Language/Russian/Grammar/Common-Mistakes

Common mistakes in Russian

Hello everybody,

In today's lesson you will learn some useful vocabulary about ¨COMMON MISTAKES¨ in Russian.

Feel free to edit this page by adding new words and expressions!

Happy learning! :)

Once this topic has been thoroughly understood, you may wish to explore these complementary subjects: Russian Grammar → Russian Nouns and Gender → Genitive Case ..., Use of the verb быть in the past, Future Tense & Comparatives and Superlatives.

Some explanation for some common mistakes in Russian

ENGLISH	PRONUNCIATION ENGLISH	RUSSIAN
при (The word means the act of coming, adding or connecting, even if it is only mentally	prih
.
to go near or to find an approach and upgrade the relationship with someone)	prih blih ziht sah	приблизиться
to bring	prih nyehs tih	принести
to come (but not on the feet	prih yeh Haht	приехать
.
при (The object is in the near distance)	prih
.
an area around town or city	prih goh raht	пригород
a school yard, area in school’s property	prihsh kohl nee ou chahs tohk	пришкольный участок
.
при (The action isn’t fully complete )	prih
.
to make something nicer and more beautiful	prih ou krah siht	приукрасить
to open something, but just a little	prih aht kruht	приоткрыть
.
пре (‘very’ at some kind)	preh
.
very wise, sometimes can use as The Wisest	preh moot ree	Премудрый
very kind and nice	preh doh bree	предобрый
.
пре (The action is fully complete or pretend to be so)	preh
.
to stop somebody’s speech or stop something	prehr vaht	Прервать
I need to stop the movie right now if I want to prepare my homework	mnyeh nouzh nah sih chahs zheh prehr vaht eh toht fihlm, yehs lih yah hah chou sdyeh lat ou roh kih	Мне нужно сейчас же прервать этот фильм, если я хочу сделать уроки
to block de way	preh grah dit	преградить

Quite often people use a large number of commas. This makes the understanding of the text and the connections between the semantic parts very difficult. Especially if a person is not experienced in using the Russian language. Not everyone can write as Leo Tolstoi. This is not criticism but just a simple observation.

On this page we’ll try to explain how to use -пре and -при prefixes. They often sound similar but they are spelling differently and often give incorrect word’s meaning when we (yes, even native speakers do such mistakes) spell it wrongly. For example, пребывать(to be in some state)/прибывать(to come), претворить(to bring some idea in life and complete this)/притворить(to close just a little), преступить(to transgress, to break (the law, for example)/приступить(to start doing)

So, let’s cut to the chase.

You need to use -при when: 1. The word means the act of coming, adding or connecting, even if it is only mentally Приблизиться (to go near or to find an approach and upgrade the relationship with someone), принести (to bring), приехать (to come (but not on the feet)) 2. The object is in the near distance Пригород (an area around town or city), пришкольный участок (a school yard, area in school’s property) 3. The action isn’t fully complete Приукрасить (to make something nicer and more beautiful), приоткрыть (to open something, but just a little)

And -пре is used when; 1. It’s means ‘very’ at some kind Премудрый (very wise, sometimes can use as The Wisest) , предобрый (very kind and nice) 2. The action is fully complete or pretend to be so Прервать (to stop somebody’s speech or stop something: Мне нужно сейчас же прервать этот фильм, если я хочу сделать уроки/ I need to stop the movie right now if I want to prepare my homework) , переградить (to block the way)

Some VERY complicated words barely suited for the rules, but they are always spelling like this) Причуда, причудливый Прихоть, прихотливый Приключение Препятствие Пренебрегать Преследовать And some translation for them: Fad, whimsical Whimsy, whimsical Adventure Barrier Neglect Pursue

This isn’t a-very-useful rule but if you want to polish your Russian it will be quite needy

Other Lessons

• Adjectives
• Punctuation
• Pronouns
• Questions
• Conditional Mood
• Plurals
• Tricky Adverbs
• To and же particles in Russian
• Russian cases