English and Russian are languages one big Indo-European family part. However, they have clear differences as they belong to different branches. English comes from the Germanic branch and Russian from the Slavic branch. If you are prepared for the differences and know what they are, it will be a little easier to learn Russian.
There are many such differences, but we will tell you about the main ones that become an obstacle when learning Russian.
The first difference you will encounter as soon as you start learning Russian is the alphabet, which is not like the most other European languages alphabets. Russian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, whereas the English alphabet uses the Latin alphabet. You will therefore almost entirely have to learn the Russian alphabet from scratch. Although there is good news – several letters in both languages alphabets are still similar, not only in spelling, but also in pronunciation. They are, for example, A, O, T, M and K.
English nouns are gender-neutral, except for nouns that refer specifically to a living being having a gender: a lady = she, a man = he. Nevertheless, all other inanimate nouns will be replaced by the pronoun it. Adjectives and verbs in English do not depend in any way on the gender category. In the Russian language, the gender category is important. Every noun is in three genders one: masculine, feminine or neuter. Guessing a noun gender is most often not possible, you have to remember. For example:
Why is it important to know the noun’s gender in Russian? Because it is easier to learn the nouns change by case, because the correct combination with adjectives and verbs depends on it, which is reflected in the corresponding endings:
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They do not exist in Russian, unlike in English. Incidentally, English speakers often guess that a text is composed by Russians the way the articles are used precisely because. For those who originally speak Russian, it is very difficult to get to grips with the English article system, even after studying the language for a long time. The article clauses in English show certainty or indefiniteness, to separate the known from the new. In Russian, the words этот (this) and один (one) are used for this purpose.
A girl took a book. The book was interesting. — Одна девочка взяла книгу. Эта книга была интересная.
Sometimes this relation can be shown by different cases in Russian: for a definite object use the accusative case, for an indefinite one use the genitive case.
I don’t see the car. — Я не вижу машину (a particular machine).
I don’t see a car. — Я не вижу машины (any car at all).
The word order in Russian is not as grammatically important as it is in English. This means that you don’t always have to follow the strict subject-verb-complement rule. You might think that this will simplify the construction of sentences in Russian, but in fact, it just gives the language more subtlety. In Russian, different word order in a sentence can be used to give some emphasis. Beginners may not notice this when they try to understand the main meaning of a sentence just from the words present.
An elementary example is question sentences.
You can sing. — Ты умеешь петь.
Can you sing? — Ты умеешь петь?
Since the word order in both sentences is the same in Russian, it is only possible to understand that the second is a question thanks to the appropriate sign. In addition, the strict word order in an English sentence helps us to understand the objects and subjects’ interaction in a sentence. In Russian, this interaction is largely the case endings responsibility, so changing a sentence part does not usually change the meaning.
Питер покрасил машину. / Машину покрасил Питер. — Peter painted the car.
Moreover, if you swap the words in English in the same way as in Russian, you get practically a horror movie plot where a car has painted Peter.
English also has cases, but there are them only three: subjective, objective and possessive. With nouns, everything is simple in English: in the subject and object case, they do not change their form, in the possessive they get the ending ‘s. Personal pronouns change in the object and possessive cases.
However, in Russian there are as many as six cases:
And nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals change according to cases, that is, those parts of speech that can answer case questions. In addition, there are even more case questions than there are cases — twelve. When changing by case, the endings change.
But there are them fewer in Russian than in English. In Russian, words are connected in a sentence mostly with case endings, whereas in English this role is played by prepositions.
The leg of the table is broken. — Ножка (what?) стола сломана.
This old computer was bought by my father. — Этот компьютер был куплен (by whom) моим отцом.
The Russian language is quite difficult to learn, and when you start to get confused by comparing it with your native language, such as English, things can get even more complicated. But we, at Leader Russian as a Foreign Language School, know how to explain complicated things in simple language.
We hope you found this article useful. We are ready to help you learn Russian online with a native speaker. Classes are individually adapted to your wishes. Submit an application for a free trial lesson and we will find the most suitable Russian language course for you.
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