Learning Russian language

Originally Posted by tim2286

I almost spoke too soon. I checked a certain website (don't want to post it here) and it basically gives you a lot of info on languages. Bulgarian and Ukrainian are 90% transparent to a russian speaker. I have not had any exposure to bulgarian so this is the best I can do.

PS dont know if ure much of a basketbal fan but GO UNC

Thanks tim. And yes, I'm a BIG basketball fan, and UNC is my favorite team!! I don't want to distract from this topic too much, but I want to post just one small image

Originally Posted by tim2286

Bulgarian and Ukrainian are 90% transparent to a russian speaker.)

I would strongly disagree with this!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I speak fluently in both Ukrainian and Russian and also in Polish but believe me Bulgarian is very different!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it is very hard to understand it!!
The same is for russian people - they don't understand Ukrainian

yes bulgarian is VERY different from russian. quite different actually.
and bulgarian is VERY hard to understand, much harder than Russian.

Maybe it is not that difficuly but the sentence structure is very different. The words sound familiar but for someone who had never anything to do with this language they mean nothing!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey I need help learning Russian, I can help with English or Spanish if needed ^_^

@bolonka and propel: like I said i've seen that on another website (maybe they confused bulgarian and belorussian, i dont know), so it wasn't really my opinion.

@vicious_love: Welcome to the forum, I am pretty much in the same boat as you but I am trying to take my russian up one notch (pretty good - very good).

@jandros: Good thing I didn't said unc and not duke , watch some basketball but not a diehard fan.

uhm. well we (those who know russian at least more or less) can try to place some info on grammar, some excercises here if there is someone who needs it :P i mean, this is the LEARNING RUSSIAN topic, let's learn it

Hello everybody )))I can to help with Russian Language))I from Russia))If U have a quastions U may ask me)))

viciousz_love, just ask)

okay like i'm the guilty 3rd generation russian-american who can't speak russian.

so far i'm having no problem learning the basic grammar with nouns and such.

but i'm so horrible with certain letter combination pronunciations.

like ль, нь, сь, ий, ей, and when the a and o are in different positions they change sounds. i'm okay once i get going, but i need lots of repetition with the pronunciation.

Could you please explain what "постой" means?
If possible I'd like a couple of phrases-examples with this word, in order to understand the meaning better!

the dictionary says: "stand" "wait" "stop". but in my opinion,(and in most cases this is infact the case) a better choice would be to use the phrase "hold on/hang on". A good example would be "hold on let me tell you the story" then you can sort of see why it says "stop" "wait" . The "stand" is there because the root word of "постой" is "стоять" (to stand).

Originally Posted by tim2286

the dictionary says: "stand" "wait" "stop". but in my opinion,(and in most cases this is infact the case) a better choice would be to use the phrase "hold on/hang on". A good example would be "hold on let me tell you the story" then you can sort of see why it says "stop" "wait" . The "stand" is there because the root word of "постой" is "стоять" (to stand).

Наконец-то!
tim2286 большое спасибо!
Sometimes things are simpler than what the dictionary says... I was confused by the its explanation.
Now I got it

glad to help

Hello всем))
I don't speak english, but i want leant(( Help me))
Просто мне хочется выучить английский , может кто поможет??

Originally Posted by viciousz_love

okay like i'm the guilty 3rd generation russian-american who can't speak russian.

so far i'm having no problem learning the basic grammar with nouns and such.

but i'm so horrible with certain letter combination pronunciations.

like ль, нь, сь, ий, ей, and when the a and o are in different positions they change sounds. i'm okay once i get going, but i need lots of repetition with the pronunciation.

Viciousz_love, do you still need help with sounds? I found some links, so "л" and "ль" you can find here: http://www.logoped.ru/zv-l01.htm I'll translate

Звук л - согласный, звонкий, твердый.
The sound "л" is voiced hard consonant
Звук ль - согласный, звонкий, мягкий.
The sound "ль" is voiced soft consonant.

Правильное произношение звука "л":
The right pronounciation of the sound "л":

* губы раскрыты, занимают нейтральное положение или принимают положение последующего гласного звука;
* The lips are opened in neutral position or take position of the next vowel;
* зубы незначительно разомкнуты;
* The teeth are opened a little,
* язык - узкий кончик языка поднимается и упирается в верхние резцы и их десны, средняя часть языка опущена, боковые края тоже опущены;
The narrow tip of tongue is raised and set against upper cutting teeth and their gum, the middle part of the tongue is lowered down and the sides of the tongue are lowered down too;
* между боковыми краями языка и коренными зубами остается щель, через которую выходит воздушная струя.
There is a glottis (hole) between the sides of the tongue and molars, which the air-blast comes through.
* голосовые связки напряжены и вибрируют, давая голос.
Vocal chords are tensed and vibrate, giving a sound.

Мягкий звук ль отличается от твердого л следующим:
The soft sound "ль" is different from the hard sound "л" by:

* губы растянуты в стороны, как при улыбке;
The lips are streched to the sides like you are smiling;
* язык - кончик языка поднят несколько выше и упирается в альвеолы ("бугорки") за передними верхними зубами, средняя и задняя части языка подняты и продвинуты вперед, что и дает смягчение.
The tip of the tongue is raised a little bit higher and set against alveolus (teethridge) behind upper foreteeth, the middle part and the sides of the tongue are raised and moved a little forward, so their position gives the sound the softening.

"Н"and "НЬ" sounds:
I think "Н" is very similar to the english "N", but I'll try to describe "Н"and "НЬ" myself.
"Н" is a hard consonant and "НЬ" is a soft consonant.
So...when you pronounce "Н", you lips are opened in neutral position (or take position of the next vowel), the teeth are opened a little, your tongue is flat and soft, the flat tip of the tongue is between the teeth and touches the upper cutting teeth and their gum, the middle of the tongue is relaxed and doesn't touch the palate, and the air-blast comes through the nose.

The difference of "НЬ" pronounciation:
Almost all the tongue (especially the middle of the tongue) is clasped to the palate, it gives the soft sound.

About vowels:

The sound "A" is similar to the english "u" like in the word "cut".
"O" is like "a" in the word "ball".
But note: unstressed russian "O" sounds like unstressed russian "A".
The russian "E" is similar to the sound of the first syllable of the word "year".
The russian "И" is like [i] in english word "tip".
Note: unstressed "E" sounds like the sound between "E" and "И", closer to "И".
The russian "Ё" = british "your"
"Ё" is always stressed sound.
The russian "У" is like in the word "pull".
The russian "Э" is like in the word "pen", but more hard.
"Ю" = "you"
And "Я" sounds like "ya" in "Yankee".

an example of the "НЬ" sound. The word neither is a good example (there are a couple of pronunctions of this word but i say nEEther) well anyway the "n" in is softer compared to "done" or "man". hopefully this helps

Tim2286, you're right

And I found something about "СЬ" sound...
It's known, that russian "C" is like "S" in English. To make the soft "СЬ" sound, your tongue must be more tensed, and the tip of the tongue is set against lower foreteeth.