Russian Language. What To Expect.

The French writer Prosper Merime claimed that Russian language was the most beautiful language of all European languages. Jerome Horsey, the English envoy, said that Russian language was the richest and most elegant in the world.

If you already speak Russian well   you will most probably agree that at least the language is extremely rich.

How many words can you make in English to call a CAT using the same stem "cat"? I can give you at least 10 additional words in Russian that come to my mind - кот (cat) - котик, котя, котэ, котюня, котюнечка, котечка, котейка, котище, котяра, котяка...

And you can create your own words, adding suffixes, and people will understand what you feel about your cat at the moment. Put your emotions in one word or put them into the sentence. How can you do that? Rearrange words in the sentence. A simple phrase like "I love you" can sound in many ways in Russian if you just change the structure of the sentence, not adding other words. You can see this happening in Russian poems and it makes them sound fantastic.

How do we do this? The system of endings helps us. There are six cases in Russian, and they require special endings for nouns, adjectives, pronouns. That`s why when we see a word with its ending we always know its real place, regardless of its position in the sentence.

"Анна купила конфеты" = Anna bought candies.

but "Конфеты купила Анна" doesn`t mean Candies bought Anna. The meaning will be the same, that Anna bought candies, but now this sentence will get a little different shade.

So if you already know basic Russian you can play with words and phrases and soon you`ll be able to create your own words.

If you are at the very beginning, you`ll need to spend time studying grammar, cases and endings, because if you know how to say I`m going to Moscow - Я еду в МосквУ, it doesn`t mean that you are able to say I`m going from Moscow, because not only the preposition will be different, but the ending too - Я еду из МосквЫ.

That`s why even a conversational basic Russian require a lot of learning and knowing  a lot of grammar. But if you are patient and eager to master Russian language, then in some time you`ll be able to enjoy Russian literature that always loses its charm when translated to another language.