Russian language is a brain explosion for foreigners

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Mikhailo Vasilievich Lomonosov wrote in his work Russian grammar:

"Charles V, the Roman emperor, used to say that it is decent to speak the Spanish language with God, French with friends, German with enemies, and Italian with the female sex. But if he were skilled in the Russian language, then, of course, he would that it is decent for them to talk to all of them, for they would find in it the splendor of Spanish, the liveliness of the French, the strength of the German, the tenderness of Italian, moreover, the richness and strong brevity of the Greek and Latin languages in the images."

Ah, this difficult Russian language! We, the speakers of this language, often do not notice its difficulties, oddities, which sometimes confuse foreigners who are only mastering the basics of the "great and mighty"!

Remember Pushkin's Eugene Onegin?

“She didn’t know Russian well, I haven't read our magazines, And expressed herself with difficulty

In your own language, So, I wrote in French …"

This is about the same letter to Onegin, which he learns by heart at school.

But times are changing - so are priorities. In the modern world, Russian is one of the most widely spoken in the world; it is enrolled in the World Languages Club, which, in addition to Russian, includes English, French, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin dialect) and Spanish.

Here are some of the "oddities" of the Russian language.

1. The Russian alphabet is strange in itself. Some letters in it are exactly the same as in Latin, but others look the same, but sound completely different. And two more letters - "b" and "b" - do not have their own sounds, why are they needed at all?

2. The letter "E" can represent two different sounds: [ye] and [yo]. That is, for [yo] there is a separate letter, E, but these two dots are almost never written, so it turns out not E, but E. You can get confused.

3. In modern Russian, the word "comrade" is no longer used, so Russians are left without a special word - an appeal to another person or group of people. Sometimes you can hear "ladies and gentlemen", but it sounds a little pretentious and unnatural, a citizen - officially. People can use the words "man, woman", but this is somewhat rude. Over the past 20 years, Russians have not been able to decide how to address other people, so in each situation they choose the most appropriate address.

4. The verb "to be" is not used in the present tense. But in the future and in the past it is used.

5. The word order in Russian is free, but this does not mean that you can put words as you want. The meaning of a sentence can radically depend on the order of words. For example, "I am going home" simply means "I am going home" (although, of course, a lot depends on the intonation), but "I am going home" means that "I am going home, and not somewhere else." … And “I’m going home” means “it’s me who is going home, and not you and not someone else. All the rest stay here and work! " So the order of words in Russian depends on what you want to say.

6. To turn a sentence into a general question, you don't need to change anything at all, just intonation. "Are you home." Is a statement, but "Are you at home?" - already a question.

7. The numbers 1 and 2 have a gender, while the rest do not: one boy, one girl, two girls, two boys, but three boys and three girls.

8. The number 1 has a plural (one).

9. In the past tense the verbs have a gender, but in the present and the future they do not. He played, she played, he plays, she plays.

10. Russian nouns have "animation"! This means that some "animate" nouns are considered more alive than inanimate. For example, in Russian, "Dead" is considered more alive than "corpse": someone is a dead man, but what is a corpse.

11. A two-letter word in which you can make 8 mistakes - cabbage soup. The Russian Empress Catherine the Great, while still a German princess Sophie, wrote the simple Russian word "cabbage soup" like this: "schtschi", and these are 8 letters, all of which are incorrect!

12. Five letters of the alphabet, going in a row D E E F form a sentence: "Where is the hedgehog?"

13. A completely finished sentence can consist of some verbs, for example: "We sat down and decided to send to go buy a drink."

14. And how to explain to a foreigner what it is about: "Behind a sandy scythe a lop-eared scythe fell under a sharp scythe of a woman with a scythe."

15. And another language "explosion" for a foreigner:

- Have a drink?

- There is no drink, there is no.

16. And what would it mean: "Barely ate ate ate"? It's simple: very slowly (barely) some trees were eating (i.e. eating) other trees.

Or this:

17. Foreigners are very surprised how "hands do not reach to see".

18. I oversalted the borscht and overdid it with salt - the same thing.

19. And how do you:

20. How about this (read quickly):

According to rzelulattas, Ilsseovadny odongo anligysokgo unviertiseta, it doesn’t exist, there are bkuvs in solva in kokam pryokda. Galvone, chotby preavya and pslloendya bkwuy blyi on msete. Osatlyne bkuvy mgout seldovt in a ploonm bsepordyak, everything is torn tkest chtaitseya without wandering. Pichriony egoto is that we do not chiate every day, but everything is solvo.

Now read the same phrase slowly. Surprised?

Professor of Philology:

- Give an example of a question so that the answer sounds like a refusal, and at the same time like an agreement.

Student:

- It's simple! "Will you drink vodka?" - "Oh, leave!"