Peculiarities of the Russian Language

The difference in English between saying "wrote" and "was writing" is like the difference between saying Я пошла and saying Я шла in Russian. "Wrote" in English usually means a completed action. If you say "I was writing," this usually talks about still being IN the time of writing, before the action was finished.
 
If you mean, did you use the right English letters to show the sound of the Russian: it was pretty good, only you should put S where you put C in the sound of the word спасибо.
 
Now to talk about you saying:

>> I correctly written?

When the verb ( ГЛАГОЛ ) "to write" ( ПИСАТЬ ) is in the form "written," it cannot be used alone as the verb of a sentence. There are different, correct ways you can say this question using the word "written":

Have I written this correctly?

Was this written correctly?

"Written" in English is often used in the same way as saying Это было написано.
 
Katenja said:
Copperfox, I feel illiterate!
Я чувствую себя неграмотной!
Have I written this correctly?
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Не бойся (don't be afraid)! Both of your English sentences here are exactly correct.

For the benefit of long-time readers of this thread, let me take the opportunity to remind you about noun/adjective declensions. What we call the "instrumental" (творительный, if I remember correctly) declension sometimes is used when describing the "way" someone or something is. Katenja felt as if the way SHE was, was illiterate; so she used the instrumental form of the Russian adjective for "illiterate" or "unlearned." The basic, or "nominative" declension of the same adjective, given a feminine gender because Katenja is a girl, would be неграмотная.
 
Stubbornly bringing this thread back for the benefit of

Джайвь Профессор

-- which is phonetically "Jive Professor."
 
Спасибо болшой мой друг. Сейчас если бы я не читал, потом я был бы оченъ плохой человек :D

(Ugh, sorry if that was a bit rough. The if-then construction was always a rough spot for me.)
 
Actually, you did the if-then construction (that you would be a bad person if you didn't read this now) correctly. Your few mistakes were elsewhere. You need a soft sign in the "BOLSHOYE," and a soft sign instead of that hard sign in "OCHEN." Most seriously, the "bad person" part, "PLOKHOY CHELOVEK," needs to be in the instrumental declension, "PLOKHIM CHELOVEKOM." You will find lots of tips on the declensions in this thread. Enjoy, and we'll "BOLTAT" (= chat) later.
 
Ой! Конечно болшьой не болшой. я топой Американец...

Curse that soft-sign, and it's ninja abilities! Yeah, it's been almost a year since I've used it regularly. It's gonna take an 80's training montage (wherein you are Mr. Miyagi and I am Daniel Larusso) to get my Russian back in shape.
 
I believe you meant to use the Russian word "TUPOY," meaning dull. But being out of practice doesn't make you dull-witted, it just makes you out of practice. I hope you ARE now reading through this thread.
 
Кажется, что отец того ребёнка обманул народ.

This is pronounced, "KAH-zhets-yah shto ut-YETS tuh-VO rib-YOHN-ka obma-NOOL na-ROAD." The meaning is, "It seems that the father of that boy deceived the public."
 
Another ENGLISH sentence written PHONETICALLY in Russian letters to help with pronunciation of the Russian alphabet. Note again that there is no "TH" sound in Russian; I am substituting a "D" sound for it.

Уай из дер сно алреди?

= Why is there snow already?
 
Some Russian words are SO broad in their meanings as to be almost meaningless. For instance, their noun ТЕХНИКА, related to our word "technical," can mean practically any large manufactured object that you do some kind of work with. So if this word is used in connection with automobiles, it's hard to be certain if the writer/speaker means only complete automobiles and nothing else, or if he is including separate automobile parts and even other equipment associated with automobiles.
 
Вот теперь ноябрь! Наконец передача глупых фильмов ужасов прекратится!

The above is roughly pronounced "Vote tep-yehr no-yobber! Knock-un-yets pair-uh-dah-cha glue-pikh filmuv ooh-zhassuv prek-rateetsya!"

It means "Now it's November! At last, the broadcasting of stupid horror movies will stop!"
 
Здесь толпа такая, что трудно держать свою нитку наверху.

Pronounced: Zdyess tolpa takaya, shto troodnuh dare-zhot svah-yoo nitku naverkhu.

Meaning: There's such a crowd here that it's hard to keep one's own thread on top.
 
Here is an ordinary Russian sentence:

Я живу в городе среднего размера.

It means, "I live in a medium-sized city." Singing Dryad, if you see this, can you give the Polish equivalent of this sentence?
 
Yes, the Polish translation is:
"Ja żyje w mieście, który jest średniej wielkości."
The EXACT translation of that is "I live in a city that is medium-sized", as the Polish grammar and way of constructing sentences is different than Russian and English.
 
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SingingDryad~ said:
"Ja żyje w mieście, który jest średniej wielkości."
Click to expand...

I can tell that the greatest divergence between the two sentences is in the word used for "city." (The "ktory" construction you used also exists in Russian, though I didn't happen to use it here.) The Polish word for a city looks as if it might be related to the Russian word for "place." The very last word in the Polish sentence, the word representing size, appears to me to be related to the Russian word for "great."

Yeah, let's try another comparison. This Russian sentence--

Я желаю танцевать с тобой.

--means "I wish to dance with you."
 
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