая, леса много, хватит и еще на сотню таких реформ.
Мне, кстати, очень интересно было бы узнать, какие аргументы за внесение таких изменений были у авторов предлагаемой реформы. Не осталось у вас какой-нибудь ссылки? А то я даже не представляю, что забивать в поисковик.

Edited by abr on 30 July 2010 at 10:35am

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LanguageSponge
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 Message 14 of 15
14 August 2010 at 5:03pm | IP Logged 
Русский язык имеет агрессивный ритм и интонацию, и каждое предложение это мини-песня. Каждое слово имеет свою интонацию, которая связана со следующим. По-моему, беда в том, что трудно привыкнуть к этому ритму. Конечно надо слушать музыку, чтобы привыкнуть к устной речи, и я считаю музыку на русском языке особенно прекрасной благодаря этому сильным ритму. К примеру, ДДТ мне очень нравится. Порядок слов в русском языке очень гибкий, кажется, особенно в песнях. По-моему, порядок слов один из самых сложных аспектов грамматики понять.

Грамматика по-моему гораздо сложнее, чем немецкий. Познания русского языка конечно помогают в изучении других славянских языков. В прошлом году я начал изучать словенский язык и я узнал, что грамматика очень похожа на грамматику русского. Займёт много времени заучить падежные окончания и поэтому правильно и свободно говорить. В русском языке три рода и шесть падежей. Падежные окончания как-то овладают, как и в немецком. Кажется, что виды глаголов замещают времена, которых в русском языке нет.

В русском языке нет артикелей. Роль арикеля выражается с помощью порядка слов. Вот почему артикели некоторым русским трудно даются. К примеру, когда говорит моя предподавателица по-английски, она просто не обращает на артикли внимание. А ещё, ударение сложно из-за передвижения в разных формах слов.

Russian has a strong rhythm and intonation and every sentence is like a mini-song. Every word has its own intonation which is linked with the following one. In my opinion the trouble is that it’s difficult to get used to this rhythm. Of course you must listen to music to get used to the spoken language, and I consider Russian music to be especially beautiful because of this strong rhythm. For example, I really like ДДТ. Word order is very flexible in Russian – in songs especially, it seems. In my opinion, word order is one of the most difficult aspects of the grammar to fully understand.

The grammar is, in my opinion, much more difficult than that of German. An understanding of Russian grammar of course helps when studying other Slavic languages. Last year I started studying Slovenian and I found that the grammar is very similar to that of Russian. It will take a lot time to memorise the case endings and therefore to speak correctly and proficiently. Russian has three genders and six cases. The case endings overlap somewhat, just like in German. It seems that aspects of the verb replace the tenses that don’t exist in Russian.

There are no articles in Russian. The role of articles is expressed through word order. This is why some Russians have difficulties with articles. For example, when my lectrice speaks English, she simply doesn’t pay any attention to the articles at all. In addition, stress is difficult in Russian because it changes in different forms of the same word.


Edited by LanguageSponge on 14 August 2010 at 6:08pm

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oneplus
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 Message 15 of 15
09 September 2010 at 3:04pm | IP Logged 
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091018141450AA Tyc3V


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